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Vikrant smirks, hangs his shirt over his arm, walks up to Jhankar, and says,

"So your boss talks to you?"

"No… Mr. V can talk to me anytime."

"Mr. V… Mr. Vikrant Dhanraj…"

Jhankar suddenly looks at him, and he bursts out laughing as he starts to walk away. She quickly asks,

"Have you eaten?"

Vikrant, who was about to change his clothes, feels good hearing this question. He turns to look at her and replies:

"Yes."

"Medicines?"

"No… it's not needed."

Jhankar quickly takes the medicines and places them in his hand.

"Take the medicine quickly. There’s no need to do everything according to your wish. It’s not necessary to bear pain all the time. If we have medicine to ease the pain, then it's better to take it. Enduring pain unnecessarily doesn’t make anyone braver."

Vikrant continues to gaze at Jhankar because he finds her words comforting. He puts the medicine in his mouth. Jhankar quickly hands him a glass of water and stands in front of him with an expression as if she herself has taken the medicine, and the bitterness is in her mouth. Seeing her face like that, Vikrantstarts laughing. Jhankar quickly sits on the bed and pulls a duvet over herself to distract him. But Vikrant continues laughing. When he goes inside to change his clothes, he notices that today, the closet is much better arranged than the other day. He checks it thoroughly, hands in his pockets, with a smile constantly on his face. He quickly comes out and tells Jhankar:

"You should have rested. I told you to just rest. I know very well that I don’t like anyone coming into my room. So you must not have called the servants. Then why did you clean the closet?"

"I thought that if I left it even a little messy, you would start fighting with me again. So I did it."

"I haven’t fought with you in a long time—so why did you think that?"

"You can’t be trusted—you suddenly get worked up and start fighting."

"You also enjoy fighting with me. Why don’t you just admit it?"

As soon as Vikrant says this, both look at each other and hold their gaze for a while before he starts laughing loudly. Jhankar knows that Vikrant is still quite injured, so she tells him:

"You should rest. It’s quite late now."

Vikrant nods and immediately lies down in his place. There’s a lot of distance between the two, but today, perhaps, there’s no real distance between them.

~~~~

Jhankar is sitting with Sharda, narrating everything in great detail. Sharda listens happily, and Vikrant, sitting nearby, quietly listens to their conversation. Then Jhankar softly asks Sharda:

"How does he keep going back and forth in silent mode?"

"He’s been like this since childhood."

"Did he fall from your hands in childhood and get hurt somewhere? Did he lose a screw in his brain?"

"You try finding it—if you do, let me know too."

As soon as Sharda finishes, both burst out laughing. Vikrant, who couldn’t hear the full conversation, still understands they’re talking about him. He quietly watches them laughing. When they notice him looking, they immediately stop laughing and resume talking. Just then, it starts raining outside, and Jhankar excitedly tells Sharda:

"I want to bathe in the rain."

Upon hearing her, Sharda glances at her, then at Vikrant, who is also watching her. She winks and says,