One year later..

Cyberhub, Gurgaon

Arjun's office where he works as a assistant manager..

5:00 p.m.

Arjun was working along with a trainee on the new software alloted to them for arranging the products according to their sales..

Since Arjun joined here as the associate trainee to department, was soon hired as a staff, because of his sharp skills and also he was trained in the best companies of US, so it wasn't difficult for him to understand the work profile

However one thing that did bother him was the work culture in the company he worked in, according to him, everyone took work very casually, and wasn't really interested in work..

The perfectionist, determined, hardworking candidate like Arjun was finding it difficult to work around the lousy creatures of Indian corporate..

'Sir it's not accepting the entries...' the intern said, adjusting his specs which was bigger than his face

'Why ?' Arjun asks looking up from the file

'The software needs an update sir, I asked the technical team to look at it thrice, but they don't have orders from Saini sir...' the intern informed

'Can't you update it Kabir...?' Arjun looks at the screen now

'It's a paid one Sir, it's update will cost my 2 month allowance in this company...' Kabir chuckles and Arjun runs his hands through the hair

It was the fifth time Arjun reminded his boss about the software, but it was going deaf ears

This delay was leading to a cascading reaction of late sales reports, late departmental presentation and so on..

'I'll remind Saini sir about it... Again...' he rolled his eyes at the last word

'Okay sir...' Kabir nods and starts doing his work

Arjun liked this boy, he was well behaved, hardworking and polite guy, he wondered what was he doing in this lousy company, just like he was wondering this for himself

He got up and walked out of the cubicle alloted to him, towards manager's cabin to collide with the most annoying woman in the office

'Easy there handsome, you don't need to find reasons to come in my way...' she flirtily comments and Arjun rolled his eyes

'I am in hurry Mrs. Kapoor, see you...' he replies and without waiting for her answer, took long strides towards the manager's floor

As he walked around he saw people chilling near the coffee machines or chatting across their desks, laughing and judging people around, instead of working

Yes, it was almost the dispersal time and people tend to be lousy at this time, but this is how they are always, he hardly saw them working seriously, even during the deadlines...

Though Arjun believed in recreation at work as well, but how can they be so casual during work hours, how do they manage to lead the share prices in the market all the time, Arjun was trying to figure this out since the time he joined here

He hated this workplace, this flattering culture, and most importantly the ignorance towards the work

'Oo new hero, come have tea with us...' one of his seniors called

'No thank you sir, I have some work with Saini sir...' he replied politely

'When will it be 5:30 dude, I can't wait to run from here...' he hears some girl whining

'Same....' Arjun muttered and walked towards the cabin

His phone rang and without seeing the caller he picks up

'Hello...?'

'Arjun beta, it's Raina aunty, I hope I am not disturbing you... I can call later if you want...' came Naina's mother's voice

Arjun felt calm, after hearing a familiar voice

'No Aunty, you are not disturbing me at all... What can I do for you...?'

'Beta, you are in Gurgaon right, Naina is there for her NGO work, she called me just now to inform her scooter broke down, so she'll be late, see it's almost a 3 hour drive here, I told her to contact you, but I know she won't... Can you bring her home with you...'

Of course her I am a strong independent women thing !

'Don't worry Aunty, I'll drag her with me to home, and for the scooter, I'll drop it at the garage and collect it maybe tomorrow...' He says and Raina smiles

'Thank you beta, I knew you would help...'

'Anytime Aunty, this way I'll get to eat your parathe as reward...' Arjun grinned

'Of course beta, I'll prepare your favorite Aloo parathe with extra chillies...'

'Yeeaahh... See you aunty....'

'Bye beta...' Raina chuckles and hangs up

Finally something good in this stupid tiring day

He reached the cabin of his manager and knocked the door

'Come in...' Came his manager's voice anf Arjun gets in

'Ah ! Arjun... What a pleasent surprise... Come... Have coffee with me...' his old balding mananger smiles and Arjun prevents himself from frowning

'Sir I wanted to remind you about the....' he began

'The SAS Software, I know... I had a question regarding that... What is the exact issue with it...?' the manager raised his brows

For the love of god, this is the sixth time

'Sir we cannot enter the exact prices brandwise, because it keeps on going to default product wise.... It's really hectic for me and the 2 interns to add them manually, we need profit data for the meeting next week...' he explained politely, but was fuming inside

'Then prepare productwise file...' the manager shrugged his shoulders and Arjun prevented himself from snapping at him

'Sir it has a lot of errors, we cannot present it, other companies use the brandwise method, which helps with reliability among the shareholders, this shows false results, it's cheating...' Arjun explains

'Arjun, Arjun, Arjun... This is not how corporate works, you are too good to be in this field...' the manager taunted, and Arjun's rage elevates at this..

'Excuse me....' Arjun asks, now frowning

'What's your birth date..?' the manager asks and Arjun looks at him bewildered

Where does this come now

'30th July sir...'

'Hmmm... So this is the Leo inside you, the honest, ambitious traits of your zodiac doesn't make you guys successful in corporate....'

What the actual fuck.. He's trying to avoid the topic by blaming my zodiac

'I don't believe in Zodiac readings sir...'

'Well you should... And now go prepare reports as I said... Your US brain should rest in this firm, we don't work like that here...' the manager said authoritatively

'If that is the case, let me give you a simple fact sir, out of 50 billionaires in this world, 28 are Leos...' Arjun gets up from the seat and the manager is now confused

'What does that mean ?'

'You are intelligent enough to understand what it means sir...' Arjun replied sarcastically and leaves the cabin

The Leo inside me will show you... He rolled his eyes

2 hours later...

DLF mall, Gurgaon

Naina was waiting for Arjun near the entrance and was bored as hell...

The ever punctual Arjun Thapar was late today, and she wasn't going to spare the chance to tease him for this

She sat on her scooty, which wasn't functioning at all now and looked around

Today she was happy, she got to teach the underpriviliged ladies of Below poverty line area, some basic literacy lessons and got also she and her NGO colleagues helped them to get admitted into the skills workshop, where they can learn new skills, and get employed

Everyone should be happy and live with dignity, was her thoughts and wanted to open an NGO one day

She saw few puppies playing near the bench, and smiled, she loved dogs and would randomly start playing with puppies in her locality, which Arjun absolutely hated

The part NRI inside him found it unhygenic and also he did not believe in world happiness, he only wanted success, at any cost, it wasn't that he was not empathetic, he was, but only for his loved ones

These two opposite personalities were bound to affect each other's life in near future

Naina parked her scooter near the bench and started playing with the puppies, meanwhile Arjun reached there with his car

He got out and looked around to search her, while some ladies around him ogled at him, and why not, he was back to his classic Arjun Thapar personality, who was popular among ladies for his looks, he did enjoyed the attention and flirted back as well, But not in front of Naina or any of his childhood friends.....

However Jai was aware how he was and would tease him for this

Arjun casually smiled at a lady who was staring at him, she was about to come and talk to him, when he spotted Naina and walked towards her, she sighed in frustration

As he walked closer, his heart warmed seeing Naina playing happily with the puppies, although normally Arjun would frown at this sight and scold her, but today he loved the way how carefree she was, lost in her own world

This sight made him forget all his frustrations today, where he had to prepare a stupid report which wasn't accurate at all, and worst part he had to make a complete fool of him by presenting it in front of the directors

Naina was oblivious of his presence, and continued to play with the puppies, who were happily wagging their tails, He stood there staring at her, today she wore a plain pink shirt, paired with blue pants, her hair as usual tied up and her sling bag hanging across her shoulders

To Arjun, she would always be the cutest girl, no matter how many 'hot girls' he met, sub consciously he would start comparing them with Naina and later regret because he was scared to lose her as friend, because of the stupid infatuation which wasn't lasting at all

Naina looked at his shoes and then looked up, to find him staring at her, with a faint smile on his face, she smiled at him, then kept the puppies aside, and stood up brushing her clothes

'Hey, how long have you been standing here...?' she asks him and then opens her bag

'A few minutes, I didn't want to disturb you...' he said

'How surprisingly thoughtful of you...' she comments and takes out the hand sanitizer

'What is this for ?' Arjun asked

'I am cleaning my hands before you start your lecture on germs...' she said rolling her eyes and taking some in her hands

Arjun smiled at this and hugged her, which startled her, she didn't even finish cleaning her hands

Arjun felt content doing that, he felt all his anger was gone, such was her vibe, she didn't even hug him back, but eventually did after her hands dried off

'Are you okay...?' she asked, because she could tell that he was stressed

He hugged her tightly at this, and she understood that he was stressed

'Just stay like this na...' he said and she sighed too

'Okay, but those ladies will murder me, who are passing judgemental looks at us right now...' Naina says looking at the girls looking at them

'To hell with them...' Arjun said and took a deep breath, not leaving her

'Rough day....?' she asked

He didn't reply just nodded

'Stress doesn't suit you Arjun bro..' she comments and he hits her

'What is this bro... I don't want any sister, especially you....' he cringed

Naina glared at him, and then hits him back

'You are not lucky enough to have me as a sister okay....' she hits him

'Why would I make you mysister when I have other options...' he grinned

'Why you have to practice all your flirting skills on me...?' she whined, but was blushing inside

'You are my perfect dummy...' he pulled her cheeks and she rolled her eyes

'I'll get immuned to it very soon...'

'That will never happen...' he smirked and deep down even she knew he was right

'Shut up... You are late btw..' she changed the topic

'Blame the traffic... Where is that scrap of yours...' Arjun asked looking around

'Oi! It's not scrap...' she whined

'Yeah okay, supercar..' Arjun rolled his eyes, and Naina glared at him

'Right here...' she points at the left

Arjun walks towards the scooter and tried to start it

'Hmm... Maybe battery issue... There's a garage nearby, let's drop it there....' he suggested and took it out of stand

'I can take it there, you bring your car there...' Naina suggested

'Are you shy of walking beside a handsome man like me....' he said fixing his hair proudly

'You should be happy that you are walking beside me okay... Not everyone gets to do that...' Naina shot back

'That's because you are an introvert...' Arjun rolled his eyes

'Whatever...' Naina rolls her eyes too

'Come...' Arjun says pushing the scooter in the forward direction and Naina followed him

They chatted about random things while walking, mostly about how her day was, he was really impressed about how passionate she was for social work and how noble her thoughts were...

She's a philantropist, Arjun concluded

'Enough of me... You tell me what's stressing you out...' she asked

'I am not stressed...' Arjun lied

'Who are you kidding... Now tell me, what's the matter...' She hits him and he smiled

Everytime

'I am not liking my workplace...' He sighed

'Still lousy....?'

'Yeah man, and increasingly intolerable I am telling you...'

'Not everyone can be that irritating...' Naina tried to reason

'No not everyone, there's this intern Kabir, about a year younger than me, he's good, and few other people.... But majority of them are procastinators...' Arjun rolled his eyes

'Then how come their shares are always high....' Naina scratched her head

'Don't get me started on that...'

'Okay, so what happened today...?'

'There was this minor issue in the software, which I told to manager about 100 times okay, he doesn't want to spend money on updating it, and today he blamed my zodiac for being incompetent in work...' he rolled his eyes

'Bullshit, Leos are excellent in leadership and management, he's stupid...' Naina exclaimed

'It's not about the zodiac girl, it depends on persistance and heardwork and not the sun sign he's born into...' He rolled his eyes

'Agreed...' Naina says

'But I am not liking my workplace, I don't know what to do....' he sighed

'Since when did you start adjusting ? It's against your very nature to compromise... it's not being stubborn, it's doing what is right... Just because everyone is lousy, it doesn't mean you should become one too..'

'So are you suggesting me to quit ?'

'Why not ?'

'It's not that easy....'

'Of course it's not, but the ability to take risks separates leaders from others, and if you don't like something, listen to your gut and leave, don't make adjusting as your habit...' Naina says

Arjun gets silent at this

She does make sense, this idea may sound philosphical, but it has some content in it

Arjun was lost in his thoughts that he didn't realise that they walked past the garage

'Hey... Garage is here...' Naina holds his arms, breaking his reverie

'Yeah....' He says and they give the scooter for fixing

'You hungry....?' Naina asks

'Yep...'

'Come, let's eat....'

Arjun nods and silently walks towards his car, holding Naina's arm as if she was a kid

Sometimes a small idea makes a big difference