Engaged Elsewhere
Engaged Elsewhere
Shaurya's face fell in dismay. He knew that a spy's life was only worthy till it remained in the shadows. Never would he have thought that such a situation would occur so early in his career.
Ramanujam and Prithvi went out of the room, leaving him with his chaotic thoughts. Saraswati saw his disappointed face and felt bad for him. At this moment, he looked like a lost nineteen years old kid. Unlike other kids his age who were thinking of wooing girls and fretting over their jobs, he had just returned from a near death experience to nothing and no one waiting for him.
Only if the girl's heart wasn't engaged elsewhere! She had seen how he responded to her presence a little while ago. In Saraswati's eyes, she was truly the kind of girl who could fill this little orphan's cold life with her gregarious laughter and warmth. Life was truly unfair!
Unaware of her teacher's thoughts, Mriga was walking towards the Dean's office after leaving the instructions with the foodhall's kitchen for the Admin department. The expression on the chief cook's face had been comical when she relayed Saraswati's order to him.
"Full meal? Again? How much can two people eat…" he had muttered loudly before barking out the order to his juniors.
It took Mriga a bit to understand the reason for his grumbling. The Admin department probably never disclosed as to how many of them were present in the building at one point of time and cause confusion about the number of people consuming the meal.
Allowing herself a tiny smile, she tried to keep her mind off the events from her personal life to take over but she failed. When Saraswati had told her that she was not needed anymore in Shaurya's room, she had wanted to protest. The boats were going to leave later in the evening and she didn't want to spend the whole day replaying the previous day's happening.
Lost in her thoughts, she found herself standing outside the dean's room without even realising it.
She stood absolutely still, questioning herself one more time on the decision which she had made.
She knew that the students had the option of filling in the application for participating in the Queen's selection competition after returning from the vacation. But she wanted to give her name for it right now. It was a signal to herself that she was determined to walk down this path. The consequences of withdrawing from the competition after submitting one's name, were severe and she knew that no matter what, she would never jeopardise her future generations' prospects.
With that thought, she knocked at the door and walked in.
Half hour later
Mriga reached her dorm after dropping a message for Abhirath with the new instructions. Before she could climb the steps a hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist.
"Good morning, beautiful!" he said.
Mriga's lips were pressed in a thin line as she turned to look at Yash and extract her hand from his grasp.
"What are you doing here?" she asked without any inflection in her voice.
"Sleepyhead, we spoke about spending the last few hours together before we left for our respective homes, remember?" he said endearingly.
She lifted her eyes to gaze at him.
"Unfortunately, I am really busy right now. So, let us say our farewells here. Have a wonderful vacation," she said.
Yash stared at her and asked in consternation, "What is wrong with you this morning? Why are you sulking again?"
She didn't want to engage into a conflict right at that moment but didn't want to shy away from it as well.
"I am not sulking. I need to fill in the application for the Queen's competition and that would take a lot of time. Post that I need to help in tidying the dorm and then I have to organise the children's roster who are travelling to the Northern zilla, since I am the eldest in the group," she explained.
But Yash didn't hear anything after her first line.
Furrowing his brows, he asked, "What is this about entering the competition? You have always maintained that this was not the path for you. Why are you… ah! Is it because of what I said yesterday? It is, isn't it?"
He shook his head in resignation and said gently, "Mriga, why are you trying to compete with someone? You don't have to show or prove anything to anyone. I have promised you that I will handle the situation at my end. You don't have to force yourself to do such drastic things."
"Do you think she is the right candidate?" Mriga asked abruptly.
"Huh?" Yash was lost for minute before he understood.
"You mean Vindhya as Queen?" he clarified.
At her nod, he said, "Yes, she is. Do you know that she has been training for it since her childhood. She has worked very hard all these years, taking extra lessons in policies, administration and…"
"I disagree," she interrupted him again.
At his confused expressions, she said with determination, "I don't think that she is the right person to become the Queen. I do not know about the others, but if Chandragarh was to select a Queen like her, it would be not be in sync with the values that this country stands for."