LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 19: Hot chocolate
Nitya woke up, panicking with a light scream. She was lucky enough that her brother was a heavy sleeper, or else she would have been in deep trouble. She looked at the time, it was still 1:30 at night. She instinctively reached out for her phone to message Surbhi. But the thought of her best friend and twin cancelling all plans and running back to her made her drop the idea and she decided to deal with it herself. She thought of grabbing a hot chocolate and taking a small walk to clear her mind and analyse what she had just experienced from a fresh perspective.
She opened her door and walked to the kitchen, trying to not make any noise.
She had pretty much succeeded in her plan, when the pan betrayed her and jumped down from the slab to commit suicide, making her contemplate the same option for herself- her brother might be a heavy sleeper but he was not Aurora that he would never wake up!
Within five minutes, Mehul was in front of her, rubbing his eyes and asking "What happened, Nikku, why are you not asleep? Are you hungry, then why didn't you wake me up?"
"Dada...actually, I just wanted some hot chocolate."
'Hot chocolate', these two words were enough to ring a bell in Mehul's mind. 'Something was definitely not right!'
"Nikku, kiddo, is something bothering you? Have you woken up from some weird nightmare? Tell dada about it! Okay wait, first you go and sit on the chair. I am going to bring you the hot chocolate, then we will talk about this."
"Okay Dada!" She replied, as she didn't want to argue or say anything that might disturb her brother at this moment of the night. She was already embarrassed after waking him up in the middle of the night after such a long day; so she went and sat on the lounge chair by the window, looking at the moon. But her mind was much too occupied to admire the view; she was thinking about what she had just seen in her dream. "Who were all these people, and why on earth were all of them behaving like they were her family? And why was Siddhant there, he hadn't gotten admission in her department- was she sure that she was in the college? What was with the boy announcing to everyone that she was his girlfriend, and why the hell was Siddhant trying to pull her away from them? After what he had done, why had he returned, and what did he want from her now? And who was the second guy claiming to be her brother- well, he was cute indeed. She had always wanted a younger brother, because Mukul never let her forget the fact that he was five minutes older than her!'
She was strolling through the garden of her thoughts, analysing each and every thing in detail, she still remembered the glimpses of the guys standing in front of her, what their faces looked like, how his embrace felt, how they all felt like her own family. "Strange," she murmured to herself, she had always been very private about her feelings and considering someone as her family. "Then how is that-" she realised she had been talking to herself when she heard Mehul's footsteps approaching her.
"Here, take this and drink- slowly! It's still quite hot. Now tell me, what is bothering you?" Mehul handed her the glass of hot chocolate and asked the question again, seating himself on the couch by the chair.
"Nothing Dada, trust me. I suddenly woke up with a craving for hot chocolate. It's probably because the number of hours of sleep I need for today is completed!"
"Shut up!" Mehul snubbed her with a smile on his face, assuming that his sister might have woken up from some horrific nightmare of witches, vampires or ghosts; and was now feeling shy in admitting that she had gotten spooked out.
"Do you want me to tell you a story, so that you can sleep peacefully?" He offered, chuckling quietly to himself.
"Yep!" She nodded her head with a big smile on her face, as she still loved to hear stories while going to sleep. It made her feel at ease and at the same time, gave her the assurance that she was not alone- somebody was there, reading her the story. She had had the fear of being left out as long as she could remember; and the fear had become more persistent after going through some terrible experiences her so-called friends had put her through.
Apparently, everyone is familiar with the fact that jealousy leads you nowhere. And yet, once it makes a place in your mind, you can't control it in time before it leads you to take some extreme steps. Being close to perfect was a blessing in disguise for Nitya, as it had led her friends to turn against her, or incited the feelings of jealousy towards her inside them. She had often wondered what she had done wrong, to deserve to be treated in that way; it wasn't supposed to be her fault that she was born a genius or that she was blessed with many talents! But she was convinced that the fault must lie somewhere within herself, as she had only got some friends, who were akin to family and everybody else had left her or hurt her badly. She had still been convincing herself otherwise; but at the point when Siddhant had also left her side after inflicting such wounds on her heart, she had come to the conclusion that she was not worthy of love at all.
She had let her mind wander while sipping her hot chocolate, and that was where it had ended up. Within ten minutes, she had finished the entire glass of her beverage and was ready to go to sleep again, as she had pretty much dismissed the dream from her mind again.
Mehul took the glass from her hand and asked her to go into her room first, saying that he would be there right after. She nodded and dashed towards her room; she didn't have the cautionary possibility of waking someone now, so why would she be climbing the stairs slowly?! Mehul laughed at the way his sister had made her way to her room, wondering if he was sure that his little one was now pursuing masters!
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Ho-jin was scrolling through his phone gallery, trying to find a particular picture and failing. He had almost thrown his phone out of frustration, when Ji-hun entered the room with a concerned look on his face. Ho-jin quickly put his phone aside and asked "What happened, Hyung? Is everything alright? You are not looking well, should I call everyone; or should I call Kaoru hyung?"
Ji-hun shook his head from left to right, gesturing no. After a slight pause, he started "Ho-jin, I want to share something with you. Will you please message Dae Jung as well, so that he can join us in the conversation? I have a secret to share with you guys."
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