Oi Neer or Onir?
1710 Words
Ishanvi turned toward Anna with questioning eyes for confirmation, she wanted to know if it was the truth or Onir was just fooling her.
Anna —who had the similar reaction when she first found out the truth and had now sobered up a bit— blinked her eyes and whispered, "It's not a prank."
These four words from Anna didn't leave any room for doubt. Getting a grip on her haywire emotions, she composed herself before greeting the guests in front of her politely.
"It was her ideas that really helped our business grow," Onir told the guests before adding as Ishanvi gave him a sharp look, "along with the hard work of the whole team."
Ishanvi had always told him that although she had ideas, she couldn't have executed them if it wasn't for the whole team. And she didn't like to take all the credit for the teamwork as it would make her unnecessarily egoistic or arrogant and would also demotivate the other employees.
After a short while, Mr and Mrs Oberoi excused themselves as Mrs Oberoi had to discuss something important with her husband. Neer stayed back with Onir.
"How did you two even meet and become friends?" Anna questioned once they had settled down on the plush chairs.
"It's a funny story actually!" Onir began, looking at Neer with a mischievous smile on his face. "We were in the same High school in London but didn't know about each other's existence until one day when the fortunate misunderstanding happened."
Ishanvi interrupted him midway to ask. "Fortunate misunderstanding? How is that possible? It sounds like a paradox."
"I was coming to that Ishi, before you not-so-nicely interrupted me," Onir glared at her playfully. "Yeah, so as I was saying, one fine day I was walking out of the cafeteria after the lunch break when I heard someone calling my name. But I didn't really have friends back then, so I was puzzled as to who would call me—"
"Wait.. wait.. wait.. what did you just say? You didn't have any friends in High School? How could people not befriend such
"I'm flattered," Onir said with a shy smile before it turned into glare as he remembered what Ishanvi had just done. "Interrupt me once again and you'll never get to hear the whole story again!"
Ishanvi raised her hands in the air in surrender. "Fine! I won't interrupt your monologue anymore. Happy now?" Ishanvi rolled her eyes.
"Very," Onir shot back.
"Don't mind them. They always behave like this around each other," Anna whispered to Neer, who was seated right beside her and found their banter amusing.
"One could tell," Neer replied, amused.
"Shall I continue then?" Onir asked Ishanvi.
"Please, Your Highness," Ishanvi said deferentially, zipping her lips together after that.
Onir rolled her eyes at her. "Okay everyone back to the story, as I was telling y'all before I was rudely interrupted by my colleague here, so confused I turned in the direction of the sound and saw a boy waving at me, beckoning me to come there. It befuddled me all the more, and after some contemplation, my legs started to move in his direction. But just as I reached there and was about to ask him what is it, another boy came running and asked 'what is it now? I swear if it's about another stupid idea of wooing Shayla, I'm gonna punch you in the face!', he threatened the poor boy. Before the other boy could reply, he noticed my presence and turned to me 'hey, can I help you with something?'. I then told him that I thought he called my name. He was like 'your name?' I said 'yes, you just called my name, Onir'. He smiled as realisation dawned upon him. Neer, the guy who had threatened the other guy and had been watching the exchange between us for a while from the sidelines, too understood everything and walked up to me and said 'now that we have similar names, we should be friends from now on' before shaking hands with me. The other guy, Adam who became my second best friend, came and engulfed me in a bro hug whispering 'welcome to our world'. They included me in their group of two and that's how we became best friends in our Sophomore year of High School."
"But what did Adam say that created the misunderstanding in the first place?" Anna inquired.
Ishanvi nodded her head vigorously as she too had been meaning to ask this but couldn't as she had promised that she won't interrupt him anymore.
"Actually, Adam had said 'Oi Neer' but I thought he's saying 'Onir' and that's why the confusion," Onir admitted sheepishly.
"Oh.. okay," Anna nodded her head in understanding. "And after that? You managed to stay in touch after High School or did you go to the same college as well?"
Onir shook his head. "No, after high school, Neer went to MIT because he wanted to study technology with management studies while I went to Harvard University to learn the nuances of business and then of publishing. But we didn't lose contact and we'd still meet each other every weekend before we graduated from college. He would even visit me at Pennac sometimes whenever he was in London."
"But you have been here in India for over an year now and yet you haven't visited Punjab till now," Neer complained.
"You know I have been setting up my company. But I promise to visit you as soon as I return from London," Onir promised.
Anna, who was lost in her thoughts for a while, suddenly spoke up. "Ah yes, now I remember I've seen him at Pennac a couple of times and had even met him once," she told them as she remembered meeting Neer at Pennac. "But we didn't know we were meeting a Prince back then. Onir never let the secret out, not even to me," she said, her voice carrying a hint of betrayal.
Neer laughed a little when he heard this. "It's not his fault. I had insisted on keeping my identity a secret from others because I didn't want a different treatment, I wanted people to treat me like how they'd treat a friend. He just kept his promise," Neer smiled at Onir as he spoke those words. "But looks like he didn't want to keep this secret a secret anymore!" he added, in a suggestive tone.
"What?! I just want some people to know that I'm friends with royalty, so that they'd start taking me more seriously," Onir said the last part looking at Ishanvi who had hung her head low in embarrassment.
Ishanvi didn't have to look at Onir to know that he was referring to her because even though Onir was her boss, it was her who would act bossy at work.
Neer c****d his eyebrows at his statement. "Is that why you insisted that we attend your party? So that you can tell people that your best friend is a Prince?"
"You know that's not the only reason," Onir said in a sad voice. "I wanted my best friend to be here with me to celebrate my achievements."
"Relax. I was just pulling your leg," Neer smiled as he took in his puppy face.
"You are a horrible best friend. I can't believe I'm still friends with you."
"Because I'm a Prince and you love me!"
"Don't flatter yourself, I don't love you. We are still friends just because you are a bloody Prince!"
"Okay, okay, you don't have to keep bragging about it anymore," Anna interrupted Onir. "Unless you want every guest to know about Neer's secret!"
That shut Onir up.
Ishanvi was still quiet, save for her interrupting Onir a couple of times. She had overcome her initial shock of meeting the royal family but she still didn't know what to say or do so she wouldn't make a fool out of herself. Hence, she decided to just hear them talking.
"Onir, I think you should let others meet Neer as well," Anna said after a while.
"I agree," Ishanvi had finally spoken. "You can choose to hide their real identity but they deserve to at least meet them, after all they are your 'special guests' you have been talking about since yesterday!"
As Ishanvi was speaking, Neer took a look at her. He liked how she sounded confident despite her initial shocked reaction as she met them. Yes, Neer had observed her literally jaw-dropping reaction when Onir introduced them to her and he had found it hilarious but then he didn't give it much thought and went back to talking to Onir.
"Okay, gather everyone up in a while," Onir said in agreement.
After that, Ishanvi and Anna excused themselves, leaving the two best friends to catch up.
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"Anna, did you know that Onir had invited the royal family as guests today?" Ishanvi asked as they walked towards the dessert counter— their favourite place.
"Of Course not!" Ann instantly exclaimed. "If I had known, I'd have told you already. In fact, I didn't know that he knows the royal family or is friends with a Prince! Can you believe that? A f**king Prince!"
"Hush, you're being too loud," Ishanvi hushed her down as she placed a mango pastry on her plate before moving to the macaroons.
"Sorry," Anna mumbled before loading her plate with different kinds of cheesecakes.
"Gawd, your plate is overflowing with cheesecakes," Ishanvi commented as they moved towards the vacant chairs.
"What can I do? I love cheesecakes," Anna confessed her love for cheesecakes before taking a bite of her blueberry cheesecake. "It's tooo good!"
"Can't be better than my mango pastry!"
Anna just stuck her tongue out in response.
Ishanvi rolled her eyes. "Real mature."
And they both busied themselves in demolishing the desserts on their plates.
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I haven't proofread this chapter, so if you happen to find any errors or typos, kindly point them out in the comments so that I can correct them whenever I read the comments.
Also, share this book with your friends if you find the story interesting.
- Writer
