Happy Valentine’s Day – Episode II

“You have to be!” Am I that bad at consoling?

“I’m scared to leave you; you know?”

“You ain’t leaving me, okay??”

“You are writing a eulogy.”

We chatted a lot, we met a lot, we went out numerous times. Still, I’d never had an emotional experience with her. She was sad and I had no idea what to say. We just kept talking whatever came to our hearts. It actually had been wonderful weeks with her. And finally, she was leaving. Why did it have to be that day, Feb 14th?

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I don’t know whether or not there were any gift shops or I didn’t see them, or perhaps I didn’t want to buy one, but I believed there were no gift shops throughout my way from Pulchowk to Putalisadak. So, I decided to go empty handed. But first I needed to reach her house. With lots of confusion, I entered the galli opposite to Tarkari Bazaar and took several turns, but this time every turn led to another turn. I turned and turned and finally fed up, I decided to call her.  Why couldn’t I be like Sherlock Holmes?

I dialed her number, but I didn’t call coz I wanted to make it on my own. Again, several turns, yet no luck. But then I remembered, there was an open area just near her neighborhood. And open area in Putalisadak is rare. I found her house.

“You did come then!” She smiled.

“Told ya,” I smiled back.

We went to the living room. Thank god, there was no one.

“Where are your parents?”

“Down.”

We were on the top floor. From there, I could clearly see boys playing football in that open area, they were shouting and cheering. I looked at her. She was observing me curiously. I had a black jacket and grey pants cover my sweating body. So, I took off my jacket.

“Don’t take advantage of me being alone,” She started flirting.

“Oh! I wish I could.”

“You only wish.”

“Or, Should I take off this t-shirt too?”

“That black t-shirt suits you”

“Thanks!”

“Don’t be flattered. (pause) Where is my rose?”

I looked around. It was wide and perfectly decorated. As you enter the room you could see paintings, of which I don’t know, but beautiful, hung on the wall just above the bed with springy mattress covered perfectly with red bedsheets. Just straight the door you could see the black chesterfield sofa below the windows with maroon drapes bind to opposite sides by rings. Ahead bed 32 inch LED TV stood on a beautifully designed wooden table. On the corner was a cupboard. Above which there were pictures beautifully framed and vases. Yes, vases with flowers.

I plucked one rose from the vase and inserted a refill of my pen and gave it to her.

“No that’s a cheating.”

“Oh, really? How? You asked me to give you rose. So did I. You didn’t say whose rose.”

“No cheater, you lost the challenge.”

“No!”

And yeah, I came up with possibly all the reasons and explanations. Then after a while, we went to her balcony and watched the sunset as the horizon kept paling to the tint of orange. I looked at her. She looked back. I kept staring this time.

“What??” She asked.

“You are leaving!!” I sounded bitter.

“C’mon, not that. I thought you were gonna kiss!”

We both laughed.

I didn’t change. I was still the same guy scared of strange people and shy around girls. But I became different around her. She knew flirting and I learned to flirt back. We had a beautiful connection. I loved that. She always quoted me, “Mysterious person of my life”. She added me on Facebook still wondering why. Being her old friend doesn’t suffice the reason. When I started to know her, I knew she never adds any friends on her list. I was an exception or maybe she felt experimenting with new ones when she started using Facebook and probably I am a lucky lab-rat.

She asked to come with me when I said I had to go. It was a perfect eve blessed with the onset of valentines and walk with a girl that meant my loneliness without.

“So, you’re gonna go?” I asked her.

“Yep. I will miss my walks with you.”

“I don’t want you gone.”

“That makes two of us. But I should. Thanks yaar, you make me wanna stay. I’m gonna miss you a lot.”

Every eve, we had this beautiful walk. We would meet at Maitighar and walk slowly, talking about anything random all the way to Chyasal, and sit on a stone chair, as if made only for us, and talk. I don’t know what’s good in that, but just talking with her made me feel whole. It was often difficult keeping track of time. Trust me, it’s not cliché or maybe we didn’t want to know it passed, even when we knew it did. And I would run her back to Maitighar.

We reached Singha Durbar. She decided to go back. I was still making a mental note- She is leaving.

“Okay, I have to go now. Bye!” she said.

“Bye!” I waved my hand.

“Know what! You made my day today. This is the best day and maybe the only rose day I will ever celebrate. Thanks for everything.”

I smiled at her and said, “Happy Rose day, Sukirti”. I tweaked her cheeks hardly and ran laughing. She raged at the instance and screamed at my childishness. I looked back and waved my hands.

As I was walking to my hostel, my mobile rang. I answered it.

“Hey” I replied.

“Hi, where are you?”

“Returning hostel.”

“Why late?”

“Oh! I’ve been to Sukirti’s house.”

“Okay! Listen, What’s your plan for this Saturday?”

“Nothing.”

“Good, let’s go somewhere!”

“Okay! Where?”

“Reach hostel soon, we’ll talk later. Bye!”

“Bye!”

“Love you!”

“Love you too!”

By Prajwal Pradhan

The writer is currently pursuing Bachelor degree in Computer Engineering at IOE, Pulchowk. An English-language enthusiast, he has a keen interest in writing. He is eager to learn new skills and is trying to keep busy with his hobbies.

(Note: This is the part II of the 4-episodes-long story this Valentine’s season. Part III of the series will be published today evening. Keep posted till then. 🙂 )