Jan 13th, Monday...

Today was the last working day of the college for final year students. Those who want to do final year project in college itself will be continuing here like Adarsh and my roommates, some like me will be doing internship outside the college and at the end of April we will be presenting out project.

So I packed my bags in the weekend itself as from tomorrow onwards we are having Pongal holidays after which I will come again to Chennai for internship.

I switched on the net in my phone to receive WhatsApp messages from my friends wishing me my birthday.

As I replied 'Thank you' to them I received another message from my school classmate Preethi who is studying in China. It has been really long time since I spoke to her so I texted her.

Happiee birthday Aaru!!!

Thank you Preethi. How are you?

Not that good.

Seems like there is some virus break out seems.

There is some lockdown going on.

VIRUS!!! How come I didn't hear of it?

Even My staff didn't us tell anything!

You call yourself as biotechnologist :p.

Anyways leave that, enjoy your day. ;)

Sure. Stay safe!!!

I asked her to come to India soon.

I thought about the new virus and googled it and it seemed to be interesting. How it would be to research on this virus? I sighed dreamily, I hope the institute I am about to join do some research on this.

Saying that I went to exam hall as it was last semester exam. As soon as exam got over, I gave my roommates birthday treat in our college canteen itself. Soon Adarsh pinged me asking me for birthday treat.

As soon my friends ate they went to hostel room and I called Adarsh to canteen but instead he asked me to come to our fourth year class room.

When I went to classroom only he was sitting in the first bench and cardboard box infront of him.

Ahaa, cake for me!!! I love cakes especially birthday cakes.

Last night my roommates brought cake for me but we ended up applying it on ourselves.

"Thank you so much Adarsh!" I grinned at him.

But usually they will open the cake cover and place it but he kept the cover closed.

I raised my eyebrow at him. He gestured me to open the top cover.

When I opened the cover, I pouted, there was no cake in it. I take back my thank you from him.

"No cake?" I pouted.

"Not so easily Aaru. You have to find it." He winked to which I rolled my eyes.

I looked inside the cover there was a note stuck inside the cake box. I picked it up and it read,

'Find the right person you will get you birthday gift. First clue: Early bird who wakes up all her friends.

P.S. Carry your bag along with you'

"Huh? Tell me where my gifts are and cake." I frowned at Adarsh.

"Come on. Don't ruin the fun. Go and find the person or place. You will get your surprise. At the end you will get your cake!"

Things I do for birthday cake!!! I rolled my eyes and thought for a while and rushed to my room.

Only Kavitha was awake and others all slept because of heavy meal.

"You have my gift?"

"As much as I want to play along saying I don't have what you wish for, but there are many things coming up, so giving you this." She winked and gave me a birthday present.

"Happy Birthday Aaroo!" Saying that she hugged me. After thanking her I opened the cover to find an alarm clock.

It was cute looking like a mushroom. I thanked her for the gift what she said surprised me. "It wasn't my gift, I am just passing the gift." She winked.

Before I could keep the clock in the clock box and place it in my bag, I saw another chit inside the clock box.

Oh noo! How much should I run!!! It was something related to food, so I had to go to canteen and get a dairy milk chocolate from my bench mate. Behind which there was another chit attached to it.

Like this I got 19 gifts from my friends at different places of the college, some were greeting cards; some were the things I thought to buy.

'All the wisdom lies here, but in which book will have the next clue?'

I rushed to library stood in-front of whole book section. From which book would I get the next clue? I scratched my head. Going with my instinct I went to biotech section which has 100's of books.

This treasure hunt is definitely work of my friends, so they must have kept it in my favorite book. But the question is, I have many favorites which one my friends chose? I kept on searching in S.Chand books then went to microbiology books. But nowhere I could find the hint.

Suddenly Sathyanarayana book was in third row from bottom. Usually they keep it in fifth row.

I picked it and found a page corner was folded. I opened the page and it was the section of Microbial and Industrial biotechnology.

There was a chit but it just said, 'Finally found the book? Find the next hint.'

Where to go without any hints! I looked at the section maybe next clue could be at microbiology lab. But a slight shivers passed through me while looking at the choice book. This book connected to me by one person. But I brushed that thought as it is the same book my classmates take so only they kept 9-10 copies in library.

I rushed to microbiology lab, but I don't from where to start searching. I searched everywhere in the lab but I couldn't find anywhere. Even I thought of going to cold room but then I looked at locker allocated for final years to keep students project work. I opened my locker and found a petri-dish.

When I took the petri-dish my hands started to shake. Petri-dish was filled with medium and bacteria were streaked on it. The content in the petri-dish brought unknown excitement and at the same fear in me.

'First meet.'

Suddenly my heart started beat fast. I turned around petri-dish and found a marking 'A-A' on it. It was the same petri-dish I gave to Adi.

For a moment I lost balance and sat on nearby stool.

ADI IS HERE!!!

I tried to control my breathing but I failed to. I think I will have a panic attack at anytime now.

Breathe Aaru breathe!!!

Finally after calming down, I started to think, what will I tell him? Why is he doing all these? Was the misunderstanding got cleared?

I placed the petri-dish at same place as I don't want to contaminate my other gifts with this bacterial culture.

I slowly went to block where I first meet Adi. I looked at the block in front of me. It had been four years since I entered this building. After that incident I never entered this health checkup building. While doing third year, our department asked for volunteers to check the vitals and do blood test for the counseling students. I refused to do that as I don't want to hurt others.

I went up the stairs and saw Adi standing holding the birthday cake.

He smiled at me. That cute little smile made me forget all the nervousness I had while coming here. Unconsciously I moved forward and stood in-front of him.

"Happy Birthday Aaru" he whispered

Saying thanks I started to blow the candles. On the cake it was written 'Happy birthday A_A'.

I blushed and cut the cake and gave him the piece.

After eating few pieces we sat on bench.

"Sorry I misunderstood that it was for Adarsh." He sadly smiled.

"Even I didn't see your message. I saw it two weeks before only." I said.

He chuckled. "Yeah Aish said."

"Aishwarya?" I asked him, to which he nodded.

"Two weeks before only Aish said that she is in love with Adarsh. When she said, you were the first person I could think of. I understood your pain, because seeing your love loving someone else in front of you is really painfull. So I asked about you to Aish. She knows that I like you so she called Adarsh with me in conference and he told me about the misunderstanding. Seems like he was also trying to contact me to convery the same, but I had blocked him in all the social media." He grinned.

"Sorry I wasted two years because of misunderstanding." He apologized.

"No, it wasn't your fault. Anyone who have thought that it was for Adarsh. By the way, how come that petri-dish was with you? As per your assumption you thought it was for Adarsh. Then you should have given the petri-dish to him, right?"

He laughed. "As if I would have given that petri-dish to him. I sterilized that and kept the petri-dish with myself."

"Kedi fellow" I shook my head.

"So I wanted to correct the mistake I did and came here." He said.

"So you only planned all these gifts?" I asked him.

"Yeah 21 gifts for 21st birthday." To which I frowned.

"I got only 19 gifts. If you include cake then 20 gifts, where is my 21st gift?"

"Ah wait." Saying that he knelt in front of me and held my hands.

"What?" I asked.

"Aaru, I know I made you cry at our first meet. But I promise you I would never make you cry. Will you be my lab-partner and life partner in upcoming years?" He asked holding my hand.

"Wait, lab partner?"

"Well you applied for intern in IIT Madras right? I am doing masters there and will be continuing my Ph.D there."

"You know that I applied there?" Maybe Adarsh told him.

"Well..." he scratched his head, "I was looking for the application that came to my guide. I asked my guide to approve your application. I wanted to see you again. My intuition was saying that you are still single. So I thought I might have a chance." He replied with sheepish grin.

I laughed.

"We will be working on together. So will you...?" he looked at my eyes asked.

"Always and forever." I said before he complete the sentence. As soon as I said that he lifted me and swirled me around.

After sometime we left the building. "What will be we working on? I just applied and got selected. Don't know what I will be doing."

"My guide took up analyzing a new virus. They are calling it as Corona. Maybe we will be working on that."

I had been thinking of working on Ebola, now I got to work on Corona itself. So sweet!!! I sighed dreamily.

"Tell me more about Corona!" I asked him.

"Huh? I thought you will ask about me as now only we got into relationship but here you are asking about Corona? Go and date that Corona itself!" he pouted and started to walk faster.

I held my ears and looked at with puppy dog eyes.

"Stop giving me that look, it reminds me the days I started to like you for the same look."

"Really? You started to like me from 2nd semester practical lab." I remember looking sad as Adarsh was on other side and Adi helped me to give blood for the test.

He shook his head and held my hand.

He rubbed my index finger with his thumb. "Way before that." He smiled.

******

"Adi! I hate you a lot! You promised me that you won't hurt me. But see you are making me suffer in pain." I was crying like anything because of the pain.

"I am sorry." He patted my head lovingly.

I swatted his hand. "I hate you." I shouted at him.

"Don't ever touch me. I will kill you. I said I will opt for C-Section. See because your stubbornness..." before I could complete I shouted in pain.

"No no. C-section means after delivery it will pain for months, that's why I suggested this." He looked sad.

"I hate you. Go!" I kept on shouting at him and gritting my teeth because of the pain.

"No more babies okay? Just one baby is enough. I won't ask for another baby. Pinky promise." He pleaded and wiped the sweat off.

"As If I will let you touch me. Your baby is hurting me just like you did 8 years ago. This is worse than that prick. Why is she not coming out?" I yelled.

Finally after pushing for the final time I heard a baby scream.

"It's girl." Doctor said. After cleaning her up they handled the baby to us.

"Shall we name her as Corona? Naming after a famous virus! Won't it be great." He asked me.

"I seriously doubt why I married to a microbiologist. You and your microbiology." I smacked his arm.

"Come on that was our first project together. As a remembrance we can name after that right?" I glared at him hard.

"Okay okay. Rudhvi it is." He said.

*******************

I know this chapter is a bit cliché. That treasure hunt was somewhat real. My bench mate who became my best friend arranged a treasure hunt for my birthday. She made all my friends to stand at each place where we first met where we used to hangout inside college premises and gave clues to find the where the next gift is. I think I got 5-6 gifts not sure about the number but it was really fun searching around the college. It was my last birthday in my college and it was also the last working day for final year students. So she kind of surprised me with her treasure hunt. Even now when I think of that, I will be getting tears remembering those days. Friends are really great isn't it? That too college friends!!! Every year they used to cut cake for me and celebrate like anything. Do share your experience.

So used that theme here and made Adi to do it here. Pheww, finally this story is over. I might post a bonus chapter for Adarsh, thinking of a scene for him. Will post that as soon as I get one, till then don't remove this book from your library. Will try to think of a scene in 2-3 weeks.

To those who read this story, thank you so so much. Thanks for supporting this story. I started it as fun based one just to lighten the mood for myself and for others as the lockdown was making it difficult. Hence I started this story. Hope you all like it!

*Bows down*