Rejuvenating Love

10) I do love him!

"I knew I would find you here."

Kuhu looked back to find Rakesh behind her.

"Searching for peace in the dark? First you need to hold a lamp to spot it." Rakesh suggested.

'I'm sorry about how Raghav mis-behaved with you that day. I don't know why you both hate each other to such an extent but I'm really getting pissed off between your age-old rivalry.' Being tensed she pressed her forehead with her fingers.

"Does my defamation affect you?" Rakesh looked up hopefully for an answer.

'Ofcourse! It hurts.' Rakesh's eyes lit-up with hope.

'How can anyone insult my friend?' And soon the beamed smile on Rakesh's face faded.

"So I still remain a friend to you?" Rakesh faced away to hide his feelings of pain.

'You are important.' Kuhu nodded her head of assurance with deep expressive emotions in her eyes to indicate that she does care about him.

'You understand me. I know, you trust me. It's just that you were hurt to a deeper extent last time; you couldn't believe in me. Otherwise you were the one I could confide in. You were the one to hold me strong despite my emotional depression after getting shattered into thousands of broken pieces.'

Holding Kuhu's palms in his with much anticipation Rakesh said,"Then why don't you call this marriage off? I promise to stand by you in every difficult turn of your life. I would fly you away to some distant foreign land. Grief won't even pass by you in my presence. You would walk blindfolded holding my fingers. It's the blind trust that will make you walk the path of your life with me, Kuhu. Just marry me! I will change the world around you."

'Trust, loyalty, friendship, faith. We will have everything but what about love? Will love too be there?' Kuhu really wanted to know if she could fall for someone again with the same intensity of love.

Rakesh deserted Kuhu's hands abruptly out of disappointment realising the intense love for Raghav in her eyes.

"You still love him! He hurts you again and again and everytime you fall to be his prey." With the last hope pinned on Rakesh explained Kuhu the cons of leading a life with the dominating Raghav.

'I do! Yes, I do love him!' Kuhu broke down before him speaking her heart out. She palmed her face to wipe away her tears and let the true feelings evolve out of her heart after two long years. Rakesh's heart skipped the beats for some seconds. His crushed emotions immediately rebuilt into a vengeful wrath.

"Kuhu, you're just falling into his trap. Think through your cool mind once. Just once! Why did Raghav have to come to you immediately after I proposed you? Where was he these days? Isn't it like a competition and you're like the championship trophy that he wants to win? Just because he wanted to defeat me, he won you. Even now do you find love in this competition? Don't tell me you still love him! Do you? You're being an emotional fool and this weakness of yours is being productively used by Raghav, the player with jersey no.-1." He spoke very carefully syllable by syllable letting his words hit Kuhu's mind and raising his eyebrows every time he asked a question about Raghav.

'This isn't true. I know Raghav. He might be egoistic but he isn't critical. He isn't harmful. He is innoce....' She trailed off as Rakesh exclaimed,"Ask him! When did he buy the shares? Even though you hold the position of M.D. at your company, you remained clueless. Who's assistance from your company led him successful in his plotted plans? How did my proposal to you cross the four walls of your office room? Did the walls have ears? Who lend them the ears? Get the answers before you marry. Orelse its not late when you fall into a ditch of pain and sufferings."

'Rakes.....shh' By the time she finished pronouncing his name he had already abandoned the place. She saw him last starting his car and blinking the headlights towards her twice as a sign of caution.

The dusk metamorphosed into a dark evening. Fearing the imaginary ghosts behind the dark bushes at night, the forest repelled her towards home.

On reaching home, She switched her cellphone on in her bedroom and immediately her screen flashed- ' Rakesh calling....' She picked up his call.

"Kuhu! You reached home?"

'Yeah, I'm at home now.'

"Okay." He silenced the air for some moment. Without giving Rakesh a chance to cut the call she hastily spoke,'Rakesh, you didn't attend my engagement. Won't you come for the wedding even? You're so close. Your presence and wishes are indispensable.'

"I won't attend a marriage you're being forced into. Moreover I can't see my love getting into the dirty and manipulating hands of a person." Rakesh's words cut her heart deep and he hung up the call.

The tears she had been restricting at the brim of her eyelids, now overflowed disdaining her heart. She thought- What am I doing with my life? I'm marrying the person I want to hate the most and I'm losing a friendship which has always been my first support. Can't both of them be contemporary?

The air around turned stifling again at her home; inside her room. She craved for some fresh, cold gentle breeze which could soporify her sweltered heart unlike the centrally fitted air-conditioner which soothed only her sweated skin.

The exhausting evening made Kuhu so weary at mind. She tried to catch-up the reason of her uneasiness for the whole day. Eventually on the way to the thoughts of her uncertain future she discovered the cause of her discomfort while fiddling with her engagement ring. Its the ring! Lost in her deep thoughts she has been twirling it all day long around her finger unconsciously. And all these have resulted in red sores with burning sensations around her milky white fingers.

The engagement ring is as exhausting as the relation itself. Its really suffocating. Its not even a proper beginning for the relationship and I have already started deleting friends out of my life. Provided the rate continues I'll end up with a very few people around me especially my supporters and the close ones. Assuming the flawed consequences Kuhu thrusted her foot to move backwards and stretched her legs to swing forward in her garden in order to feel atleast a breeze of fresh air in the hot unwindy season deprived of any gentle blowy air.

Then what's the remedy? As far as the sore due to the ring is concerened the ring can be removed from my finger for a timebeing but what about the new relation? I can't throw it away for a moment. Loitering the thoughts around her mind Kuhu tried taking her ring off to get relief of the pain when......

"Suffocating. Is it?" Mr. Rathore appeared suddenly beside the swing. She ceased moving to-and-fro; shifting aside and leaving some space for him to sit and most importantly she didn't forget to plaster a smile on her face as always. This helps her make them stay away from her complexities in life.

'I got some red marked bruises fidgeting with the ring all day long so I thought of taking it off for sometime." Kuhu tried to reason and explain.

"I'm not talking about your finger. I am asking about your freedom. You're feeling suffocated?" Kuhu chose to remain silent to this question being ignorant of what to answer to the incomprehensible question of her papa.

"As far as I've known you, you crave for your liberty more than other belongings in your list of favourites. An innocent girl like you doesn't even back down fighting for her own sets of freedom. You remember how you fought over your dreams to persue management studies despite my relentless efforts of keeping you away from the tough business life that I have experienced? I fear if this marriage takes your Independence away from you. If you feel so, you may immediately back off now without any pressure. I know we didn't give you any time to think. It's all of a sudden we decided the engagement and then the marriage. I'm getting restless as to how you said a 'yes' to this without giving it a second thought or any argument. Kuhu, I want you to decide everything now because once you're into this you won't be able to dispose that off, just like the engagement ring. The ring, it's hurting you but you aren't able to get rid of it." Mr. Rathore explained his daughter so calmly.

'Papa, its just like I'm not accoustomed to wearing jewelleries. You know even the tiniest pendat creates a feeling of discomfort in me. I like to stay free and liberated from any kind of b*****e or jewelleries. But the truth is I'm fascinated towards wearing them since my childhood and this time I really want them to accentuate my personality. I wish this fascination of mine is fulfilled nowon.' With a true smile curving her lips, Kuhu made her papa stay confident of this alliance.

Mr. Rathore understood what she actually meant by the jewelleries. Being relieved of his restlessness he wished a goodnight hugging her, and blessed her while leaving the place. Kuhu finally got all the answers to the questions that evolved within her. She needs to do what she loves to and since the last two years her love for someone is overpowering her fascination towards her independence.