It's been three days since we both moved back to the apartment. Arjun and I decided to wait for some days before going to talk with Sharanya.

Srikanth called me today morning and informed me that Sharanya asked him to tell her everything and after listening, she simply packed all her belongings and left the house announcing to my parents that she is moving out. I tried to call her too. She is not lifting my calls at all.

Today is a week off for both of us. I was not feeling well. I had indigestion and did vomiting a couple of times. So Arjun is not letting me come out of my bedroom. He said that he will do all the cooking today. So, here I am lying on the bed and watching friends.

The door opened after some time and Arjun came inside with a tray and walked, scratch that, tiptoed. He was balancing the tray as if his life depended on it. I chuckled seeing that. He seemed like a girl bringing tea in an arranged marriage setting when the groom's side came to see her for the first time.

He then carefully lowered the tray onto the side table and then laid on my bed with a sigh.

"What was that?" I asked him.

"Buttermilk for you. Your second favorite drink. Helps with indigestion. I even added ginger in it", he said proudly and gave it to me.

When I opened the lid of the cup, it does not seem like buttermilk. There are bits of oil floating in it and also there are some chunks along with some ginger pieces that I could not identify.

"Can I drink this?" I asked him suspiciously.

"I don't know. I made it with my best knowledge."

"Did you see any youtube video before making it?", I asked him.

"No. how complicated it can be? It's just buttermilk", he shrugged.

"I think my indigestion will increase after drinking this", I told him.

"Now you are exaggerating. It's not that bad. Drink up", he encouraged me.

"You know what? Tell me how you made it. I will decide whether to drink or not", I kept the cup back on the tray.

He scoffed at that.

"Fine. I took milk and added butter and garlic. Now drink", he huffed at me.

That did it.

I started laughing uncontrollably.

He looked at me as if I sprouted another head.

"Okay. Prank done. Now stop it Anu", he pouted and glared at me.

"Why did you do that? That's not how you make buttermilk", I told him while laughing my ass off.

"Oh. Should I have melted the butter then?" he asked innocently.

I fell off my bed laughing.

"This is becoming a dumb and dumber version of yourself", I coughed while laughing.

"You use curd/yogurt to make buttermilk", I explained through my laughter.

"What?" he seemed shocked and opened his phone and checked the internet.

After two minutes:

"Then why the hell they named it buttermilk if it doesn't have any milk?" saying that he left the room.

Needless to say, I was laughing the whole day. He was sulking the whole day.

***********

I always thought I am a person who can control myself. But, I am wrong.

I can't seem to control my laughter at all since yesterday.

I mean how dumb can one be in this age to not know buttermilk comes from curd?

He is always so calm and cool. I never imagined in my dreams that he can be so cute.

We are right now in the residents' common room and I am bursting into a small giggle whenever I remember the incident. Tanya, Nidhi, Hussain, and I are working on a research paper. They are giving me weird looks because of my laughing.

"Okay. Spill. Now" Tanya asked me irritatedly.

"What?"

"Why are you laughing like a maniac?", she asked. Nidhi and Hussain looked at me curiously.

I shrugged and looked around to find Arjun, Natasha mam, and Dhruv sir discussing something while drinking coffee.

"Come on, tell us", Nidhi too prodded.

"it's nothing. My friend's husband gave her buttermilk. He doesn't know how to make it, so he took its name literally and added butter to milk and called it buttermilk", I explained and everyone laughed at that.

Seeing that, Natasha mam asked us curiously. Tanya proceeded to explain to her and Arjun who was drinking coffee spat it in shock and glared at me.

"How dumb can one be in this day to do that? Right, Arjun?" Natasha mam asked laughing.

He just smiled and said yes glaring at me.

"Excuse me", he left the room.

The next second, I got a text from him ordering me to meet him. So I too gave an excuse and left the room and went to our meeting spot on the terrace.

"Why are you telling that to everyone?" he jumped on me as soon as I reached the terrace.

"No one knows it's you. relax"

"You know, you used to not even utter a word in my presence. Now you are bossing me", he complained.

"Yeah. Those days. I still don't understand why I named you devil. You are too cute to be called the devil", I pinched his cheek.

He slapped my hand away and scoffed at me.

"I still am a devil. Don't provoke me" he made a serious face.

"Yes, sir", I told him laughing.

He scoffed and left the terrace. I too went after him teasing him till we reached the department.

When we went in, only Tanya and Natasha mam were there. She stood upon seeing Arjun and told him that its time to leave and they left leaving Tanya and me alone.

"Where are the others?", I asked her.

"ICU"

"Are you hungry?" I asked her.

"Starving", she replied smiling.

"let's go to the cafeteria. I am hungry too" I told her.

"No my friend. I have a date in about one hour and we are going to a buffet. So, I will devour then", she replied.

"Well, let me check whether Sid or Karthik is free", I took my phone and messaged them.

"You know what? I can't keep it in anymore. You know me. So I will ask directly", Tanya spoke.

I looked at her in confusion.

"I heard that you had lunch with Arjun sir in the cafeteria", she asked. She loves to gossip. But she is a nice person who doesn't know when to speak.

"What? I...Yes...Umm...Sid and Karthik were also there", I answered her in surprise.

"I know that. Even Nidhi and Hussain think something is going on between you two", she told me.

"What?"

"We have eyes Ananya. You think no one knows how you both steal glances at each other. Hell, even the nurses are gossiping about this. Apparently, He was looking at you instead of the patient while you are operating", she informed me.

I just am too shocked to react.

"Look, I am your friend. You are not telling anything. So, you want to conceal this. At least, do a better job at being discreet if you don't want to get caught"

"I....we...there is nothing between us", I told her slowly.

"Whatever floats your boat, sister. Just informing you of the rumor mill. I am getting off work. Bye", she left.

I just sat there not knowing what to do. Everyone is gossiping about us?

Just then Arjun called me.

"Hey"

"Dr. Prasad, there is an emergency case. Come to the emergency ward", he spoke in a formal tone. I am guessing he is in the presence of people.

For the next ten hours he, me, and Natasha mam were busy in the emergency case doing the surgery.

I went to the locker room to change my dress after the surgery. I also retrieved my phone and sat on the bench there while drying my hair. I then opened my phone to see at least 150 missed calls from Sid, Karthik, Kavya, my brother, and literally every person I knew. I immediately panicked about what the hell happened and just then the door burst open and Arjun came.

I then observed my surroundings. Some nurses who were in the locker room with me are looking at us with wide eyes and at the door through which Arjun came in, there are many residents, including some attending physicians.

Uh-oh.

Arjun came near me.

"Where are your purse and other belongings?" he asked me.

"What happened, sir?" I asked him since there are so many people observing us.

"I will ask Nidhi to collect your belongings. We need to go now", he then took my hand and we left the room holding hands.

Everyone is looking at us. As soon as we exited the room, at least five bodyguards surrounded us and guided us outside.

I could make out many familiar faces looking at us with their mouths wide open.

We made out of the hospital and to the parking lot through back door and then stepped into a car which is not Arjun's car.

Once we entered the car, the car immediately zoomed off.

"Care hospitals just announced me and Kavya as the new board members and the future chairpersons of the group", Arjun said angrily.

We both know who did it and he was fuming about it.

There will be a war in his house.