A/N: Surprise, surprise... You don't have to wait at least an entire month for this update 😂😂😂  I (thankfully) have this weird short break right now which allowed me to write quite a bit...

I hope you enjoy this sudden chapter update...

***

"Ghar toh... Theek hai... Location bhi kaafi..." (The house is... Alright... It's location is kind of...)

"Kaafi?! (Kind of?!)" Kabir retorted. "Kaafi nahi, superb! (Not 'kind of', it's superb!)"

"Let him do his job," Raina scolded.

"Raina," he complained. "You don't get it, these guys are in it just for the money."

He then turned his attention to the real estate agent.

"Saaf saaf batao (Tell me truthfully)," Kabir raved. "How much commission are you taking from this?"

"Sir," he spoke up, meekly. "5%, sir."

"5%?!" Kabir roared. "Haramkhor! (It's a swear word that means someone who earns his living illegally)"

"Sir," he said. "Yeh toh standard rate hai (This is the standard rate), sir."

"Standard rate..." Kabir started before being cut off by Raina.

"Alright Kabir," she said, calming him down. She then turned her attention to the agent. "Thank you so much for your time. We'll keep in touch."

The real estate agent quickly bowed and scurried off.

"No we're not!" Kabir shouted after him.

Raina sighed.

"Why are you being so difficult?" Raina asked.

"Don't you see?" Kabir questioned, pointing out the obvious. "He's trying to rip you off!"

"This is the 7th guy we're meeting," she informed him.

"Well," he said. "I don't trust these guys."

"We need to sell this house somehow," she told him.

"Don't worry," he replied. "Main hoon na (I'm here, aren't I)?"

"Yeh toh problem hai (This is the problem)," she sighed.

***

"200 core!" Ayesha exclaimed.

"Ma'am," an(other) agent stammered. "Zyada (Too)..."

"Kya (What)?" Ayesha barked.

"Amitabh Bachchan ki ghar bhi (Amitabh Bachchan's house also)..."

"I don't care about Amitabh Bachchan's ghar (house)!" Ayesha refuted.

"Ma'am, yeh Mannat nahi hai (This isn't Mannat - SRK's house)," the agent replied.

Raina could only watch as Ayesha bickered with the agent.

Apparently, she's worse than Kabir.

***

"Thanks for all your help, Arjun," Raina said. "Out of all your siblings, you're the only one who managed to get this house listed."

"You don't have to thank me," he answered. "It's part of my job. If I didn't catch those two trying to convince Sunny to join in the madness, I wouldn't have known."

She laughed.

"Done?" Kabir asked, as he saw the both of them walk out of Arjun's office.

"Mostly," Arjun replied. "Now, we just wait for a buyer."

"I can't believe it took you guys two weeks to get this done," Raina remarked. "It's like you guys don't want me to leave."

"But we got it done," Kabir pointed out.

"Well," Arjun said. "I don't know about Kabir but I really wished you could stay."

"Arjun..." she cooed.

"Arjun..." Kabir copied Raina before admonishing him. "Stop flirting with my doctor. It's weird."

"Ex-doctor," Arjun said.

"Whatever," Kabir scoffed.

"Ok," Raina butted in. "That's enough lover boys. I have to go, there are things that need to be packed."

"Do you need help?" Kabir asked.

"You've helped enough," she gestured to the house listing papers. "I think I can handle this myself. You have a concert coming up in a week, you need to rest."

"Fine," he reluctantly agreed. "But call me if you need anything."

"I know," she huffed. "But I'm perfectly capable of handling things on my own."

"Fine," he said. "I guess I'll see you soon?"

"Sure," she replied. "And don't forget those backstage passes."

"I won't," he smiled.

Kabir watched until her silhouette disappear around the corner and turned back to Arjun, who wore a mocking expression.

"Come on Arjun," Kabir spoke up. "We need to get started on the buyers."

"You're pathetic," Arjun scoffed.

"Excuse me?" Kabir asked.

"I said you're pathetic," Arjun repeated. "You're so smitten by her that you'll do anything for her."

Kabir gave him a disgusted look.

"What nonsense," he said. "I'm just helping a friend. You're taking this the wrong way."

"Or am I?" Arjun questioned. "Look at the way you look at her, it's so obvious. The only other time you acted like this was when you were with Tara. Bhai (Brother), take my advise. Tell her how you feel."

"Y... You're crazy," Kabir laughed. "You must be spending way too much time around Ayesha."

Kabir ignored Arjun and headed into the office.

Arjun clicked his tongue.

"Whatever that helps you sleep at night," he said to himself.

***

"1... 2... 3... 4..."

Kabir sat in the studio as he listened to the familiar melody of his song.

"Stop," he said just before the vocals started.

"What happened?" Sunny who was also in the room asked while rushing up to him.

"The drummer," Kabir told him in  low voice. "He's not playing it right."

"Sounds ok to me," Sunny replied.

"It sounds ok to you because you're not performing," Kabir said, gritting his teeth. "This is the third time today. If he doesn't play that part right, I can't start on time."

"But..." Sunny started but got cut off by Kabir.

"Rizzu!" Kabir called out to the guitarist. "Come here!"

Rizzu, short for Rizwan, was a talented bassist Sunny signed on for the tour. Despite only working with them for a short time, he managed to pick up Sunny's playing style; unlike the dummer, who Kabir didn't even bother to learn his name.

"Yes?" Rizzu answered as he jogged up to them.

"Pass the bass to Sunny for awhile," Kabir instructured.

Sunny took over the bass and Kabir signalled for them to start. After a while, Kabir signalled for them to stop again.

"See what I mean," he told Sunny, hushed.

"But this can't go on," Sunny whispered. "You have to stop firing people."

"I did it for my previous tours," he replied.

"And look what a wonderful reputation it earned you," Sunny sarcastically told him. "Look Kabir, he's not Arjun. You have to work woth what you have."

"But I can't, Sunny," Kabir sighed. "It's either he goes or the song goes."

"You can't do that too," Sunny informed him. "You were the one who asked your fans to choose and they choose this one. Not to mention, it's the most requested songs out of all time."

"Damn it," Kabir cursed. "That guy is playing it too clean or too forced. Arjun always had this slight natural fumble..."

"I thought it annoyed you," Sunny reminded him.

"It did," Kabir responded. "But I got used to it and now that it's not there, it's not right and then it throws everything off."

"Just chill ok?" Sunny tried to calm him down. "He'll eventually get it."

Suddenly the studio room door opened to reveal Ayesha carrying a plastic bag. Without uttering a word, everyone knew what this meant.

"Hi everyone!" Ayesha greeted. "Lunch is outside!"

In contrast to the usual race to reach the food, everyone was in a rather tensed mood.

"Kya hua (What happened)?" Ayesha asked. "Why is everyone looking like Devdas?"

"Guys," Sunny announced. "You can have your lunch. Kabir and I need to sort some things out."

The rest of them slowly shuffled out of the room, leaving only Kabir, Sunny and Ayesha alone. Only when the door closed behind them that Ayesha started speaking.

"What is the problem now?" Ayesha asked Kabir.

"What made you think it's my fault?" Kabir defended.

"Because it's normally you that creates all these unnecessary drama, Mr. Perfectionist," she scolded.

"The drummer isn't playing the way Kabir wants him to play," Sunny answered on Kabir's behalf. "And to cut the long story short, he's not Arjun."

"Did you tell him how you want it played?" Ayesha asked.

"Third time today," Kabir replied.

"You could always ask Arjun to show him," she suggested.

"Done that," Sunny sighed. "It came out very forced. We thought it would smoothen on in time, but it's still the same. And when he doesn't do it, our Kabir bhai saab (brother) here, can't get his entrance right."

"Fire him then," Ayesha just said casually. "Isn't that what Kabir is famous for?"

"Ha ha," Kabir mocked. "Very funny."

"Actually," Sunny pointed out. "He was about to do that but I stopped him."

"We're a week away from the first show and God knows how are we going to pull this song off!" Kabir raved. "And Vishal won't be back till the day after tomorrow. So basically, we don't have a pianist and our drummer is useless."

"What if Arjun dubs over the drums?" Ayesha suggested. "Just that one part."

"Please don't suggest such bakwaas (useless) ideas," Kabir replied.

"Or we can try to convince Arjun," Sunny told him.

"Ya," Ayesha agreed. "Have you talked to him?"

"It's no use," Kabir explained. "Arjun needs to run that stupid company."

The trio sighed. What a mess!

Suddenly, someone's phone rang, breaking the solemn mood.

"It's mine," Kabir announced as he got up to answer his phone.

When Kabir was out of earshot and completely immersed in his phone call, Ayesha nudged Sunny.

"So," she said. "What's the update between Kabir and doctorji?"

"It's one week away from the concert," Sunny replied. "What do you think?"

"Raina's flying off the morning after the first show," Ayesha reminded him. "How is Kabir ever going to realize his feelings when the both of them are on different time zones?"

"Ayesha," he replied. "I still think we should respect your brother's choices and stop interfering into his love life. I think he must have his reasons for not confessing."

"What reason does he have?" Ayesha questioned, she had a feeling Sunny knew more than he was letting on. "Wait... He told you something."

"I may or may not have asked him a few things over coffee one day," Sunny said sheepishly.

"What did he tell you?" Ayesha asked.

"Who told you what?" Kabir suddenly butted in.

The two of them almost jumped out of their skins, surprised by Kabir's sudden reappearance.

"Do you know it's rude to eavesdrop?" Ayesha scolded Kabir.

"Do you know it's rude talking behind people's back?" Kabir retorted.

"Who's talking about you?" Ayesha lied.

"Whatever," Kabir shrugged off. "That was Arjun, apparently, there's an update about the house and I'm going to drop by his office for a while. Sunny, by the time I come back, that drummer better be playing properly or I'll really fire him."

With that, Kabir disappeared from their sights.

"So," Ayesha dismissed Kabir's interruption. "What did he tell you?"

"He told me you were annoying him about getting together with Raina and what not," Sunny told her.

"Hey I..." Ayesha started before getting cut off by Sunny.

"Will you let me finish?" Sunny interrupted. "And stop being so defensive, I need to build the parameters for the story."

"Fine," Ayesha huffed. "Continue."

"So," he continued. "I asked him if that was because he had someone else in mind. You have to understand that most of his adult life revolved around music and Tara. Kabir has never imagined a life without her and now that he has finally moved on, he told me that he needed to figure that part of his life out. But after track 15..."

"Track 15?" Ayesha thought out loud. "What's track 15? Channa Mereya?"

"No," Sunny answered. "Well... That too but his original track 15. The one he pulled out just minutes before the albums were made... That's a whole different story."

"What's that?" Ayesha questioned, curious.

"It's basically a public declaration of love," Sunny replied. "He knew that if the song would be released, no matter how successful it would be, Raina would hate him for doing that and the public would not understand the depth and the intensity of the song."

Ayesha looked at Sunny confused.

"Why?" Ayesha asked.

"Listen for yourself," Sunny said as he passed his phone and a set of headphones to Ayesha.

***

A/N: This story is coming to an end and I can't believe I stretched it over 2 years (And I thought I'd be done in less than half a year when I started <- wishful thinking)... Only a few chapters more 😭😭😭