🍁chapter fourteen 🍁

Mona was sitting at her desk, outside Rudra's office and doing her work. This floor was even much quieter compared to Shan's floor.

"Shit... What am I doing here? And when did I even get here?" As soon as realisation hit Shantanu, he cursed himself.

Mona senses someone's eyes so she stopped her work, as soon as Mona turned her head toward the stairs, Shantanu quickly ducked down. "OMG, I almost got caught," he whispered, placing a hand on his chest to support himself. His breathing was uneven, so he stayed there for a while to calm himself. However, just as he was about to lift his head again to glance at Mona, he noticed a pair of feet near him.

"Mr. Shantanu, why are you sitting on the stairs?"

Hearing Mona’s questioning tone that too closely, Shantanu squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

"Miss Mona, how did she get here?" he muttered to himself, meanwhile Mona was looking at him with suspicious eyes."Mr. Shantanu, what are you doing here?" Mona looks at Shantanu strangely when she sees him mumbling to himself and making weird faces.

Shantanu slowly stood up and smiled awkwardly. "Miss Mona, uh, I got lost and accidentally ended up here." He rubbed the nap of his neck in nervousness.

Hearing shantanu's excuse, Mona now genuinely believed, he is a lunatic. Since the day he joined the company, he has been doing intensely or intentionally something that drew everyone's attention toward him, even if they don't want it,. Most surprising of all that even Rudra’s scolding didn’t seem to affect him. If Rudra's reprimands had made any impact on him then he wouldn’t have been wandering around like this as a while ago he was scolded for fooling around and not attending the meeting on time. What is he, a child, getting lost in the office after being here for over a month?

"Sorry, I’ll leave now. I have a lot of work to do," Shantanu said hurriedly and tried to flee from there, but what Mona said next froze him in place.

"You can't go. Rudra sir has seen you and asked you to come to his office."

"Whattttt?" Shantanu exclaimed in shock.

"How did the boss find out? Are you some kind of superwoman, informing him so quickly and then coming here too ? "

Mona struggled to suppress her laughter to maintain professionalism. "Mr. Shantanu, why don't you ask Rudra sir yourself? " she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Ahhhh, I don’t want to go to him! He just scolded me so badly a while ago. I can’t handle more scolding now," Shantanu whined like a child, giving Mona a pleading look with his big, sparkling eyes.

Even Mona felt a twinge of pity for Shantanu after seeing his cute and innocent face. But as soon as Rudra’s stern and intimidating face flashed before her eyes, she pushed aside her sympathy. "Mr. Shantanu, don’t forget you’re still in the office. Please go to sir’s cabin, or he will be mad at me," she said firmly and returned to her desk.

Shantanu followed her, saying, "Miss Mona, I was really lost and accidentally came here ! "

Mona ignored him as she sat back down. "Please, just go," she said, gesturing toward Rudra’s cabin.

"Miss Mona, you’re so kind... Please save me this time, and I promise I won’t wander around again," Shantanu tries one last time to flatter Mona with his words. When she doesn't agree, he reluctantly made his way to Rudra’s cabin.

Rudra had been watching Shantanu’s antics on his laptop screen. "This guy is still such a whinny kid. Who acts like this? And when did I even scold him ? liar " Rudra murmured in disbelief and kept on gazing at shantanu from his laptop.

After sometime, Shantanu entered the cabin and stood in front of Rudra, speaking nervously, "Boss, you called me?"

Rudra scanned him from head to toe. Shantanu was wearing a purple shirt and white trousers today, paired with a brown-strapped silver-dial watch. His messy hair complemented his outfit, giving him a handsome look.

Rudra, composing himself, said in a stern voice, "When will you stop wandering around like this, huh?" Hearing Rudra's cold tone, Shantanu got scared and stared to bit his lower lip.

"You were distracted even during the meeting," Rudra added. Shantanu looked at him in shock. "How do you know I was distracted during the meeting?"

Rudra almost smiled at Shantanu's innocence but kept his face expressionless. "What do you think? I’ve become a successful businessman just like that?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

Hearing this, Shantanu made a weird face, rolled his eyes. Seeing his reaction, Rudra couldn’t understand why does shan made such type of face and was trying to figure him out, when Shantanu spoke. "Boss, how’s your throat now? Did you have tea?"

Rudra cleared his throat slightly to speak "Hmm, it’s fine. I prefer coffee."

Shantanu squinted at him and moved closer to him "What do you mean by ‘I prefer coffee’? Does that mean you didn’t drink the tea I made?" Annoyance was evident on shantanu's face.

Rudra replied in usual deep and baritone voice "Make me a coffee, and I’ll drink it."

Shantanu sighed deeply, trying to calm himself. "Cool down... Cool down... He’s your boss. Calm down, Shantanu. You can't say anything to him.. cool down shan."

When Rudra didn’t get any response from then he asked, "What happened? Won’t you make coffee?"

Rudra was seated on his master chair, while Shantanu stood at a distance one side of Rudra. Shantanu stepped closer Rudra and said, "Do you know how much effort I put into making that tea? It was specially for your sore throat. Do you even know the office didn’t have basil leaves, so I went out to buy them? Luckily, there was a nursery nearby, or who knows where I’d have to go... And you. You didn’t even drink it! "

Shantanu pouted and crossed his arms, turning his face away from Rudra. Rudra wasn’t used to such behavior as he had always been the one giving orders and people have to  obey them either they want it or not it  doesn't matter but they can't deny him. No one had ever thrown a tantrum like Shantanu. He didn’t know how to react and pacify him.

Shantanu’s round, chubby face already looked adorable, and now, with his cheeks puffed up, he looked even cuter and tempting. Rudra even felt an urge to pinch his fluffy cheeks.

Clearing his throat, Rudra tried to console shan,"I didn’t know you worked so hard. Make me a coffee now, and I’ll drink it in front of you."

Shantanu narrowed his eyes at him at Rudra's words "No, I won’t make anything for you now."

"This boy is so stubborn, " Rudra muttered to himself, staring at Shantanu’s puffed-up, sulking face. "Why are you throwing a tantrum like a child? Fine, if you don’t want to make coffee then make tea. I’ll drink it. Happy now? " Rudra at last accepted his defeat with deep sigh and curiously gazed at shan.

Shantanu laughed sarcastically. " am I throwing a tantrum like a child, or are you just a rude person?"

Hearing this, Rudra’s face turned serious and he stared at shan with his deep and blue eyes "Are you calling me rude? " His voice was stern but it didn't affect shan this time.

Shantanu leaned forward, placing his hands on Rudra’s chair armrest, looking directly into Rudra's blue eyes. "Yes, you’re rude. I did so much for you yesterday, and you didn’t even say thank you. And today, you gave my tea to someone else. Isn’t that rude Mr. Rudra?"

Now, their faces were so close that Rudra could feel shantanu's hot breath, and Rudra momentarily forgot to breathe and kept on staring at Shantanu’s face like he was hypnotized.

Suddenly Rudra's body started feeling hot and he couldn't bear their closeness for even a second so Rudra spun his chair around to avoid shan. As soon as Rudra turned his chair, Shantanu lost his balance as his arms were resting on Rudra's chair and fell onto Rudra’s chest with a loud "Ahhh! "

Rudra’s hands instinctively went to Shantanu’s waist, while Shantanu’s hands landed on Rudra’s chest. Terrified, Shantanu tried to get up quickly but slipped again. This time, he landed on Rudra's abdomen,

"I’m so sorry, boss... I didn’t do this on purpose," Shantanu stammered nervously. He tried to get up again but fell onto Rudra's lap. Rudra squeezed his eyes shut and let out a deep sigh, holding Shantanu by the waist. "Stay still, don’t move," he said in a deep, unusual voice.

Shantanu froze at Rudra’s cold tone, his heart racing fast like it comes out from his chest. He stopped trying to move. As Rudra tried to push Shantanu away gently, he realized Shantanu’s locket had gotten stuck in his coat button.

"Why, this had to happen today only and with him too," Rudra muttered while gritting his teeth. Taking a deep breath, he composed himself and seated Shantanu on one of his thighs. "Don’t move," he instructed. Shantanu nodded nervously, trying to calm his own rapidly beating heart. Rudra removed his hand from Shantanu's waist and started removing the locket from his coat.

At the Oberoi Mansion,

Sushma and Sanjay were sitting in the hall and having tea. Vijay was on a nearby sofa, scrolling on his phone. Sushma glanced at Vijay and said to Sanjay, "I think I should go to the company and apologize to Rudra." Her face was looking sad and innocent.

Vijay gave a crooked smile and thought, "Here, she has started his drama again" and did not pay attention to Sushma even once and kept looking at his phone.

Sanjay responded in a neutral tone, "There’s no need for that."

"But—" Sushma began, only for Sanjay to interrupt, "He’s probably still angry, and if you go, you’ll end up bearing the brunt of it." Hearing this, Sushma’s face fell.

"Besides, whether you apologize or not, it won’t make much difference. You know Rudra doesn’t like having you around," Vijay interjected, giving her a reality check.

Sushma forced a smile and said, "Bhaisahab, Rudra is just a child. You’ll see; he’ll accept me soon, just like Rajeev did."

Vijay almost burst out laughing at her overconfidence but controlled himself, saying, "Sister-in-law, you’re so naive. Rudra is 27 years old. A 27-year-old person isn’t a child. If he was married then he could’ve had one or two kids by now."

Sushma felt deeply humiliated but couldn’t retort, as she didn’t want to show her true colour in front of Sanjay.

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Keep reading Chained Heart: RuShan to know what happens next!

The main characters of this story are Rudra and Shantanu. It’s a BL story. If you don’t like gay couples, please refrain from reading it, as I don’t want any hate comments.

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