Devraj simply wanted to ignore Mishthi at all costs, so he quietly stood up and walked away, trying to distract himself by engaging in a conversation with one of his clients. But suddenly, his phone started ringing loudly from inside his pocket, making him flinch in surprise. The unexpected sound caught the attention of the people around him, who turned to look in his direction; he quickly moved away. The phone stopped ringing, but Devraj took it out of his pocket, and what he saw written on the screen left him completely stunned.

"MAFIA DON…"

He stared at the screen in utter disbelief, unsure if he had read it correctly. Just then, Mishthi came rushing toward him almost breathlessly. Devraj instinctively tightened his grip around the phone and kept his gaze fixed on her. Mishthi, trying to mask her embarrassment, spoke in an overly casual tone.

"You really are such a busy person. You didn’t even realize that Mom slipped my phone into your pocket to hide it from me."

Devraj tried to process her words and understand what she meant, but his eyes shifted again to the phone that Mishthi now held in her hand. Immediately, he took it from her and began searching for Mantra’s sister’s number from the contact list. Without a second thought, he dialed it. Mishthi, standing right next to him and watching everything unfold, widened her eyes in alarm. She instantly stepped forward to grab the phone from his other hand, clearly nervous. But before she could even touch it, the phone began to ring again.

Once more, "MAFIA DON" flashed boldly on the screen.

Devraj looked at it and then stared directly at Mishthi. She, determined not to let herself appear guilty under any circumstances, quickly began to defend herself in a casual yet flustered tone.

"Of course! The way you act, ‘Do this, don’t do that’, ‘This should happen, that shouldn’t’, ‘Don’t go here, don’t go there’, only a don behaves like that… You behave like Don."

"And sometimes… mafia dons even kidnap girls and make them disappear forever…"

Devraj handed her phone back to her and, walking away, commented flatly without turning back:

"Well, it looks like he's fully committed to the character now."

Mishthi, after that moment, avoided coming in front of Devraj entirely. A series of back-to-back incidents had already confused and overwhelmed her to the point where she didn’t know how to process anything anymore. So she quietly remained near her brother, choosing silence over any further interaction.

Meanwhile, Mantra stood in deep thought, quietly checking something on his phone. Divyanshi already deleted the number related to the recent conversation with someone, and that single act had now planted an even deeper doubt in his mind. He couldn’t understand what she was hiding from him or why. There had never been secrets between them before, never. Yet now, there was clearly something she wasn’t telling him, and he felt helpless trying to piece it together.

Noticing the tension on her brother’s face, Mishthi gently placed a hand on his arm and asked,

"What happened to you all of a sudden? You don’t look okay at all."

Mantra looked at her and lovingly placed his hand on her head, brushing her hair gently.

"I had put so much effort into organizing this party… Maybe now I’m just exhausted. Everything went off smoothly, so maybe my body is just shutting down. I think the moment I reach home, I’ll just collapse into bed."

"That’s fine, but you should rest properly. Give me the car keys, I’ll make sure you get home safely."

At that moment, Varun cleared his throat loudly, prompting Mishthi to turn and glare at her father. The rest of the group chuckled quietly. Feeling all eyes on her, Mishthi turned around slightly, and as she did, she saw Devraj looking at her from across the front, though he pretended to be absorbed in his phone.

The moment their eyes met, both instinctively looked away. Mishthi suddenly felt a strange flutter in her chest, like an unexpected storm of emotions she couldn’t understand. Her heartbeat sped up, and she began to question herself internally.

Could there be a reason why it suddenly feels like something has changed? I can't pinpoint the exact change, but it's undeniable. What is this strange feeling? Why does everything suddenly feel… different?

~~~~~~

Everyone had already returned to their homes. Mantra sat alone, his eyes fixed on his phone, staring at the screen but lost in thoughts. He kept recalling the way Divyanshi’s eyes had shifted restlessly across the dance floor earlier that evening. That one memory had left an unsettling ache in his heart, a sting so sharp he could no longer bear it.

Without a word, he picked up the glass of scotch placed in front of him and drank it all in a single gulp. His eyes still glued to the phone, he muttered under his breath with a broken intensity:

"I waited for so many years... only so that one day, you might realize how much I love you. But did I make a mistake? Have I already lost you? No... No, that can’t be true. I can’t afford to lose you, not in any way. I would rather die than see you become someone else’s. I won’t let that happen. I need to find out what’s really going on in your heart. Divyanshi, I love you deeply…. I wish I could tell you just how much. My love for you runs through every vein in my body now, I won’t be able to survive without you."

Trembling slightly, he poured himself another drink. No matter how much he drank, the burning fire within him remained unquenchable. The pain, the jealousy, the helplessness, it all kept intensifying.

Mantra was desperately trying to forget what he had seen and felt. He didn’t want to think, he didn’t want to feel, he only wanted the images in his mind to disappear. But his emotions had cornered him into a pit of confusion and fear. He hadn’t even understood everything fully, and yet he felt as if he had fallen into an abyss of anxiety, especially an unknown fear of Divyanshi.

As the alcohol slowly began to take over, his eyelids grew heavy and started to shut. Just before drifting into a drunken haze, he whispered with a possessive tremble in his voice:

"You belong only to me…"

Even in his drunken state, as he drifted into unconsciousness and wrapped himself completely in intoxication, his heart and mind remained filled with thoughts of Divyanshi.

~~~~~

He entered his room and began undressing, caught in a strange emotional conflict. He had been walking on the terrace for quite some time, hoping the cool night breeze would calm him. But tonight, even the cold air had failed to bring him peace. The moment he stepped inside his room and locked the door behind him, he began taking off his clothes. As he undid his shirt, his hand instinctively reached for his chest, he could still feel her touch lingering there.

His fingers curled into a tight fist, grabbing a handful of his hair as he yelled at himself in frustration.

"Devraj, what's wrong with you today? She's your friend's younger sister, much younger than you…. Why are you even thinking about her?"

He shut his eyes tightly, breathing heavily. But in that darkness, the memory came rushing back, the moment when Mishthi had suddenly hugged him from behind. And worse, how he had instinctively shifted to hold her from the front, wrapping his arms around her, and how she had looked at him in that moment…

The memory sent an undeniable sensation through his body, and he felt himself growing painfully hard just from thinking about it.

“Ahhh… Damn it… No…”

He knew exactly how wrong all of it was, and he tried to control himself, tried to convince his brain that this was completely unacceptable. But the more his mind tried to resist, the more his body betrayed him. He couldn't control his thoughts. Instead, he found himself slipping deeper and deeper into that forbidden moment.

Restless and tormented, he finally stormed into the bathroom and stood under the shower, letting the cold water hit his body. But even that didn’t help. Nothing tonight could bring him peace. His breaths were ragged, his chest tight, and his frustration only growing.

He tried to release the ache building physically inside him, but it only led to more pain, because even then, even at his most vulnerable, his mind kept conjuring Mishthi’s face. Her face had once appeared occasionally in passing. But tonight, it was all he could see. Just the thought of her eyes, her hands, and her breath near him made his sensations rise uncontrollably.

And in that overwhelming storm, he finally gave in. His body shuddered as he released, but instead of peace, all that remained was guilt.

Leaning both hands against the cold wall of the shower, he began taking deep breaths, his head bowed low, his voice filled with self-loathing as he muttered to himself:

"You should be ashamed of yourself. What the hell are you thinking? What the hell are you doing?"

"All these years, you’ve only ever seen her as a little girl. What changed suddenly? … Just because she hugged you? … Just because, after so many years, you felt a woman’s physical touch again? Is that what triggered all of this? … This is wrong…. All of it... Stay away from her, Devraj... Keep your mind in check. This is not okay… This is NOT okay... You just need to stay away from her... that’s it."

He stood there, drenched, broken, and filled with disgust, a man who knew the line he was approaching… and how desperately he needed to pull himself back.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

Mantra is very happy that he finally has a sister, and both his friends came to meet her today. Devraj sees this girl sleeping nicely in the cradle, and on seeing her, he just wants to pull her cheeks, but he stops his hands immediately and says to his sister.

"You should have been this small so that you could have listened to me."

Divyanshi, who was getting happy seeing this small toy, on hearing her brother's words, immediately replies to him.

"Exactly. I also feel that you should have been small so that I could twist your ears all the time."

Devraj immediately looks at Mantra and again looks at Mishthi and says to her.

"She is too cute; take care of her.”

ENDS

Devraj feels that he is not in his senses. He just wraps a towel around his torso and quickly comes into his room, then just lies down to remove all sinful thoughts from his mind.

~~~~~

Mishthi sat in her room, smoking a cigarette, her mind overwhelmed with turmoil. She had never smoked at home before, but in the past four or five months, this habit had grown on her, a habit she now hates herself for.

What had started as a silly challenge with friends, to smoke every day for a month, had become something she couldn’t seem to shake off. She felt a deep sadness creep in every time she looked at herself like this. In her other hand, she held a can of beer, and as she stared at it, she mumbled bitterly:

“I’m not so young or immature that I can’t handle anything. I can handle everything. I can do whatever I want. Anyone who thinks I can’t is living in a huge misunderstanding.”

With frustration, she quickly stubbed out the cigarette and crushed the beer can completely flat, tossing it aside as she threw herself onto the bed. The beer had left her slightly chilled, but the odd sensations she was feeling in her body were completely beyond her control now. She slipped her hand beneath her nightsuit, brushing it lightly over her bosom, and instantly, Devraj’s face and touch flooded her mind.

“Damn that toned body… It still feels like I’m touching him…”

Mishthi rolled onto her stomach, burying her face in the pillow, trying hard to fall asleep, but sleep was nowhere near her. Her hands clenched the blanket tightly, and a strange ache surged through her as she whispered under her breath, struggling to understand her own emotions:

“What’s so wrong about it anyway? He’s a man… and I’m a woman. After a certain point, we all have needs… Maybe… maybe it’s just that… It doesn’t have to mean anything else… There are so many guys in college who are crazy about me. Anyone could step in anytime.”

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself in the cold silence of the night. Slowly, the chill in the air seemed to help her settle down, at least a little.

But deep down, Mishthi refused to admit to herself that even the tiniest attraction toward Devraj existed. She told herself repeatedly that she had never let anyone get close to her, and that was her choice—not because she lacked options, but because she never wanted any of that.

And even now, if she was feeling something, it didn’t necessarily mean it was because of Devraj. That’s what she kept telling herself. Yet, her restless body, her tangled thoughts, and the fact that his name kept echoing in her head told a completely different story.