46 Happy times

5 days later

In the past five days nothing exceptional happened. Ali's been staying at home under Emily's care and his mom's orders.

His days wholly passing by playing games with basically everyone in his house from time to time. So much so that even he started feeling bored.

Shashi's all settled in the house now, enjoying her time with Aliya every day. They're almost always together from morning to night. Her laughter and loud voice had almost been echoing in the large mansion.

Though the little girl did start to feel down and sad from time to time after thinking about her mommy, but Ali had to doubt if she was really feeling sad or just acting, cause she figured out the trick that everyone would pamper her more if she cried a little.

Liv's been coming to their house quite often nowadays too. Just like how she used to when they were children. She also seems genuinely happy these days, and is getting bolder and bolder each day now.

Going from the little hugs and light kisses on day one secretly, to going with doing it openly on day three in front of everyone.

Just yesterday when he was on a video call with his mom and dad, she came and hugged him from the back before kissing him on the cheek, giving his poor parents a surprise of a lifetime.

If that wasn't all, instead of shying from his mom's questioning, she even got bolder and went on to joke about their engagement, saying let her tie the knot and secure her place before Ali snaps and falls into someone else's black magic again.

It's actually kinda funny how someone whom he hadn't seen smiling so happily for years, forgot all about her pain and his ignorance, and was willing to give him another chance.

Aside from fixing his mistakes with Liv, he also spent quite a lot of time with Em these days. And he enjoyed it very much, as every day he learned something new about her.

Stuff that he never really noticed or cared for before.

Like how she's a perfectionist and has a little bit of OCD. Or that she's a very good cook, who surprisingly doesn't like to eat her own cooked meals, and would prefer to eat something else instead. God knows why.

She's also a very bad player in video gaming despite watching him play for years now. Like she doesn't even know anything about them. On the other hand, she's an extreme anime enthusiast, who can sing the opening tracks of many animes perfectly even though she doesn't understand a single word of it.

This girl had probably watched hundreds of anime and had the ability to binge her favorites in one sitting if not for her job and other distractions.

She also looks quite cute when her face gets this annoyed expression for a few seconds, when someone interrupts her from watching her anime.

"Oye Em," Ali said, hitting her with his elbow.

"Yeah."

"What do you think of me?" Ali asked while watching some anime where he couldn't understand a thing, but Emily seemed too invested in watching it.

"You're _good." she replied, her eyes still glued to the screen.

"Then, do you like me?" He asked.

"I guess." She replied and added "I've been with you for like 3 years now. So isn't it normal?"

"No, not like - like. But like, The Like, you know like…" Ali looked at her and tried to ask again, only to fail miserably at phrasing it.

"What're you talking about?" Emily, who felt disturbed over her anime addiction, asked again with some annoyance in her voice, hoping to end this conversation ASAP and get back to enjoying her favorite character going through a good monologue.

No doubt she enjoyed his company and the time he's spending with her now, but damn did she hate him when he starts talking between her shows and starts asking weird ass questions and explanations when something interesting is happening on the screen.

Ali sighed hearing her question and took a deep breath before speaking again, his voice clear and expression a little more serious than the last time. "Fine, I'll just ask straight." He said, "Do you love me?"

As his words finished he looked at her face hoping to see her reaction, only to see some embarrassment that didn't do anything except maybe make him laugh a little.

"Wh_ phoo cough cough _ what?" Emily, who heard his question, froze for a second, before gulping down the popcorn she was eating, and ending up coughing a few times, as something felt stuck in her throat.

"So is that yes, or a no?" Ali shook his head and asked again, hoping for a clear answer.

"No, what are you asking? Why?" Emily finally took her eyes off the screen and turned to look at him. Hesitating to speak as she saw him so close, so focused.

"So _ you don't love me?" Ali said a little disappointed hearing the big NO in her answer.

"What, no, I do.._ no? I mean_ I'll just go.." Seeing his sad face and hearing his words, Emily started explaining in a hurry, only to stutter in her words, as her brain literally started going haywire over his sudden questions. So she just chose to leave this place in a hurry.

"Wait, I just wanted to tell you that I _ like you too."

Watching her running away again, Ali ended up shouting at the end, but wasn't even sure if she heard him finish that sentence or not.

"Man, she's fast." He said with a smile, and turned to look at the anime where finally the big monologue ended and a fight began.

"Why did he start fighting, weren't they friends? And why is he keeping his sword like that on the back, how can you even pull it out." He asked again, but this time there wasn't a response from anyone.

… .

In the five days while our boy was busy enjoying his time, on the other hand Kevin was busy sorting out problems one after another appearing to trouble him.

He couldn't even show his face at the college nowadays as someone spread some fake photos of him with the bitch who broke up with him and left with some rich bastard.

And now everyone at the college thinks he's a douchebag who's blackmailing her and threatening her to be together again.

If that wasn't enough to sully his mood, there's this other rich bastard who's coming to meet Meher every day without permission and just cause he stopped him once at the gate, that man sent his bodyguards to beat him up.

And after he taught them a lesson, before he could even reach home, police came to his house to arrest him again, causing another batch of rumors to circulate about him everywhere.

This time he couldn't even contact Meher and had to wait for 6 long hours there before his sister came and got him out.

Talking about his sister, he couldn't even see her at home for long nowadays either, as she got a promotion a few days ago and is now busy learning new stuff at her job. Yesterday she even came home after midnight.

She seemed quite happy with this promotion and when he asked, she swore that there wasn't anyone troubling her or bullying her, but she was just too excited to learn everything as soon as possible, that's why she stayed late for work.

If not for the fact that her boss was a beautiful lady and not some rich second generation horny idiot, he would've urged her to resign immediately.

The owner of his chawl apartment also started threatening to kick them out of their house for beating his nephew, unless Kevin comes forward to apologize to him in front of the whole building.

Kevin wanted to give a slap to the owner who couldn't see the fault of his pampered nephew, but Kiara started apologizing in his stead and in the end he had to give up and bow his head too.

Only then did the fat owner leave him and his sister alone.

But after this incident Kevin swore that he'll make this guy regret his decision. He even wished he could buy this whole chawl and kick this guy out instead.

Just imagining the scene where he could insult this fat bastard and his rainbow spiky haired idiot nephew made him smile.

"But that'll never happen. We don't even have the money to pay the rent due three days later." Kevin said and sighed in his heart, as he remembered how everyone in the society blamed him and his sister, since the ugly wife of that fat pig came forward and increased the rent saying stupid excuses like they lack money for their nephew's treatment and whatnot.

"Man, I wish I had money so I can throw it onto their stupid faces." Kevin said, walking on the road with his hands in his empty pockets.

Not aware that the wheels of fate had just turned in a fast run to arrange a scenario which could end with his wishes being fulfilled.

..

Five minutes later,

A hot girl in a police uniform sitting on her chair, going through the pile of files on her desk, looking quite serious and smart with her every gesture, until a telephone ring broke her focus.

"Hello, this is Bandra Police Station, inspector Sophia speaking. What's your emergency?"