Sonakshi and gang slowly climbed into the bus, followed by Mr. Rao and Dev. Two seats in the front were empty.

"Neha,Ele ... you sit here. I anyways don't want to sit with this girl" Sona eyed Ele with anger. She had not just ruined the trip, risked their safety but Ele had also put Sona in a spot where she had to take help from her 'recent enemy'.

"Tu kaha baithegi?" Ele asked with a puppy face

"Jaha se tera chehra na dikhe" Sona replied with a stern look. She looked at Ele for a second and then she moved ahead. She went inside. A seat for three was empty in the middle. She needed mental peace so she didn't call her friends behind but she quitely  sat on the window seat. She opened her bag and took out her ear phones. She needed to recover from whatever happened just now.

"Hello misssssss" Karan said. Sona was sitting on his seat. He wanted to interrupt the trespasser but when he saw the face of the girl sitting he ended up elongating the ssss in shock

"Ye?!?!?!" He saw Dev approaching and asked him.

"Yes" Dev replied. "Ms. Bose this is our seat."

"Really? Naam to nahi likha kisi ka yaha" Sonakshi searched for their names on the seat

"Hum yaha pehle se baithe the" Karan told her.

On any normal day Sona would have apologized and left but here she wanted to teach a lesson to this pack of morons.

"Kya hua?" Jatin came munching chips "Ohhh hello" He saw Sona and said.

"Humari seat par baith gayi hai ye Jhansi ki Rani" Karan said

"Excuse me. Why did you leave the seat and roam around in the bus in the first place itself?" She asked

"Dev got down to help you. So we were hanging out with our friends in the back seat" Jatin pointed at the last seat.

"Not my fault" Sona said and looked away.

"Dekh Dev tune iss ko chath di, Lucknow jaane ke liye bus di aur isne teri hi seat cheen li. Chee jis thali me khaya ussi me ched kar diya" Karan spoke in dramatic disgust.

Sona looked away and plugged her lead in her ears.

"Ij (Is) there a peeroblem (problem)?"  Mr. Rao asked.

Karan opened his mouth to complain but Jatin stopped him.

"Nothing sir" Jatin said

"The bus will move now sit down" Mr. Rao announced

"Umang ... Shift ho.. Mai aage aa raha hu" Jatin shifted to the front seat.

"Sonakshi that's my window seat" Dev said but Sona ignored him. Karan poked her arm.

"What?" She asked him

"That's Dev's place" He told her

"Oh really? Sorry its mine now" She spoke with a never seen before attitude.

"Ms.  Bose let me sit there please" Dev pleaded her but his eyes reflected his annoyance.

"See I will definitely not sit between the two of you and on the corner seat I feel uncomfortable. I'll sit here." Sona made it clear. "This seat provides a better experience while sleeping"

Dev and Karan looked at each other. Defeated, they took their seats beside her. Dev in the middle and Karan at extreme seat.

"That was my sleeping seat" Dev mumbled.

Sonakshi had drifted into her land of music. She looked out of the window, admiring the scenary. Dev looked at her with revenge brimming in his eyes.

"Kaisi ladki hai yaar" Karan said

"Isne meri window seat waali neend churai hai mai iska chain churaunga" Dev swore to himself
_____________________________________

Tujhse naraz nahi zindagi
Hairan hu mai
Tere masoom sawalon se pareshan hu mai
Pareshaan hu mai ...

Sonakshi was listening to this gloomy track by S.A.N.A.M. , her favourite band. There was nothing sad in particular in her life at this moment. It was her habit to listen to her 'dard bhare nagme'. Sourabh used to say sarcastically that Sona's choice of songs is too RANGEEN. She liked drifting into the realm of old,sad music, specially of the age of Rafi, Pancham Da, Kishore Kumar and Mukesh. She looked out of the window. Tiny, distant villages passed by.

She wondered how life would be there in those huts? She cooked up a short story of a girl who fights all the oldies of the village to gather education or maybe a boy lifting the weight of the debt trap his father was into and of blossoming love between a young couple who met at the village temple!

People are stories themselves!

She crossed her arms and relaxed on her seat, smiling feebly at the revenge she just took from the boys.

"Ouch!" Sona felt a jerk in her ear "Excuse me?"

Dev had pulled one of her ear plugs out and was now invading Sona's musical escape.

"Wow. Ms. Bose your choice of songs is too ... Too..." He faked his expressions as if he was going to praise her "too... Dull"

"Thank you very much. Atleast I don't have a hobby of bumping into people on the road. Now, return my lead. I don't share my ear phone with anyone!" Sonakshi said in a go

"Ms. Bose. What's the big deal? Waise bhi your ear phone is rubbed with my ear wax now. Care to take it back?" Dev smirked.

"Eeeww" Sona scrunched her nose "You have ear wax?"

"Maybe" He said "Want to check?"

"Cut the crap" She crossed her arms and looked away disgusted.

"What are you listening to? Itne feeke sukhe gaane kaun sunta hai?" Dev snatched Sona's playlist and searched the songs on it.

"Senti Coke Studio stuff" He remarked

"Dev give me my phone back!" Sona said

Message from Anirban

Sona's phone beeped at the notification.

"Anirban? Your boyfriend?" Dev asked

"Give me my phone back" Sona was warning him now.

"Where did you meet him college? Tinder? You don't look like the Tinder types to me" Dev again analysed her frame.

Sona leaned over him to snatch her phone back. He raised his hand up.

"Le lo" Dev smirked again. He was taller than her and there was no way she could take the phone now, or that was how Dev thought it would be!

Sona got up to take it from him but he hid the phone between his & Karan's seat partition.

"What are you upto?" Sona spoke, exhausted.

"Ohh. Me? I just want to read that message from your boyfriend. After that you can have your phone back" Dev's lips were not straight anymore. He was passing a one sided grin to her.

"Fine read it" Sonakshi gave him the approval. Anirban was a family friend. They rarely talked to each other. He would occasionally send a hi or she would drop festival's greetings that's it. So there was nothing to hide.

"Lovely dp Sona" Dev read it aloud.

Sona couldn't believe her ears. Profile picture compliments weren't a usual thing for her! According to her, she wasn't too pretty. She was just average. She was more of a pimpled mess because of her ever sprouting acne. Make up was a big no-no for her and she didn't do anything with her hair except leaving them open or making a high pony. That's it. At school too she kept her hair well plaited just as the teachers wanted it to be! This compliment was a lovely surprise for her.

"Kaha kho gayi?" Dev broke her reverie.

"You've read the message na! Now gimme my phone back" She stretched her palm in front of him. He quietly returned it. He too wasn't expecting a compliment for this khadoos woman beside him. Was he actually her boyfriend? He mused over the idea but soon rejected it. She was too simple to be the dating types, Tinder was a far cry. He saw her typing something. He leaned towards her a bit to peep into the conversation.

"Thanks" She replied to Anirban's text with a smile. She caught him looking at her phone.

"He's just a friend" She made it clear

"As if I care" Dev turned his face away.

Thin tension crawled between them for no reason. Both wanted to make their afore said points clear to the other. They wanted the other to know that they don't care but in reality deep down they did care about the other thought about them.

Sonakshi plugged her ear phone in only one of her ear.

"That's clear." Dev said pointing to the plug he had snatched. "I don't have ear wax. Honestly"

Sona nodded.

Both of them looked away. While Sonakshi could enjoy the beautiful sunset, Dev got to see only a snoring Karan on his side. Dev weeped for his dear window seat again. He took out Sona's ear plug again, in a more gentle way this time.

"Can't you listen to something more quirky? Like Shape Of You? I'm in love with the shape of you, push and pull like a magnet do" He sang the last part

"My phone, my marzi Mr. Dixit" Sona reminded him.

"I'm in love with your body" Dev grinned as he sang again while she just ignored him this time. A faint blush made its way to her cheeks.

Dev had his own phone, his own ipod, he was a wynkster himself but then he was enjoying himself with this annoyed girl beside him. She was different from the others and so was her song selection. He quitely tried concentrating at the song which was totally new to him but he failed miserably when he looked at the peaceful look on Sona's face. He drifted his attention to the next song that was playing.

Mai yaha hu Muntazir
Tum waha ho bekhabar
Aur halke halke se man chahe,
Maanga jisko wo mil jaaye (*2)

Ye Raat tham jaaye sau saal ko
Aur ek ho jaayein hum tum

"Good one" Dev patted Sona's shoulders.

"I know" She flicked her hair back from her shoulders. They hit Dev's face hard. "Sorry sorry" She said

Dev nodded his face. It didn't hurt obviously. Her hair were smooth, he made a mental note of it. He looked at her mildly grooving to the lyrics. This was new. The angry young lady Ms Sonakshi Bijoy Bose looked so much at ease with her surroundings then. She looked so normal when she put her anger on the stand by mode. Dev was noticing the slightest of details.

Door se aati hai pariyan,
Sunati hai ik Kahani mujhe baar baar
Tu yaha pe magar wo waha pe kare tera intezaar
Ab manu nahi haar

Socho na chal pado
Jao na, na daro
Jaante ho tum uske dil ka haal
Shayad ghabrayegi wo na keh paayegi
Tum na darna
peeche hatna

Keh dena dil ki baat

This happy Sonakshi was somebody else.

Mai yaha hu Muntazir
Tum waha ho bekhabar
Aur halke halke se man chahe
Maanga jisko wo mil jaaye

Yeh raat tham jaaye sau saal ko
Aur ek ho jaaye hum tum!

Maybe Dev was equally bekhabar right now about the little butterflies in his tummy. Sonakshi was magic. She was a little bag of mixed emotions maybe. Too guarded yet too naive. Too angry yet too chirpy. Too prejudiced yet too curious. The tables had turned by the end of this kissa kursi ka.

Precap- Baatein kuch ankahi si kuch ansuni si hone lagi..
Kaabu me dil raha na
Hasti humari khone lagi
Wooaah woaah shayad yahi hai pyaar❤

Imp - I had been writing these two chapters in bits since the last time I posted and finally they are done. The previous one got over last week or maybe a little earlier than that. Now whenever I'll jot any important paragraph down next time, I'll take a screenshot and post it on insta as a spoiler.

Insta id- @ritii11

Anyways there are only about 30 active readers for this book. So I don't have a lot of people to please and I can go as per my khurafati writer brain says😈

(EDIT- BY THE END OF THE BOOK I HAD 60 ACTIVE READERS AND I DIDN'T GO AS PER MY KHURAFATI BRAIN SAID)