Charms

Surbhi returned to the room with a small, fancy box in her hands. As soon as Nitya saw the package, she ran to her best friend to grab the packet excitedly. Surbhi followed her as she rushed towards the dining table, having acquired the package. The two of them opened the parcel and Nitya screamed with joy after seeing the contents of the box. It was a charm bracelet she had long had her eyes on, along with a handwritten note that said 'Congratulations on getting admission into your dream college, kiddo! Keep going, lot's of love.' There were three more bracelets in there: she knew the black one was for her, the blue one was definitely for Surbhi, and the silver ones had been sent for her brothers. She handed out the bracelets with the same excitement and joy as a five year old kid sharing her chocolates with her friends and feeling proud of her sharing nature, praising herself for being a good girl!

Mehul took the bracelet, grabbed Nitya's shoulders and sat her on the chair and ordered, "Now finish your food within five minutes, I will be recording the time; all of you, sit down and finish your food!"

The three of them sat down and had their dinner quietly. Dinner conversation was pretty subdued after the chaos that had broken out earlier, Mukul reminded Surbhi that they might have to leave a little early the next day due to traffic, and so she better be ready by afternoon. Mehul took this opportunity to elaborate on his rules for leaving Nitya alone, and informed her that she had to present her research paper in front of her class the next day, so she also needed to practice for it and he would be picking her up from their apartment in the morning, so that she didn't get late.

The boys got up to leave, having said their goodbyes. After she had cleaned up, Nitya went inside her room, only to find the three of them standing behind the door, laughing. She screamed out of shock, then whined "What the hell! How can you guys scare me like this?"

"It is known as a surprise, pretty girl, in case you didn't know!" Mukul chuckled loudly at her reaction.

"Oh yeah ! Really ? I would definitely accept this as a pleasant surprise if you hadn't put the posters of those celebrities on the wall of my precious room!"

"Come on Nikki, why do you hate them so much? They are also human, aren't they? And isn't this your oft-quoted line, that you always treat people just as people- without needing to know their gender identity, religion, caste or anything!? And the other thing which you always make a note of, is that every work is important and every profession is good as long as it is legal. Then, why do you hate celebrities so much?" Surbhi blurted out in one breath, as this was the only question she had never known the answer to, and it was something she had always wanted to know about her best friend.

"I don't hate them, neither do I hate the profession per se. I just hate the cameras that are hung in front of their faces 24*7 , and the lack of privacy they are afforded. I know the fault lies in the media personnel as well as the crazy fans who apparently demand to know every tiny detail of their lives. Everytime I see that, I want to yell at everyone to please leave them alone, they also have a life of their own! But anyway, please remove these from my room ASAP! I am still shocked about why you guys would do this to me?"

"Sorry Niku, Surbhi and Mukul wanted to prank you; so they put this stuff in your room, along with your actual gifts."

"GIFTS!" Nitya's eyes widened after hearing the word. She asked incredulously, "How many gifts am I going to get today? And, more importantly, where are they?!" She looked around with her eyes wide open, scanning her own room; while Mukul was taking pictures of his little sister. 'It was a different matter that she had never accepted the fact that he was older than her, and nor did he foresee any chance of that happening in the future!'

He sighed, as she gave a cute toothy grin, holding three new packages in her hand. "I got all of them! Let me see- one is from mumma, one from daddy and one is from Suro and Mukul...I love everyone so much!" She then sat on her bed, crossing her legs and put all three packages on her lap. She started opening them one-by-one and was so engrossed that even the loud laughter in the room was unable to distract her. But as soon as she had successfully unwrapped everything, she looked up and found the trio laughing, pointing to something on Mukul's phone.

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL LAUGHING AT?" She asked, miffed at not being included.

"Look, you can be such a perfect actress! See, you are a natural model; I mean, you have never had to diet to maintain your body, your features are awesome and your expressions are brilliant! All this, when these pictures are candid; can you think how amazing they'll turn out when you will do this on purpose?" Surbhi explained, turning the screen to face Nitya, her eyes flashing with excitement.

"Come on Suro, not again! How many times do I have to repeat that I am not conventionally beautiful, then why do you guys bring this topic up? And another thing, I am not made for the glamorous lifestyle- that's not my cup of tea!" She was still going on and on about her thoughts on the subject, when Mukul and Mehul intervened.

"Niku, how many times do I need to tell you that you are beautiful!" Both of them spoke out at the same time, with the same tempo.

"And how many times do I need to explain that you both find me beautiful because I am your sister! And Suro, before you object, you find me beautiful because I am your best friend. But that's not how everyone views me, and neither should anyone be expected to do so." Nitya replied with a stern smile, declaring the topic closed.

"And how many times do I need to tell you that MY TWIN CAN'T BE UGLY?" Mukul shouted over her reasoning.

"AND HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REMIND YOU TO STUDY BIOLOGY AGAIN, SO THAT YOU CAN FINALLY UNDERSTAND THAT YOU AND I ARE FRATERNAL TWINS AND OUR SKIN COMPLEXION AND FACE DOESN'T RESEMBLE EACH OTHER'S!" . Nitya shouted back in reply, her face red with the effort. She then exhaled loudly and said "You look more like Mehul bhaiya's twin than mine, anyway!"

Mehul was standing aside, remembering how her complexion had darkened quite a lot after the analgesic incident in her infancy. As she was growing up, society had continually made her accept that she was not beautiful in their eyes. Despite their efforts to shield her from those comments and to invalidate them, none of them had been able to convince her after that. She always ended up changing the topic, or yelling that she was not pretty and not only did she know this fact well, but also that she was perfectly happy about it!

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Ji-hun woke up again- just a few minutes after they had left, after dreaming about the girl sleeping peacefully in front of him. He opened his eyes and sat up. "Indeed, she is the most beautiful girl in the entire world!" He whispered to himself with a soft smile.

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