Author's Pov

Aratrika was talking to Sanchita who was excitedly telling her about her studies and her hobbies. Aratrika was smiling all the time and replying from time to time.

"Aru Di," Anu came to them which made Sanchita stop from blabbering. She smiled at Anu who smiled back at her.

"Anu, kemon achis tui?(Anu, how are you?)" Aratrika asked her.

"Bhalo achi go. Achcha shono nah tomar Sathe ektu kotha ache. Tomar ektu help Chai..Korbe go? ( I am fine. Okay listen, I have something to tell you. I need a help…will you help?)" Anu asked her, showing her puppy eyes.

"Of course, I will." Aratrika said with a chuckle.

" Come with me…I need to correct my saree. Others are busy so I can't take help from them. Sanchita also doesn't know anything about Saree." Anu Said and Sanchita nodded as she was absolutely right.

"So it's only you who can help me. Come with me." Anu Said and held Aratrika's hand.

Excusing themselves from Sanchita ,they walked towards the way where there is a room .

They entered the room and Anu made Aratrika sit on the bed – one side of  which was filled with the gifts Kanika had received from the guests and her maternal family.

"You sit here…I am coming back with the safety pins." Anu said and ran away before Aratrika could ask him anything.

Aratrika shrugged her shoulders and looked at her right side where gifts were kept.  A tray of makeup kits caught her attention and she took it in her hand.

"Do you like wearing makeup?"

Hearing the very familiar male voice from behind ,she jumped on her place, startled as she was not expecting him here. The tray fell from her hand.

Taking a deep breath ,she said without turning back ,"Admiring something doesn't mean that I want it ."

Saptarshi smiled as he understood the hidden meaning behind her words and said , " Here, in this case, you don't need to wear any makeup. Your simple look can have a thousand hearts near your feet."

Aratrika turned around to look at him, who stood there with a clenched fist. The teasing tone in his voice vanished as he remembered how every male out there was eyeing her tonight. Aratrika didn't like the way Saptarshi commented something like this when it was he who was in the same situation.

"Oh really? You are saying this when you were  enjoying the attention from the ladies out there. In fact you were talking and laughing with someone as well.." Aratrika blurted out in jealousy.

Hearing her, an astonished Saptarshi looked at her with his mouth wide open. This was the first time he was seeing a jealous Aratrika.

As  he realised  that Aratrika was jealous, inside his heart danced in his chest and outside his lips curved into a smirk.

As soon as Aratrika registered her own words and realised what she did, she bit her tongue and facepalmed herself. She immediately turned around to hide her face from Saptarshi ,cursing herself under her breath.

Saptarshi chuckled as he saw how red Aratrika turned due to shyness and embarrassment. He slowly walked towards her . He bit his lips to stop laughing when he heard her cursing herself.

"You don't need to embarass ,you know. You are opening up to me and that's a great thing. It will help us in the future. " Saptarshi said to her, eyeing her backside with a smile.

The hope which almost died when she ignored him two days ago started to get alive due to her outburst today.

Hearing Saptarshi's words, Aratrika realised what she was doing. Her face turned gloomy and pale.

"No no . It's not right. What am I doing? I should be ignoring him, avoiding him and trying to make him forget me and us ….but here I am giving him hope by opening my untamed mouth. Oh no!!" She said to herself .

"I don't know what you are talking about. Excuse me…" Saying this Aratrika was about to walk away when Saptarshi held her hand which made her heart beat faster.

"Aratrika, why are you avoiding me?" Saptarshi asked her softly. There was pain in his voice.

Aratrika closed her eyes painfully as she heard the agony in his tone. Gulping down the lump in her throat, she said, "I am not avoiding you. Why will I avoid you ,Saptarshi? We are not in that kind of special relationship where my avoidance matters to you.
Saptarshi, let me go…my family and your family are there outside…they will search us. If they find us together..there will be a big problem."

Saptarshi was getting angry as he heard Aratrika saying that they are not in a special relationship. Yes, that was true ..he knew it. But how could she deny that they had something between them which none of them can ignore?

Saptarshi jerked her back towards her ,making her yelp.

Taking her in his embrace with his arms around her waist, he said , "Then why did you feel jealous when I was talking to that girl? Why are you feeling uncomfortable when every girl is eyeing me?
You say that you are not avoiding me then why were you running away from me that day? In Fact today also you are not making eye contact with me …why?
You are saying we don't have a special relationship, but can you ignore the spark we feel when we are with each other, the attraction we have between us? "

Aratrika was shivering, seeing him angry .She flinched ,hearing his loud voice .
Seeing her afraid of him, he cursed under his breath. Taking a deep breath, he calmed down himself. He kept his eyes on her brown orbs . Aratrika being enchanted by his eyes as always couldn't look away.

Loosening his hold around her, he said softly ,"Sorry…I am sorry for reacting like this…but I got angry when you said we don't have anything special. But tell me Aratrika, do you really feel we don't have anything between us? Maybe we are not vocal about it…maybe we both are unaware how deep it is …but can you deny the amount of attraction and numbers of emotions we feel for each other? Ask your heart Aratrika, what does it say to you?"
He didn't break their eye contact for a second neither did she.

Aratrika finally broke their eye contact and looked down. She knew whatever Saptarshi was saying was true. She couldn't deny the fact even if she wanted to.

" I am doing it for your own good. It's best for us. I am not perfect,Saptarshi. I am tainted and filled with scars. I can't ruin your life with my presence. "  Aratrika said and breaking the hug, she turned around to leave.

Saptarshi could see that she was hiding something from him and her actions were not matching her words. He could read that on her face…in her eyes.

Once again, Saptarshi held her wrist from behind and said softly, "You are not doing anything good,  Aratrika. Not listening to your heart is not good itself. Your heart knows what it wants.
My heart knows what it wants. And You are none to keep me away from what I want and my heart wants.
Remember one thing, no matter how much you run away from me, I will never leave you, Aratrika. I will be there for you always, waiting for you to hold my hand. I will be waiting for you to tell me what happened to you so that I can help you…I will be there to help you to overcome the fear you have regarding us….I will be  waiting for you to accept me… to accept us . Because without you I am nothing…only you can complete me."

Without saying the magical three words, Saptarshi expressed his feelings. He expressed how important she was for him and what place she held in his life.

By now Aratrika was in tears. His words, his voice were screaming the state of his heart. Though Aratrika didn't look at him, she knew that there were thousands of emotions streaming in that pair of eyes. She didn't have the courage to look into his eyes because if she looked at his brown orbs, her resolution would break  and she would lose herself then and there.

So before she could break down before him, snatching her hand away from him, she ran away…from the room…from him…and most importantly from herself.

Saptarshi stood there looking at her retreating back as a lone tear rolled down his cheek.

Here the update...as I promised you.

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