Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

In an instant, all humour had vanished from his tone.     

He nearly growled, "wait a minute, do you actually like her?"     

Vandit looked at him, "I do like her but not in the way that you just tried to insinuate. I identify with her because she reminds me of myself in some ways. For a long time, I was bullied by people who believed that they were stronger than me. They didn't leave a single opportunity in trying to pull me down. That's why I don't like it when you behave rudely or say bad stuff about her."     

Abhirath's body posture relaxed visibly.     

"I don't know about you but this girl ain't a shrinking violet, who would let anyone bully her. In fact I fear the opposite might happen in her case. Mriga's problem is that she is a little butterfly who thinks of herself as a dragon. She doesn't realise that she can get hurt due to that bull headed attitude of hers," he went on in a flow.     

After a moment of silence, he realised that Vandit was looking at him strangely.     

"So that's how it is," Vandit said cryptically.     

Abhirath's face turned red.     

He asked aggressively, "what do you mean by that?"     

But Vandit wasn't buying that act anymore. He started laughing hard.     

"All this while I kept trying to figure out the reason for your animosity towards her. Now I know that it was your heart feeling the weight of her sweat," he teased Abhirath.     

"What? What did you say? Actually, I don't want to stand here and listen to your nonsense. You better watch out for the session at the ground, tomorrow. I am going to beat you hollow!" he said menacingly and started to walk away.     

Vandit called out to his retreating back, "just a word of advice. If you like a girl, do not be so mean to her that she starts to hate even the sight of you. You will have a hard time convincing her that you actually like her!"     

Abhirath halted in his steps but didn't turn around. He waited for Vandit to catch up to him before entering the dorm's door.     

Yash stepped out of the nook behind the pillar once the two guys had gone away. He didn't know their names but figured that they had interned with Mriga. How dare the burly guy think that he has the right to like Mriga.     

"Oh God! Was one competitor not enough for today that I have been saddled with another one? Mrigaaaaaaaa, you are in so much trouble. Wait till I lay my hands on you," Yash growled to himself.     

Abhirath lay in his bed, pondering over Vandit's remarks. Growing up in the household where there were two over-competitive adults, he learnt about harsh criticism and performance based praise before his alphabets. His parents were strict and authoritative and their way to demonstrate affection was an occasional smile in his direction when he performed well in some sphere of his life.     

Subconsciously but not surprisingly, he had picked up their way of talking - words laced with sarcasm and no holding back.     

He had seen Mrignayani for the first time in an archery competition two years ago. She had stood out for two reasons. One, her height was really short but she had managed to hit her target accurately over and over again. Second, while the others had a fierce competitive look on their faces, she seemed to be having a gala time during the event, laughing her guts out at something or the other before and after her turn.     

He had found her irritating initially but looking at her consistent, superlative scores, the irritation had turned into part admiration part jealousy. He realised that it was because she hadn't saddled herself with the burden of the result. After that, he kept catching glimpses of her at the swim meets, during the debate competitions and at annual day events. Without him realising, he had started to seek her every time there was a gathering of students.     

Despite yearly rotation in the sections of every grade, at no point, did they land up in the same class. So it had been a shock for him when he saw her at the Admin department two months ago. He hadn't known whether to feel dismayed at the potential distraction or give in to the happy hop which his ill-used heart was performing at that moment.     

From the first day itself, she had performed badly in the tasks given by the department. Everytime he saw her lag behind, he wanted to reach out and shake her, urge her to buck up. Instead, he ended up saying the meanest things. The way her eyes dimmed after that made him feel worse. But his logic for behaving that way was that if she wasn't meant for the role, she might as well withdraw early and go back to being the super athlete that she was. She wasn't meant for this field probably and it was a good thing. He had seen the scars on his parent's body and knew how dangerous the spy world could be.     

Before her arrival in the Admin team, he had sometimes imagined the possibility of him walking up to her during one of the athletic meets and introducing himself, maybe exchanging notes on their techniques and if possible, becoming some sort of friends. But never had he visualised himself in an intimate way with her. Then why did Vandit's disclosure of his non-romantic feelings for Mriga suddenly remove the ill-feeling which he had harboured towards the guy? In fact he hadn't even been aware till this moment that he didn't like Vandit all these days because of his cosy relation with Mriga.     

And, why was his heart galloping ever since Vandit's parting remark about him liking her? It couldn't be true, could it?