III – Taunts
"What the hell?!"
Surya arched an eyebrow upon hearing his brothers outcry, while he sat down on his chair. Opposite him, Param was eyeing his plate with sheer disgust. He looked like as if was about to throw the plate on someone's head...not such an absurd imagination of Param.
"Who did cook this?"
Confused, Surya glanced to his older brother, Kauldeep, who, noticing his gaze, shrugged unknowingly. He wasn't served yet, either, therefore they had no clue what had gotten into Param.
"Calm down, dear." his mother tried a helpless attempt to get a hold of Param's anger. "It isn't that bad."
"Not that bad?!" Param was nearly screaming by now. "Are you kidding? This isn't even eatable!"
"What is this all about?" Rana interrupted his sons ranting harshly, when he took the seat at the front of the table. "Why are you shouting?"
"Bauji, look at this!" Like a child with an arrogant expression Param showed the content of his plate to his father. "Someone's trying to poison us!"
"Eww, what?" Disgusted, Rana touched something that had a dirty brown colour, it seemed to be liquid. By now, Surya could even smell it – earth and something burnt. Really, not appetitive. "Who's responsible for this?" Angrily, his father looked over to his mother who had started to play nervously with her fingers.
"Who probably do you think?" It wasn't his mother who answered the question, but his father's mistress who seemed to be amused by all this. "You didn't want us to cook – but your new daughter-in-law."
I don't believe this, Surya thought, feeling like smacking his hand at his forehead. Now, he had his proof, that this girl was more than stupid – and a terrible cook for that, too.
"Where is she?" his father demanded to know, suppressing his anger. "Jhanvi!"
Not even one second after this, Jhanvi tapped behind his mother a mischievous glint in her dark eyes. That caused Surya to wonder whether the girl did such a bad cooking on purpose. If so, stupid wasn't a description for her anymore.
"What is this?" Rana asked, showing her Param's plate.
Firstly glancing at it, Jhanvi shrugged, an innocent smile appearing on her lips. "Breakfast?" Her smile faded slightly upon seeing Rana's furious face, yet it didn't disappear. "You guys don't like it? I tried my best to cook it for you!"
"Are you kidding?" Surya raised his own voice before anyone else had even a chance to do so. "Do you call this breakfast?"
"Well, your father wanted me to cook, didn't he?" Jhanvi explained herself, smiling at him. "It's not my fault that I can't cook."
"You're joking, right?" he heard himself ask, not believing Jhanvi's words. "You're a woman, you should have learned how to cook."
She eyed him annoyed, not pretending her sweet attitude any further, and crossed her arms on her chest. "Only you can give such a low comment."
"What do you want to say with that?" he growled, while pushing his chair back and standing up. "I made a simple statement – being a woman you should know how to cook. What kind of mother doesn't teach her daughter cooking?"
"Firstly, don't your dare to bring my mother in!" Jhanvi hissed and pointed her forefinger towards him. "Secondly, I don't think you're in a state of telling me what a mother should teach her daughter! At first, understand what exactly a mother is, then we can talk about other things."
"You-"
"That's enough!" Rana interrupted their little argument, giving Surya a reassuring glance. Though, this didn't make his anger better, but he knew better than disobeying his father. "Seems like you don't know how to behave in front of your in-laws." he turned to Jhanvi. "We, in Veerpur, don't accept such a behaviour from our women. It doesn't look good if you raise your voice in front of your husband." Rana had cooled down and was grinning at Jhanvi, who didn't met his gaze. "Now, I think there won't be any breakfast for us, but" he looked over to his wife, warningly. "if something like that happens again, I'll make sure to punish you. After all, you should be guiding your daughter-in-law, shouldn't you?"
Gritting his teeth, Surya sent one last deadly glance to Jhanvi before he turned around and vanished towards the house exit.
~*~
"Sorry." Jhanvi whispered guiltily, while she watched the Takurain cleaning up the dishes. As no one had eaten, there wasn't much to do besides what Jhanvi used to cook her mass. Ignoring the fact that she kind of planned to ruin the breakfast, it was true that she had no idea about cooking. Not really. When living with her mother, there was no need to learn it. No one expected it from her, and after moving to their old house, it had been Diya and her Taiji's who did it. Therefore she didn't even have to do anything wrong on purpose – it just happened.
But hence, how could've she known that Rana would blame everything on his wife?
"It's okay." the Takurain assured her, smiling a little. "I'm used to get blamed for things I didn't do myself."
"Really?" Jhanvi blinked surprised. This sounded...bad. Although, she knew that no woman would have a happy life in this house, it was weird that even the Takurain, as Rana's wife, wasn't much respected. "And your sons? Do they just watch when Rana humiliates you?" No matter what kind of humans those three were, which child could bear his mother's humiliation?
The Takurain paused, seeming to think about something. A sad shadow shooed over her face for a second, but vanished immediately. "You don't have to watch me working." she tried to change the topic, before continuing.
Jhanvi understood and went out, letting her some privacy.
~*~
Shit.
Mid-way frozen, Jhanvi stood like a statue in the door to her new room, her eyes widening in pure shock. Her cheeks heated slightly of embarrassment. An equal surprised Surya returned her staring, with a little difference in their situations: Surya was shirtless. Jhanvi had a free sight on his light-brown skin, she could see each of his abdominal muscles – which were quiet a few. As it seemed, he'd just taken off his white shirt, another in a greyish colour already laying on his bed.
After Janvi realised, what exactly she was doing, right now, she put her hands over her face – instinctively.
"Don't tell me" Surya hissed angrily, she could hear the rustling of clothes. "you never learned knocking on others doors before entering, as well!"
"Uhm, well." Jhanvi stuttered dumbfounded, trying to collect herself. "Y-you know...uhm...as this, as this is my room, too-"
"Oh, don't mention this crap!" Surya snorted unnerved. "Stupid girl."
"Jhanvi." she told him seriously. "I have a name, you know." She could clearly imagine Surya rolling his eyes at this, though he didn't answer her. But she felt him brushing her shoulder, when he was standing beside her.
"And you should know, that I don't need ages to change."
And he was gone, leaving a stunned Jhanvi behind who looked sceptical after him. Yeah, this guy was really weird.
"Did you piss him off, again?"
Furrowing her eyebrows, Jhanvi saw Param coming towards her, just after Surya was out of sight. She didn't like Param, he had a disturbing aura around him. And even now, the way he was looking at her made Jhanvi uncomfortable. And the huge grin of his face – as if he'd completely forgotten the morning's incident.
What did he want?
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Hey guys! 😉
I know, it took a while for this updeat - sorry for that 😳 But school's being really stressful 😭 Like, I planned to finish the chapter yesterday, but my preperations for a presentation in social studies got my whole time 😵 And w/ next week, my exams will start - therefore I can't promise regular updeats 🤓
Nonetheless, I hope you guys liked this chapter, though nothing really happened 😳 W/ the next one the story'll move forwards 😉
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