Kanika's POV
"Why do we need to contact the original author?" I questioned, awkwardly trying to find the reason behind that urgency.
"So that we can discuss the plagiarism and how they want to deal with it," he stated as if it were a matter of fact. Well, it is true that an author should know what is happening with their work, but…
'I already know it merko mera hi bata ke kya karega? Par iski bhi glti nahi hai, isse thori malum hai ki original author or mai same person hai.' I cried to myself when something came to me.
('I already know it. What will he do by telling me all of it? But well, he also is not at fault, he doesn't know that the original author and I are the same person.')
"How are we supposed to contact the original author?" I asked with curiosity, knowing that they don't actually have any way to contact Kitsune.
"Hmm well about that we know that Kitsune publishes online so we should check for their Instagram or something like an email through the sites where she uploads and try to contact through that but still considering the fact that we don't have any solid contact information there are chances we might not be able to get in touch with her immediately so we will make sure that we get the compensation that is worth her efforts" Aarav has already articulated through different situations. Suddenly, his face turned sour.
"What happened? Why such a bad face?" I wanted to know who or what had this power of making him change his expression this badly.
"That Rahul guy, I am personally gonna make sure that the thought of stealing someone's art never even crosses his mind EVER AGAIN, fucker." he cursed him.
'I guess this is going to continue for a few days until it's fully settled.'
Now my job was to go through sites where Kitsune had published their work and find an email or instagram to contact them through which if I wanted to, I could have just given away but well I just choose to dilly dally for 5-10 minutes before jumping from my seat with a huge grin on my face like I have succeeded in a great task when in reality I was just reading the new updated chapter of my favourite webnovel.
"Found it," I went to Aarav again with a proud smile, with the email and Instagram ID I use for kitsune and publishing webnovels.
"Oh, finally, good job. I will send her an email immediately." I just nodded and got back to my seat as his fingers worked on his keyboard in a rhythm. I just sat there and watched him work, as I didn't have any more work for myself for the day, so I started packing my stuff.
"Kanika," Aarav called out my name with a soft tone, and I turned to look at him. He continued, "Will you wait for me for 5 mins? Let me wrap this up, and well, maybe not a celebration but still a normal dinner together should work fine, right? Later, I can drop you off at your place." He offered with a soft smile, I too agreed to it and waited for him.
-After 20 minutes-
Aarav's POV
"Kanika, I am finally done. Sorry to keep you waiting." I apologised as I started packing, too. I had told her to wait just for 5 minutes, but it just stretched too long.
"Kanika?" I looked at her in the absence of a response. She had fallen asleep on the sofa while waiting for me.
I quietly made my way towards her with slow steps and sat near her sleeping figure. Her head leaned back on the sofa, and her breathing was soft and calm. It's rare to see her this relaxed. A strand of hair fell on her face. I slowly raised my hand to tuck it behind her ear. She seemed so peaceful and at rest, but unfortunately, I had to wake her up for food. Looks like I will just have to order it here. I will let her sleep a bit more and wake her up when the food is here.
15 minutes later, the food was finally here. In the meantime, while waiting for food, I just sat there near her sleeping figure and counted her breathing as she slept. I didn't mean to do it; it just so happened. She breathed 210 times in those 15 minutes— 210 times her chest rose and fell. I started matching her breathing pace, feeling so complete to even breathe the same air that she lets go of.
"Kanika," I softly breathed her name to wake her up. My rough knuckles came in contact with the warm, soft skin of her cheeks.
"Kanika," I called her again while patting her head gently, "food is here, wake up."
"Uhmm," she slowly stirred and blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to the lights, and turned to look at me.
"Aarav?" she asked with a confused look, her eyebrows knitted together.
"Yes, my sleeping beauty," I responded in a teasing manner. That's when it fell on her that she was still in office as her eyes shot open completely, and she looked around and sat up straight to tidy her clothes and hair.
'Not as she needed, she was looking beautiful even like this'.
"Sorry, I just slept while waiting for you. Come to think of it, for how long did I even sleep?" she apologized while being shy, but soon after, her face turned into one of shock.
"I slept for almost an hour, and you didn't even wake me up!?" she pointed at the time on her phone screen, which was 07:49 pm.
"Weren't we supposed to go for dinner?" She remembered as she stood up in a hurry to leave.
"Hey," I held her hand to stop her from leaving. "The food is already here. I ordered it." I pulled her slightly, making her sit back, but this time a little closer to me.
"You could have woken me up earlier," she said softly.
"You looked too peaceful to wake up, and you have told me before how irritated you get if woken up in between naps without immediate tea or something to eat." She got shy at my statement and just looked away. I started setting the table.
"Let me help," she extended her hand to help, but I hushed her down and continued to set our plates and serve her. Her eyes lit up at the sight of her favourite dish, butter naan, and kadhai paneer.
"Here, start eating, it's your favourite." I put the plate in front of her, she takes a morsel from the naan and takes a piece of paneer on it, her face becomes even brighter, and she does a mini happy dance and continues to eat.
That mini dance is enough to tell me that she liked it.
I take out my phone and click a photo of her, but she notices it and turns to look at me. Her smile disappears, and shyness covers her face once again. She gulps down the bite she had in her mouth and shouts, "HEY, I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO IT."
She tries to take away my phone, but I just stand away and hold the phone up high. She comes close to me, trying to reach the phone. Even though she is 5'7 ft tall, she is still not tall enough to reach the phone if I keep my hand high enough.
"AARAVVV," she tried to grab my hand, but could only grab the rolled-up sleeves of my shirt.
Suddenly, she stopped and went a bit away from me and pinched her nose like she smelled something really bad.
"Ewww, Aarav." She just stepped back while fanning around her nose.
"What? What eww?" I asked in confusion. I unconsciously sniffed around me to check for smells, but there was none.
"Do you not bathe? It's coming from you." She pointed at me, leaving me stunned by her words.
"HUH? " IT'S COMING FROM ME?" I pointed at myself in disbelief, and she just nodded with a eww still glued to her face. I started sniffing myself, but there was no smell. All I could smell was the perfume I sprayed on myself this morning.
Now I hear her chuckling and giggling like crazy. I look at her laughing out loud on the sofa with my phone in her hands when I realize it was all just a trick, and my phone is really gone. She teases me with a smug smile plastered on her face as she presses the delete button of her photo, which I just took of her. I move to her, but not fast enough.
"You little trick master." I am actually impressed how she took away my phone like this, she deleted the photo and handed me my phone back, and resumed eating, still giggling about it.
"But seriously, do you not take a bath? Did you look at yourself, how you immediately started sniffing yourself?" She joked as she chewed down her food.
"Haha, very funny, I bathe every day, and I also use expensive perfumes." I gave her a side eye, even when I was actually enjoying it on the inside. She looked cute and cheerful; her laugh would sound like music to my ears.
"I am not like you," I teased her back, earning a playful punch from her on my biceps, not like those small fists can hurt me, though sometimes it really hurts when she is annoyed, and I still tease her, 'Well, I guess I deserve it at those times.'
"I bathe every day, too, okay," she huffed at me and filled her mouth with a bigger bite this time.
"Now, now, if you keep being like this, you might end up cho-"
"KUFF KUFF," I immediately bring a glass of water near her mouth while patting her back to calm down her coughing.
"I haven't even completed my sentence, and look what happened." I rubbed her back.
"Fine now?" I asked with a concern-laced tone and wiped her face.
"Yups, thanks, hehe" she flashed her most innocent yet cheeky smile to me.
"Now be careful," she just nodded as she ate smaller bites now, and I resumed eating too.
"Well, Kanika," She hummed, "according to you, what kind of punishment does Rahul deserve?" I was interested in knowing her response to it.
"Bash his head to the wall," she responded, making my mouth hang open, I guess thanks to our body structure, but if it wasn't the way it is, my jaw might have fallen off to the floor.
"When are you gonna stop with this (bash the enemy's head to the wall) solution?" I sighed in disbelief. No matter what kind of inconvenience it is, she is always ready with her (bash the enemy's head to the wall) solution.
"Best solution to every problem," she stated proudly, like it was some universal all-in-one solution.
"And yet someone talks it all out with a fake professional smile while crashing out 10 times a day to me about it." Though she does give violent and aggressive ideas, she herself was actually a very calm person.
'Well, calm is not the word for her, but at least she knew how to keep control in certain situations.'
She would talk out and clear the whole inconvenience and find logical solutions to it, but her crash-outs were real, and sometimes it did feel like bashing heads against the wall was a great idea.
'But well, we need to show decorum and sophistication. right.'
"But well, we need to show decorum and sophistication, right?" She responded as if she had just read my mind, but I know she can't read minds because if she could, then she wouldn't be sitting here with me eating dinner in a cabin or in a building that is almost empty by now, or even close her eyes in my presence.
"Getting a good compensation on it and making sure that he doesn't think of stealing again is good enough for now in my opinion, but if he tries it again, it would be appropriate to get him restricted from this industry," she stated calmly, thinking it through. Her food was finished now.
"Here, have this, and then I will drop you home, ok?" I handed her a bowl of gulab jamun, and a big grin spread across her face once again.
Now we were in my car on the way to drop her off at home, and she yawned.
"Tired?" I asked. She nodded while looking out of the window.
"You seemed tired in the morning, too. Didn't sleep yesterday?" I inquired as I remembered yesterday's scene of her notifications on Anant's phone.
"Did but late," her replies got short, showing her lack of energy.
"Why?" I pressed more on it.
"Ese hi," she didn't want to answer, but my jealousy got the best of me.
("For no reason.")
"Ese hi? Or were you busy talking with Anant?" I regretted it as soon as the words left my mouth, but it was too late to take them back.
Her face turned to look at me in disbelief, like I had said something forbidden. She took out her phone and showed me the chat. I stopped the car in a corner and took the phone from her hand, and she started looking out the window again. I checked the name of the person, Anant. It was their chats from the other night before she blocked him.
"So basically the whole thing was about him trying to take you to the party?" She just shrugged her shoulders in response.
I looked through the chats a bit more and stopped on an unexpected sentence, "I might just go with Aarav at this point, he is way better than you, a dumbass who doesn't know when to stop being annoying. Even he listens when I tell him something." I read out loud her final response to his pursuit and just stared at it for a few seconds.