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Twinj: My Lifeline: Episode 56
A quick recap: Kunj and Twinkle spend time together, teasing and having deep, revealing conversations, and a teensy weensy bit of romance. Kunj brings up the question that he’d been meaning to ask for quite some time now, and ends up narrating his own side of the story.
“Whaat?” Kunj exclaimed for what seemed to Twinkle like the hundredth time, and it was this very reaction that she had dreaded, it was this very reaction that had kept her from opening up this secret to him. She had seen his eyes widen and a bewildered expression replace his mostly calm and composed demeanour as she had hesitantly and as subtly as she could, told him about the time she had seen him for the very first time, back in college, he was obviously very reserved and had a very few people he spoke to, and she wasn’t one of them, not that she minded, at least not initially, but then, as the first few awkward weeks had passed by, she saw more of him, he was performing at almost every college function after all. He had slowly become everyone’s favourite, hers too – that goes without saying – but she was just another student, and he had never even set eyes on her, let alone figure out she had a crush on him that had turned into much more before she had even come to accept it. She hadn’t known what it was that dragged her to him, she had initially become a fan of his music and his soothing voice had very soon become all that she had on on her earphones all day, nothing more. But then had arrived the day she had seen him up-close and realised that he was a much nicer person, when he had gone out of his way for a friend, a friend who had deceived him soon after, in a really mean way, but Kunj had been the sweetheart that she had always assumed he would be, forgiving, learning his lesson and moving on quick. She had seen him be nice and kind to everyone over and over until one day she had realised she was in trouble. Oh boy, she was in love.
Twinkle peeked at Kunj and found him staring at her with the same expression even though she felt like an eternity had passed in absolute silence. “Kunj, I..” She began, attempting to make things better, but found herself at a loss of words like never before. She returned her eyes to her fingers that were nervously fidgeting with each other, muttering ‘I knew I shouldn’t have told him!’ when she heard him sigh. Finally some reaction! She quickly looked up at him and found him sporting what she could only describe as a shy, but somehow still content smile, confusing her. He then smiled brightly at her, winking in a teasing manner. She shook her head at him with a relieved look, stilling when she heard him say, “You had been married to the love of your life for so long, and didn’t make any advances?” He burst out laughing when her jaw dropped at that. He had been blown away by how terrific she was at hiding her feelings and knew for a fact that she wouldn’t do any such thing, but as long as he got to see that pretty blush of hers that followed pretty soon, anything felt worth it. “Wait! Everyone else knew?” He asked curiously, recalling several previous incidents that ought to have pointed at this, be it Usha being so confident that this would go well, or Yuvi and Chinki insisting that he confessed quickly. “Yuvi and Chinki did. Usha Ma figured out really soon too.” She answered, and he protested, “And they never told me? Even when your ‘friends’ found out about my love for you!” It was Twinkle’s turn to be baffled now. “Those two knew?” She uttered in disbelief, both of them simply blinking at each other with annoyed looks until they burst out laughing. Some people would have to hear an earful when they got back.
Kunj lay awake for a long time that night. He no longer had to pretend to snuggle closer to Twinkle in his sleep, and with her so close by, he usually fell asleep quickly. But not that night. Although he had casually laughed it off earlier that day, the thought that Twinkle, his Twinkle had been in love with him for so long was troubling him for several reasons. For one, he had never even guessed the possibility of it until very recently, and now that he thought of it, he couldn’t even imagine how strong she had been all along, tolerating every single thing so patiently. His heart had been leaping joyfully ever since he had heard her, his mind took longer to comprehend it, but then he felt a fresh wave of happiness and excitement wash over him, and honestly, he had no idea how he could express it to her. He knew he would someday, randomly, like it was the most common thing to do, but for now he let go of himself to revel in this new, amazing feeling his love had brought him. To say he was amazed by her yet again would be an understatement. He felt more grateful to Usha than ever right then, and pulled her closer before shutting his eyes with a resolve to make it up to her, for each single moment she had suffered and fought for them all alone, to stand by her through anything that fate threw at them. Little did he know that his resolution was to be tested sooner than he would have ever dreamt.
Twinkle and Kunj had got to the shooting location in Pláka neighbourhood on time the next morning, and as they got off the car and walked to the little restaurant by the street where the rest of the crew had gathered, Twinkle stopped suddenly, thereby pulling on Kunj’s hand that she had grabbed nervously. He turned to her and looked anxiously, her restlessness since that morning hadn’t gone unnoticed by him, and now he knew he had to do something. “Listen..” He began, turning her to himself by her waist. She squealed as expected and giggled when he laughed at her. “Out there, I know there’ll be a few people watching, and a couple of cameras focused at you..” He stated calmly, but she interjected with “A few people? A couple of cameras? There are so many, Kunj!” He nodded, accepting her observation, and took a deep breath before continuing, “I know. But seeing them as a handful will help you overcome your fright. Anyways, I know you can do this! Those equipments there only look scary because you haven’t worked with them before. Once you get used to them, it’ll get better, I promise!” She looked at him with a ‘You don’t sound very convincing’ look, which made him assure her, “Trust me!” She nodded at him reluctantly and began walking when he stopped her by her wrist, and whispered “We just need to be ourselves, that’ll do all the magic they need for the video.” She flashed him a more confident smile this time, making him mentally pat himself appreciatively. To add the final effect, he quickly pecked her cheek and said, “All the best, Mrs. Sarna! Let’s rock this!” and then grabbed her hand, leading her to their team.
After the director and creative heads had given them an insight into the little story they had spun for the video, midway through which Kunj had spotted Twinkle listening with rapt attention and nodding her head understandingly, which meant he hadn’t paid attention to anything else that was said, but he knew that these things would be repeated to them later as well, so he found himself admiring her instead, something he never got tired of doing. It was only when she looked up at him questioningly that he realised he had missed the announcement for costumes. He blinked at her assuringly as she was ushered away by a couple of women, he knew she would have tons to complain about this and chuckled before heading to put on his outfit.
“It’s a frock kinda thing!!” Twinkle’s message popped up on Kunj’s phone a good half an hour later, and before he could type a proper response, landed her next one: “And there are really high pencil heels!!” He slipped out of his makeshift makeup room without anyone’s notice and made his way to hers right when yet another of her messages announced their arrival on his phone. “Twinkle!” was all he had managed to say when she jumped into his embrace, and he had gotten just a moment to run his eyes down her look, but it was sufficient to leave him spellbound. He could feel his heart thudding, and if he had his way, he would have them locked in there all day, but he knew better than that. “You look too beautiful for words, I don’t even know what the right things to say would be..” She heard him inhale sharply when his arms around her brushed against the soft skin of her back that was exposed in her dress that had a deep cut behind, a chill running down her spine and causing rows and rows of goosebumps to erupt on her skin. She looked up at him with bated breath and found that his state was no different either. “If you aren’t comfortable in this, we could work some way out.” He assured her when some noise outside distracted them, but she shook her head. “I just wasn’t sure I could pull off this look.” She explained, to which he responded by “My heart here thinks it’ll be dead just by the sight of you!” She couldn’t have asked for a better affirmation.
One quick run through of the scene was all they had done when the announcement for a break was made, and while the rest of the crew worked on getting the table that they chosen at the restaurant set for the camera, Twinkle and Kunj walked down the cobbled street to find a quiet place, and ended up sitting on a slightly raised platform in front of an old abandoned house, simply looking around the place, when Kunj spoke, “Should we buy a little cottage here?” Twinkle giggled, and then nodded, just to get a look of the surprise it brought him. He caught her trick immediately though, and found himself laughing with her in no time. She then rested her head on his shoulder, leaning close to feel his warmth, and his arm went around her automatically.
“Twinkle?”
“Hmm?”
“I love you, and I really, really appreciate all that you did for me, even when at several instances, being with me might have demanded of you much more than I was ever entitled to put you through. I only went through this ‘not sure if my love will be requited’ phase for a few months and found myself needing constant reassurance and reminders to be patient. I don’t think I would have ever been strong enough to go through all that you did! What I do know, for sure, is that I’ll never let you down ever again. I’ll always love you a little more each day, and I hope, that someday it’ll stand up to yours.”
“Kunj, what I know is that there have been testing times, times when I almost gave up, but being with you made each pain sting a lot lesser, and now that we’ve got past it all, I just want this to be forever. Besides, I love you more than you do, and you know it!”
“Hey, that’s not true! I love you more!”
“No, I do!”
“No ways, I do!”
Their banter went on for long enough for people to come looking for them, and that was when the camera man realised he had found the best picture for the poster of the video that could have ever been, and captured them giggling softly, lost in their own little world, so in love that everybody could see it.
That’s it for now, guys! The song will be coming up in the next episode, yay! Tell me what you all thought about this one, and also until then, make your guesses on which song I might have picked! P.S. It’s a single that released this year, a song I simply love. Lots of love!!