After breakfast, Ankita left with the food container. When she was passing by the Barman-Goswami couple's former house she spotted a boy her age sitting on a recliner deep in thought.
"Hi. You're the ones who moved here right?" She smiled.
Koushik was facing his back to the entrance so someone who was not very familiar would not recognise him, except for hawkeyed fans of course.
Hearing someone's voice he turned his head.
Ankita was shocked.
"Ko... Koushik? You... What are you doing here?"
"Hello to you too. It's as you said we live here now." Koushik smiled back and invited her in.
"Oh really? Then we are neighbours. I live over there." She pointed to the house beside.
"It seems like you're my fated partner," Koushik said with a teasing smile.
Ankita blushed.
"What... what do you mean? What partner? What are you talking about?"
"What else? At school were deskmates and now we're neighbours. Even our houses are right beside each other. If we're not fated partners then what? By the way, why are you blushing? Were you thinking about something else?" Koushik said with an innocent expression trying hard not to laugh.
"Who's blushing? Huh? Who's blushing? And...and I wasn't thinking about anything else, it's just that ... it's just I thought..." Ankita became even more flustered.
"You thought what?" Koushik asked trying to suppress the smile threatening to break out.
"Nothing. I wasn't thinking about anything. Nothing at all. Nuh-uh." Ankita shook her head furiously.
"Hey stop shaking your head so hard. It'll fall off your neck." Koushik held her head to stop.
Ankita was really short, barely reaching his chest. Or that is what it looked like from his point of view.
The watch on her hand created an optical illusion for all the people within ten kilometres of its radius. It made her height look like the one set in the watch. So, despite Olivia's height being 5'11", Ankita looked 5'3" in Koushik's eyes.
Ankita swayed a little, feeling dizzy from shaking her head so hard. Koushik caught her and led to the recliner.
"See? I told you not to shake your head so much."
"Why are you scolding me? You're the one responsible for this. You were the one teasing me." Ankita said in an accusing voice.
"Alright. Alright. It's my fault okay?" He said with a sigh.
"Are you feeling better now?" He asked, his voice laced with concern.
"Mhm." Ankita nodded.
"What's this?" Koushik asked pointing at the container in her hand.
"Oh, this? Baba made a few dishes for the old couple who previously lived here. They were very nice to us. I'm going to visit them and give this while I go. They recently moved to the old-age home so Baba was worried they won't be able to get used to the food provided there so he asked me to bring this." Ankita explained.
"You see these flowers? When I was younger, I often came here to help Mr Goswami grow them. At that time they were just little saplings. Now that I wonder, it's been so long and they have bloomed into such beautiful flowers. And you know, they owned a clothing store that they sold off recently. Mr Barman would give me a new dress for free every Bengali New Year, I was their first customer. How many times have my parents not tried to pay him? He refused every single time. He said I was like his granddaughter and my parents his children so he wouldn't take any money."
A smile formed on her lips as she reminisced.
She kept on talking about her memories with them. Koushik, who usually preferred a quiet environment while working did not mind listening to this cute and funny little deskmate of his.
When Ankita started her story, he sat on the grass cross-legged and looked up at her excited face as she narrated. His lips also curled up unconsciously.
In the middle of it, Ankita suddenly slapped her forehead saying, "Oh Goddess, I completely forgot! I was going out for some important work but look at me, chatting here. Bye Koushik, see you next time. I've got to go."
She jumped up from the recliner and ran out.
"Bye." Waving one last time, she sprinted off.
Koushik laughed at her antic. He looked at the pen and tablet in his hand. Earlier when Ankita called him, he was actually in the middle of writing the lyrics of the new song that Antariksha would be releasing during summer vacation.
Usually, their band released five singles a year and an album of three songs on the English New Year. But the company decided to only release singles during the summer vacation and Puja vacation for these three years so they can focus on graduation. And also on experiencing the school life they missed during trainee days.
Being the lyricist of Antariksha, the initial pressure fell on his shoulders for writing the song then passed on to Bikram, who composed the music and ultimately Rishi the main dancer and choreographer. One of the main reason behind their popularity was that from lyrics to music to choreography, they did everything from scratch themselves. The company only aided in perfecting their creations.
Before Ankita arrived, Koushik was stuck thinking about the second half of the song. However her sudden arrival triggered a burst of inspiration.
He quickly noted it down, mumbling to himself "This girl is truly an exotic piece. Came like a hurricane, went away like a tornado. Well, at least this cyclone helped me complete the lyrics else Miss Gupta would have scolded the volcano out of me. Oh wait, why am I studying geography now?"
'Oh Goddess! Seems like she rubbed off her habit of going off-topic at the drop of a hat on me.' he facepalmed.
'Whatever I love how she's always so full of energy. Could probably run a turbine and generate electricity with it.'
"..."
"Argh! Now I really need to focus on writing."