It had been a difficult morning, as Kuhu rearranged the chairs in front of the small stage, she kept thinking of a way to apologize to Abir.  She mused how clumsy she becomes in front of him. Aligning the last chair, she quickly moved to check the list of items still unavailable for the new inhabitants of the building. Ticking all the items brought in this morning, she got an idea. Tearing a sheet of paper from her pad, she started scribbling an apology letter. 

 "Ouch!" a loud noise came along with a crash of a pot, "Who put these here!"

Standing up, she sped out to hear who had disturbed her flower pot arrangement, holding her hands on her hips, "I did!" Then quickly looking at the broken pot, "this was perfect! How did you break it!" She asked angrily to the man, who was squatting down to clean the dirt on his black shoe.   

"This is perfect?" Kunal asserted, squinting in the sun to get one good look at the fool. He couldn't fathom someone found blocking the only entrance to the building with huge cemented pots of aloe vera plants perfect? Wincing as his toe was in pain,  he rubbed his shoe till the dry  soil was off, "Can you elucidate?" 

Kuhu eyes widened, "Sportscar?"

"What?" He got up to his feet, stomping his foot to get rid of every particle, he checked her lanyard, "How do you expect anyone to enter with these pots in the way?"

Kuhu looked at the pots she had arranged carefully on each step. There was ample space for people to walk up the steps. Then spotting the real culprit, "If you would have watched your step instead of your phone, maybe then you would have seen the pots." She replied matter-of-factly, her heart still fluttering, she was finally talking to her crush.  

Kunal frowned and stepped down to pick up his phone, "Please remove them! They aren't child-friendly."

Kuhu looked at the pots. She couldn't deny that the pots were made of cement and could hurt anyone if they weren't watching their step. Feeling bad that Kunal was hurt, who was repeatedly stomping his foot as if to shake off the pain, she asked him politely,  "Are you okay?" 

He took off his coat, he replied sarcastically, "Fine. Just.." suggesting at the pot, "remove them!"

Kuhu nodded as he turned around and walked away. She had finally met him, as she picked up the pots, remembering the short conversation, he wasn't quite as nice as she had imagined him to be.  But then, she smiled dreamily as the ephemeral moment could become the beginning of her love story.

After removing each pot off the step, she walked inside the building to continue writing her apology letter to Abir. 

"Small flower pots will be coming soon, anything else we need Ms. Kuhu?"

It startled her, she turned to face him, "No," she replied abruptly.

"I didn't mean to be bossy earlier." He bit his lips, "I'm sorry." Stepping closer, "This NGO is important for bhai, for our entire family; I want everything to be perfect. So...."

Kuhu nodded, "I understand..."

"No, no, let me explain." He sat on the chair close to her, "I'm Kunal Rajavansh, Abir's brother. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that, nothing justifies my anger," he looked at her, "It is my fault. I wasn't looking and then I hit my foot and then that pain translated to anger." He sighed, "I'm sorry."

"Nanko," Abir and Anjali walking hand-in-hand towards them, "when did you come?" 

"Just now, bhai," Kunal gestured to Bubbles and she came forward to hug him, frowning at Kuhu.  

"Bubbles," he removed the crumbles from her face, "what have you eating?" 

"Mamu," she pushed the hair off her face and replied fervently, "Nuts!" Pulling a handful of walnuts  from her pocket, "do you want to eat?"

"No," he smiled and stood up, "I'm full."  His brother was fanning the shirt. "What happened...?"

"I need a spare shirt, Nanko," he said, avoiding Kuhu as much as he could. This girl was a troublemaker, though he was grateful he had her around, she possessed good leadership qualities, but she was very clumsy.  

"But you always keep spares here,"  he stepped forward to feel the fabric.

"This was the spare," he informed, glancing at Kuhu and then addressed to Kunal, "just ask Jugnu to grab some clothes for me, please" 

"Is everything else set?" he stared at Kuhu, " is  everything how we planned it to be?"

"Yes Abir Sir, all is set! Everything for the inauguration is all in order, the kids are prepared with their skit, the singing troop is ready and fairly excited and the dancers are too. Each group is presenting their work, we have the ground ready for kabaddi match too. All the basic amenities are in place."

Kunal checked the time, "I'll go home and get everything. The pots and the shirt." Looking at Bubbles, "you want to come?"

She held Abir's hand and smiled at the six-foot-tall man, "We are going to see the library, right papa?

Kunal laughed, "Alright then!" He turned to Kuhu, "I'm sorry."   He stepped out of the building, avoiding the sun and navigating out of the new campus by staying under the trees when Mishti came out of the old building, hands clenched and hurried past him. 

"Mishti?" he called out,  waving at her, "Where are you hurrying off too?"

Mishti looked at him, "Kunal!" 

He frowned looking at her reddened face, "Is everything ok?"

She crossed her arms and took a deep breath, "Yes," her cheeks were hot and her heartbeat increasing, " of course. I'm looking for my sister, she works here." 

"Oh really?" Kunal smiled, "What's her name?"

"Kuhu," she simply replied.

"Oh," Kunal recalled, "that's your sister? She is in the new building,"  he responded, pointing to the direction he had just come out from, while Mishti gave him a fast reply, "Thank you, I'm in a rush, see you soon."

"Wait, but why are you running there, is everything ok?" he took faster steps to catch up to her.

She paused, and forced a smile, "Yes, yes, I am late to work and I just need to meet my sister." 

As Kunal left, Bubbles munched on the walnuts and looked at Kuhu while Kuhu stared at Abir, "I'm very sorry."

"Bubbles, the library is on the first floor, why don't you go up and I'll be there in two minutes." As she took small steps to the first floor, he looked at kuhu, "For what exactly? For letting the kids play with the paint balloons, which were to celebrate the end of a successful day, not at the beginning or for throwing that jar of water? I took a shower this morning, but thanks,"  He replied sarcastically, "I feel more refresh with detergent soap sticking on my skin." 

"I thought the kids asked me if they could play with balloons, we had plenty. I didn't know they would pick up the paint-filled balloons. And that jar of water, the kids had ruined that wall, we tried erasing it, using wipes, but nothing worked so we thought maybe some detergent water will react. You just came in front of me, how would I have known."

"Right again it is my fault, isn't it?" shaking his head in disbelief, "Apology accepted, just be more careful next time." He sighed, "Just check on Kusum regarding the logistics and I'm going to do a final check of the building."

When Mishti entered the new building, there was no one assembled there. She slowly walked inside, clutching her bag when she heard some soft laughter on the first floor.  Carefully walking around the rangoli, which was made from dried flower petals, she went up the stairs. 

"Kuhu?" her voice echoed in the hall.  She looked for Kuhu in the lit hallway. There were labels and numbers on each door. Walls were painted, vivid and beautiful paintings filled the hallway. She walked past a long transparent window, where Anjali was sitting on a bean bag and reading a book. She looked for a door and located it and stepped in. 

Hearing the footsteps approach, Anjali peeked to greet her papa, "Papa?"

"No, it's Mishti!" she smiled at her, as the little girl waved back. 

"Hi," she dragged a bean bag next to hers, "sit here!"

"Thank you." Mishti looked around, "why are you here alone?"

"Papa and I came here to check out the library. But Papa hasn't come upstairs yet. He is downstairs talking to your sister." 

Mishti had not seen anyone downstairs, "Really?" 

"Let's read this book together, shall we?" Anjali asked her new friend, "Maybe you'll like it!"  Anjali read the book while Mishti read along and forgot her purpose of coming.  They both spent some time enacting the story and making different sounds to mimic the different animal characters. They laughed and exaggerated the bits of the story.  When the story ended,  Anjali was laughing at Mishti's tickles.  Abir couldn't stop himself from staying behind the bookshelf and smiled at the two girls, "So that was a fun story, right Bubbles?"

She clapped her hand on her mouth, " Haww Papa, were you spying on us?" 

Mishti looked at him intensely.  Her hands crossed, her lips tight.  She yearned to know her diary was with him.  

"Of course not, Major," he pleaded, " please don't accuse me."

"Then it's okay Captain," she stood up and got another bean bag and propped it on the other side, "You can enter our tent, Captain. Then smiling at Mishti, "You can be a captain too!"

"Thank you!" she smiled at the silliness, it had been years since she had interacted with little children to this extent. 

He sat down and looked at her shyly and turned to Anjali, "Did you find a book you like?"

She nodded, "But we read it," pulling the book from Mishti's hands and giving it to him. 

"Do you want to go meet the children?" he asked. 

"Okay!" she stood up and placed the book back on the shelf, "but before that, I want to read one more book!" She ran to the aisle.

"I need to talk to you Abir," Mishti wasted no time in saying what was boiling inside her for nearly half an hour now. The tone was calm, indicating the calm before a storm. 

He nodded gently, "Go ahead." She looked at Anjali, who had run to the other bookshelf to find a book.

"You have something of mine."

He chuckled in nervousness, "Now, I'm the chor, Angry Chorni?."

"I'm serious Abir," her voice came out a little louder than she had anticipated, "You have my diary, don't you?

"Mishti, "this conversation came faster than he expected. This is one thing he was wondering how he will inform the diary's author. He could only speak the truth now, " I found it in the park."

"The odds of you finding a diary of Mishti, painting her house and meeting Mishti from London?  I reckon they are the same people."

"I didn't know you until Friday, " he gave the justification "I'll return it after the inauguration."

Mishti's head bobbed, biting her lip hard, "Did you read it?"

"I needed to know who it belonged to so I did read," he paused, he couldn't give details.  "I wouldn't have known it was you if we hadn't met," he replied calmingly. "Mishti," taking her hand in his, "I don't and I won't judge you. Your secrets are safe with me."

"You read it all, didn't you?" she pulled back her hand, wiping her tears and taking off her glasses and looking at him. He was mesmerized by her eyes, "you shouldn't have read it."

"Mishti, believe me, I got to know on Friday that you are Mishti. I'm sorry, I just thought maybe I'll get some hint of whose it belonged to. I swear, I went to the park for a few days, hoping someone will come by for it. It wasn't until Friday when I got to know you, I didn't know Kunal knew you, I didn't know Kuhu was your sister. Give me a chance, please. I'm sorry Mishti." 

She stood up, "Just return my diary and I don't want to meet you again." She couldn't believe anyone would bother to read the bulky diary, which was scarcely legible, to ensure that if anyone would dare to read it, they would put it away in frustration. She was certain that someone had thrown it away by now, dumped it to be never to be found again. But the relief that her diary was safe wasn't enough to relax her nerves, especially now that she knew someone had read everything about her. 

She walked out when Anjali called out for her, "Mishti," she smiled, "Are you leaving?" Mishti nodded gently and smiled at the cute little girl. "I hope we meet soon." 

Mishti looked at Abir and then back at the innocent eyes in front of her, "We will."