Chapter 3

• Hira's POV:
• I collapsed on my bed tired as though I'm a horse that had run a marathon thrice today. I pull my laptop closer. My laptop is the second dearest thing in my life. First is my cell phone which was gifted by a little cousin of mine on passing my Masters Examination. He spent all of his pocket money to buy me this gift. It was very sweet of him so I consider my mobile very dear to me.
• My phone rang and I picked up the call without looking at the caller ID.
• "Assalam o Alaikum." I heard a deep masculine voice of my best friend Hassan.
• "Wallaikum Assalam... I told you not to call me at this time."
• "It's not my fault... I couldn't stop myself from calling you."
• "It's inappropriate to call a girl after midnight, you idiot. What would people say if they know." I said in an angry tone.
• "Are you scared of people knowing our little secret?" He whispered.
• "Shut up...!"
• "Well if you are worried about my family, then you don't have to. Everyone knows that I am talking to you. And about you... Well, it's a universal truth that goody - goody Miss two shoes like you will never go on a wrong path."
• "Oye! Are you making fun of me???"
• "Not at all, your highness. How will I live if I ever make a mistake like making fun of you." And he is back to himself.
• "Hey! You have your fiancé... Go eat her brain. Leave me alone. ....I can't wait anymore.'
• "Wait for what?"
• "I'm downloading a new drama of Kim Soo Hyun. I want to watch it and you are wasting my precious time."
• "Argh! You and your craze for Chinese-dramas." He sounds annoyed.
• "Not Chinese, Korean dramas. It's K-dramas."
• "Yeah, whatever! Go and watch your stupid drama."
• "Good! Allah hafiz."
• "Allah hafiz."
• I put my phone on the side and start watching 'The Producer'. Watching K-dramas is the only thing I do to entertain myself, besides reading and writing stories. But I never allow anyone to read my stories and no one knows that I have this hobby. Well, no one except for Saba, my other best friend and Hassan's fiancé.
• My stories are my dreams. Like other girls have dreams of being a princess and wait for her prince. I have those dreams too and they are very precious to me. But they don't go with my lifestyle. So instead of letting them go by keeping them buried inside my heart, I capture them in my stories.
• I am not a Cinderella, Belle or any other beautiful Disney princess. I am quite the opposite. There is no room in my life to behave like a sweet, innocent fairy tale princess.
• Life is hard and its harder when you are stupid. Therefore, I have done with my stupidities long ago. The truth is, these days relations are as pure and caring as they were before. You will find the hungry elf in the form of human everywhere, waiting to devour you. I don't have to go too far to take an example, just look at my relatives. My mother was the only child of her parents, like me. So I don't have any close relatives from my mother's side. But my father has a huge family and everyone is aiming for a chance to takeover Baba's property.
• I wasn't aware of their motives before and thought their love was genuine. But time proves me wrong, as soon as I realize their intentions, I persuade Baba to move away from his relatives. He was against the idea at first but I managed to change his mind. Now we are living in a small apartment near the hospital for Baba's convenience.
• And now my elder Phuppi (father's sister), pities me and wants my hand for her handsome son. Pretty obvious don't you think? But my father was glad at this, of how much his sister cares about his daughter. Seriously, Baba always thinks with his heart, not with his head.
• Anyway, since the past two weeks, Baba kept asking me for my opinion but I always manage to dodge it. That's the best thing I can do for now.
• I look at the time and realise it's one past two a.m. and I quickly shut close my laptop. I have to go early morning to take Baba's test reports and send my laptop for repair, its sound problem kept on bothering me for a while and who knows, I might be able to see my beautiful stranger somewhere. I smiled on my stupidity and close my eyes.
• Always hope for the good...
• ~
• "Thank you." I say, taking the report from the receptionist. I walked towards the staircase while putting the report in my bag at the same time. I have to take out my umbrella too. It's so hot today and I am really not fond of burning my skin in direct sun.
• So lost in my work, I didn't realize where I was going and accidentally bumped into a man.
• Oh great!
• "So sorry, Sir!" I said without looking at him and walk past. It may be considered rude but I don't think I had the courage to look at him. If it had been a lady, I might have stopped and make sure that she is alright but not when it comes to men... No way.
• But the cologne he used was divine!
• Stepping out of the laboratory, I walk to the bus stand. There is a computer market nearby and I am glad that I don't have to go too far. I took the first bus and reached the market. But when I open my bag to take out my laptop, it wasn't there.
• No way! My love... Where did it go???
• I check my bag three times but didn't even find a single glimpse of my laptop.
• No, no, no... Where did I lose it???
• ~
• Unknown POV:
• What a troublesome girl...
• I stare at her back leaving the laboratory and shook my head. Then my eyes landed on a laptop. I bent down to pick it up.
• Is it hers...? What should I do? Give to the receptionist or return to her myself?
• I shrugged and take it with me. I knocked on a door and went in.
• "Assalam o Alaikum, Ami (mother)." I walk to her bed and kiss her forehead. She looks so weak.
• "Wallaikum Assalam! How are you beta?"
• "Handsome, as usual. You tell how you are?" I smiled.
• "Much better... Beta, I want to go home. I don't want to live here." She smiled back.
• "Yes, Ami you will be discharged tonight."
• "Shakar hai Allah ka (Thank you, Allah)." She said in relief and I smiled. Ami hates hospitals so much.
• "Beta?"
• "Ji (yes)?"
• "What do you have in your hand?"
• "Oh! It's a laptop."
• "You bought a new one?"
• "No, Ami. Actually, when I was coming here, a girl bumped into me and she dropped it. But by the time I noticed it, she was already gone... I am thinking of giving it to the receptionist. If that girl comes here searching, they will hand it over. But I also find it inappropriate to give a girl's laptop to some stranger. Who knows what things she has stored inside. He can use it in the wrong way too, you know." I told Ami the whole story.
• "I never thought that my son would think with such maturity for a female. You're right. Don't give it to the reception. Leave a message that if a girl comes looking for her laptop tell her to contact you. It is the best thing to do." I nodded.
• ~
• I sighed and open that girl's laptop. I didn't want to invade her privacy but I don't have any other choice now. Today when I went to the hospital reception to give them my contact number in case if the owner came looking for it. They informed me that the girl had already left after asking about it. I was late...Well, her bad luck I guess.
• But thinking about how worried she might be for this I decide to use her laptop to find some sort of contact. I repaired her laptop and opened it. To my surprise, she didn't have a password on anything, even all of her social networking IDs have saved passwords.
• What is she, a first ranked idiot???
• Anyone can use it against her. I note down her ID and sent her an e-mail and private massages on every social networking site from my ID. I don't like the idea of using hers.
• I was about to close it when something caught my attention. An Icon on the desktop named 'Buried'.
• Ohhh!
• Without thinking, I open it and start checking. It contained two folders in it named 'wishes' and ' dreams'. My hand moved on its own to open it.
• Don't! It's private...
• My subconscious scolds me.
• I sighed and shook my head. I shouldn't. Putting it on my table, I went out of my room for dinner. But after dinner I found myself opening her 'wishes' folder.
• I am such a moron!
• It was nothing much in this folder except for little wishes like playing with my siblings, sleeping in mother's arm, fighting with brothers, eating Ami's cooking.
• What the hell??? She is really an idiot. Who writes these types of things??
• Disappointed, I planned on closing it but again curiosity got over me and I open her other folder 'Dreams'. There were more files here than the last folder. I click a random file and start reading it...
• ____________________________