18 Zipping the zipper.

"Hey you. Yes, you, come here," the senior guy who was responsible for the drama called after Rohan, who was painting a tree's bark.

Rohan pointed to himself and when the senior nodded, he stepped forward. "Yes?"

The senior wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, scowling at the blank space where Li Shang should be standing. "I don't know where the kid playing the damn male lead disappeared to and since this drama is total shit, I don't want to waste any more time waiting for that useless punk," he said and shoved Li Shang's costume against Rohan's chest. "Go, wear this costume. You're going to be Li Shang and help with the rehearsal till my boys go and find Ryan. I'm seriously going to kill that kid."

Everyone shrugged and returned to their work. Only Rohan and I looked taken aback.

This was so great.

After Rohan was in Li Shang's costume, the rehearsal resumed. Rohan, with the script on one hand and the other hand stretched towards me, started saying his lines. It was pure agony, to be honest.

After yesterday's nuzzling session and my cringeworthy reply of “I'm home, roomie,” I went back to room 236. But guess Rohan had other plans since he didn't show up for the entire night. Just for the few minutes when I was trapped between his long hands, I’d really thought he had feelings for me. The way he’d looked at me, the way he’d leaned on me, the way he’d rested his forehead on mine, the way he’d breathed on my ears, my cheeks... lips— I really, really, really thought he liked me back.

But just as every bad boy lead disappears after hooking up with the girl, Rohan disappeared, too.

NO! I'm not saying Rohan and I... ew, but I did show up my most vulnerable self to him. God, I let him touch me! I'd never let even Danuj, who was engaged to me, do that and he didn't show up in front of me after playing with my feelings and hormones like that.

"Uthra! Say your lines with more emotion!"

"Yes, anna," I muttered and started reciting my lines without meeting Rohan Chakravathy's eyes.

Maybe he's regretting it. Maybe now he thinks I’m dirty.

But he called you cute.

Yeah... then why would he—

"Hey scoundrel, can you look at his eyes and say it?! God, you guys are giving me grey hair already!"

"Anna, even without the grey hair, you sound like a grumpy grandpa," I muttered back. "Just give us a break already. We've been going at this for more than two hours."

"You dare talk to me like that? You're dea—"

"But he's right," Rohit interrupted. He was also one of the technicians. "We all deserve a break after rehearsing for this... pathetic excuse of a drama. Like, don't you know this is going to blow up for sure?"

"Shut up," the senior yelled. "Rehearsal will continue tomorrow."

"I want to punch Hrithik for making us look after a bunch of buffoons," he muttered as he stomped out of the practice area. Without another glance at Rohan or anyone from the drama team, I hurried out of the room to get to the storage room where I usually changed from Mulan's clothes back into mine. On my way to the storage room, I ran into Hrithik-anna, who asked me about the rehearsal and mainly about how it was going with Rohan. I just replied with “the usual” and started for the storage room as quick as possible since I never knew when the guys might come there to dump something useless. Once inside the room, I locked the door and started to get out of Mulan's costume.

I tried hard not to rip the poor excuse of a cheongsam the way Ryan had torn the Li Shang costume. Along with the costume, I was provided with, er, innerwear that had padding at the right places, but since I was actually a girl and I didn't need them, I had hidden them in a stack of broken benches. God, I felt like a cheap scoundrel for doing stuff like that. Taking the padding and rolling it in between the costumes, I started dressing in ordinary clothes.

From time to time, I glanced back at the door but I realised that that was a huge mistake when I felt the zip in my vest get stuck.

I looked down to see the zip only halfway up. It was tangled with my shirt, which I had spread across my shoulders as a safety measure to try and make sure no one saw me. "Shit shit shit," I mumbled, trying to pull the zipper up, but it wouldn't budge, and the harder I tried, the more it looked like I would pull the zipper right out of the vest itself.

Seriously, how do I manage to get myself into these situations?

Cursing my stupidity, my hands worked on freeing the hem of the shirt from the zipper, but it froze when I heard a frantic knock on the door.

Double shit.

I stopped breathing for a moment as if it was the biggest noise ever and as if my silence would make whoever was standing on the other side go away.

Knock knock.

Sweat beaded on my forehead and I stepped back, back, till my body hit the wall. My breathing grew more rapid and I was close to panting as I waited for them to leave. Again they knocked and tears started to well up in my eyes. I looked down at how inappropriate I looked and how I could do nothing to cover myself.

After all these months, this was how I was going to be found out.

"Damn it, Uthra," a voice hissed and I slumped down to the floor in relief, though the rapid breathing and the tremors which shook my body didn't stop. "It's just me. I saw you get in. Open the door before they come."

Before they come. That made me spring back to action, and covering my shoulders as best as I could with the shirt tangled with my vest, I opened the door.

Rohan stumbled in as if he was leaning on the door all along.

He glared at me. "What were you doing for so long without opening? That senior got tired of us and threw a fit, saying that he doesn't want to do anything with that stupid drama, and asked the guys to dump all the materials in the store room!" I was taken aback at what he said. "They'll be here any moment! Why are you standing like a statue? Get changed already!"

"Do you think I'm standing here by my choice without zipping up this damn vest which conceals my femininity?" That's when Rohan's eyes lowered down and the next second, he turned back around, his cheeks, ears, and neck blazing red and with hands covering his eyes.

"Put on a shirt!"

"If you didn't notice, that's what I've been trying to do for 5 minutes! It's stuck, genius."

I huffed as I pulled the zipper up yet again. "C'mon..."

I felt Rohan turn back towards me and a slow blush crept it's way onto my cheeks as I kept pulling the zipper up.

"C-can I try?"

I glanced up as if he was an utter idiot. "What?"

"You don't seem to be getting it free and I asked if whether I could try it. If it doesn't work at all... I guess you've got to remove the vest and wear my shirt."

Huffing in annoyance, I stepped forward and gestured. "Good luck."

Rohan stretched his hands hesitantly and slowly got hold of the zipper, his eyes closed all the while.

"Hurry up, will ya? You were the one who was jumping about 'them' dumping the supplies here," I replied sarcastically. Can you blame me? I was angry. I was angry at him for how he’d rubbed up against me. I was angry at how I let him flirt. And I was really angry at how even after all that, my heart still beat fast at the very sight of this guy.

"I am hurrying up," he replied, exasperated, and gestured towards me, "th-this is just not helping if you hadn't noticed."

I swallowed, trying really hard not to feel like I wanted to crawl into a hole. "It's just a little cleavage," I muttered, trying to calm both of us, "nothing extreme. Haven't you seen actresses' cleavage before?" Rohan didn't reply as he continued trying to get the zipper free. Unlike me, he wasn't focused on pulling the zipper up. Instead, he was focussed on getting the hem out of the zipper.

Right when I thought finally the zipper was going to be free, the door creaked open.

A half-swallowed scream escaped my mouth before I could stop it, and with a deadly glare at me, Rohan pulled the both of us behind the stack of benches.

"Did you hear that?" a voice asked.

"Hear what?" a second voice asked.

"It heard like a squeal or something," voice number one replied, confusion evident in his voice.

Rohan pushed me down and he crouched in front of me so that he shielded me. He removed his shirt and gave it to me.

"Wear it," he whispered, and I stared back at him in utter shock.

Did he seriously just give me his shirt?

"No one comes here," voice number two said, "maybe it was a rat or something."

"Hmm, maybe."

"What're you staring at?" Rohan hissed, glaring at me.

In the background, I could hear the commotion of people putting away the materials for the play.

"You don't expect me to just change in front of you when you're breathing down my neck!" I stopped embarrassed. "Both literally and figuratively."

Rohan opened his mouth to give a counter but I guess he figured out what I said was true.

"Women," he grumbled as he swatted my hands away and once again got hold of the zipper. Gritting his teeth and with eyes turned towards the entrance where the guys were unloading cardboard trees and stuff, he tugged at the zipper and just like that, it gave way and zipped up.

My jaw fell open. That was it? And to think I let him see my cleavage and let his hands near my chest... can I go puke already? As I was drowning in my own humiliation and embarrassment, Rohan buttoned up the first two buttons, which pulled me back to reality. "Back off," I barked and buttoned the rest down, but I guess I was teeny weeny bit loud because the guys stopped their work and turned towards the stack of benches.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah."

And even though there was nothing to worry about since I looked totally like a guy at present, I backed into the wall. But Rohan stood up.

"Got it, yes!" he half-yelled, and that made the guys halt.

"Rohan?" Guy number one called, confused, "what're you doing here?"

"Was searching for my ring and found it," he said with a grin. He then turned towards my crouching figure and called me out. "And my mate Uthra was helping me find it."

The guys looked confused. "Why didn't you answer when we asked if anyone was there?"

"You did?" Rohan looked genuinely surprised and suddenly Hrithik-anna's poker face flashed in my mind.

Family full of actors worthy of Oscars. Right.

"Alright, we gotta get going," Rohan said and gripped my hand forcefully as he pulled me up. "See ya around," he said with a smile before hurrying out of the storage room without stopping once. After we were on the path leading towards the dorm, Rohan let out a breath I didn't know he was holding. "Thank god, that was close."

Instead, I said the one thing that was bothering me. "You could let go of my hand."

Rohan looked at me in disbelief before letting it go. "Seriously? That's the only thing you could say?"

"Yes."

"Unbelievable."

"I know, right." We remained in silence till we reached the room with 236 in glossy print on the door. I went straight to my bed and sat down.

Now that I thought about it, yesterday and today had been extremely draining considering how... close Rohan and I got. A good evening and night of sleep wouldn't hurt. Slumping onto my bed, I closed my eyes.

"Hey Uthra?" a voice called when I had drifted quite a bit into sleep.

"Yeah?" I asked, scowling, and Rohan looked back with an amused smile. How I'd love to wipe that constant amused smirk of his off his face.

"I just realised I forgot to tell you something that I've planned to tell you for quite some time."

"And that is?"

"Oh, nothing much. I love you too."