"Let's go," I said to Dhruv as I closed the door to my house behind me.

He nodded and called for the lift. We waited in silence as the lift arrived. "You look very nice," I heard Dhruv say softly, almost inaudibly.

I forced a grin on my face. "Why, thank you." His neck turned red at my statement. I had dressed in the most horrid shirt I could find in my closet. The top was striped black and white with a boat neck, paired with blue jeans. The most distasteful combination even by my standards. I used to wear this top to my office on casual-Fridays, to come off as business-like and yet keeping with the theme of the day, before Natasha chose to make me aware, quite bluntly, how horrible I looked in it.

I hadn't dressed bad for Dhruv. No, I had dressed bad to keep in with the theme of the day. Which was to have a bad day. Hauz Khas wasn't a place I hated. In fact, I loved it there. And in a way, I was showing Dhruv a part of me. A true part of me. But I wouldn't make it the first place to take a guy to on the first outing alone together. No, Hauz Khas would come way later on the list.

However, as planned with Taira, this outing was particularly planned to deter Dhruv from having any romantic interest in me. And bore him to tears. Which eventually would speed up the process of this entire business coming to an end, which was the ultimate goal.

The loud ting of the elevator brought me out of my thoughts and we both stepped in the lift.

"What are you doing?" I asked Dhruv as we walked out to the street in the bright sun.

"Booking a cab," he said, his head bent, focused on his iphone screen.

"Oh, I was planning on taking the metro," I said, grinning inwardly.

He looked up from his phone, brows furrowed. "The metro?"

I nodded. "Yes, it would be the perfect Delhi outing. I love the metro. Don't you love the metro?" I said a little too enthusiastically, and without waiting for his reply, marched towards the other side of the road to take an auto to the metro station. I did a happy dance in my head as I saw him follow me, the look on his face telling me how not thrilled he was with the arrangement.

It was just the beginning of the day. There was a lot to look forward to. And in his case, not many things to look forward to.

It was the rush hour of a Saturday morning. Over the week from lunch at his place, he had taken my number and occasionally left a text or two, which I had replied in the most concise manner possible without coming off as aloof. It was jam-packed with people travelling to their various offices and colleges. The rush added the extra touch to my oh-so grand plan of making Dhruv Jain find me as unattractive as possible. And tiresome, really tiresome. We reached the Hauz Khas metro station after a jostling, air-deficit ride of the Delhi metro, our clothes wrinkled and creased and tired already.

"Let's start the day?" I commented chirpily as we got out of the subway to the main street. I looked behind to see Dhruv wiping the sweat off his forehead, huffing lightly.

"Not accustomed to the metro life?" I asked, grinning. Dhruv managed to look sheepish even in his disheveled state.

I did not push him further and started walking.

"Where are we going?" Dhruv asked as he caught up with me, his face looking less flushed than a minute ago.

"Oh, I was thinking we could go see the Chor Minar. It's less than a kilometer away from here," I said as I dodged people, walking briskly.

"You have this all planned, don't you?" Dhruv said teasingly, to which I sharply turned to look at him, panic gripping me for a moment.

"What do you mean?" I let out a false chuckle to get over the nerves.

"This entire day. When you said to go to Hauz Khas, I didn't know you were so passionate about it," he smirked at me.

Passionate, yes. But not about Hauz Khas. I flashed him a smile and continued walking. The summer sun was always too bright in Delhi. The numbers rose up to 40 to 45 celsius somedays. Today happened to be one such scorching hot day. Perhaps not an ideal day for a field trip around Hauz Khas. But here we were, waltzing around under the exposed sun, all for him to to reject me.

What my life had reduced to!

We walked silently through the busy streets to Chor Minar, mainly because there was enough noise around us to compensate for the silence among us.

The buzz of the streets surpassed, we stood in front of the Chor Minar, where silence reigned all around. There were a few tourists lurking here and there, but apart from that, we were completely alone. I stared at the minaret in front of me.

Built by Allaudin Khilji in the thirteenth century, it was also known as the tower of beheading. It was a somber place to be in. The thought occurred to me which always occurs whenever I visit a historic monument.

These walls have seen more than we have. Every piece of stone that has gone in its construction screams of stories of so many souls who lived so long ago, who must have bellowed to have their lives spared at the hands of the sultan.

"Magnificent," I heard a tourist murmur as he passed us, clicking pictures of the minaret in his camera.

"More like haunting," I heard Dhruv murmur beside me.

"What?" I asked involuntarily.

"The minar. Its haunting."

My curiosity peeked, I faced him. "Why do you say so?"

"Its history is harrowing. Historians say that during a raid, a colony of 8000 Mongol prisoners was beheaded in this very tower."

My eyebrows hopped up in surprise. "Yes, right," I said softly. "And the local legend, where thieves were beheaded and hung in those 225 holes of minaret to prevent thievery," I pointed at the small window-like openings of the tower that were dug in all around the main cylindrical structure.

"Its a horrific piece of architecture," Dhruv said, shoving his hands deep inside his pant pockets. He did a lot of that when he was uneasy.

"No. Its a horrific piece of history. The architecture is magnificent," I said and sighed. "Let's look around?" I said and we started circling the 800 year old minaret.

"You've been here often?" I asked Dhruv as we walked.

"I have. It's not a typical touristic visiting place per say, but that's what I love about it the most. It doesn't have a lot of history, but it's always less crowded than say the Qutub Minar. Which makes it's true essence intact." I nodded with a blank face.

We were silent for a while again. "You must think I'm boring," Dhruv suddenly said as we turned to a corner.

"What? No!" I said immediately.

He shook his head and continued speaking, ignoring me. "It is boring, actually. Liking all this, nothing too hip. I won't blame you if you think that."

Before I could think twice, I grabbed him by his arm and stopped him from going any further. "Hey, its what you like. And its not boring, at all. It's interesting. History is always interesting." I looked up and met his eyes. And he stared. For a moment longer than appropriate.

I cleared my throat when I realized I was still holding his arm and looked away.

"We're almost done here, I believe. Want to go to Hauz Khas village now?"

-------------

It was almost evening when we finished the tour of the Hauz Khas village. We shopped in the hip stores, toured Firoz Shah's tomb, the Deer Park, the various remains of the Delhi Sultanate. We didn't catch up on lunch in a restaurant. We had tit-bits of street food here and there, and drank a hundred different kinds of drinks due to the summer heat.

"There's a light and sound show now," I said, holding the guide pamphlet in one hand and the coke can in another.

"Let's go to the Lake," Dhruv said, standing in front of me.

"There's a light and sound show now," I repeated, my brows furrowed.

"You haven't seen a light and sound show before?" He raised his brows teasingly. When I only glared at him, he chuckled. "Come on, the sun's almost going to set. The sunset looks beautiful from the lake."

I hadn't seen the sunset from the Hauz Khas lake. I had imagined to see it with Abeer someday, leaning my head on his shoulder, watching numerous hues of orange take over the sky before plunging into complete darkness. But the desire to see the sunset was stronger today, and Abeer wasn't there.

"Okay," I muttered slowly.

It took us a while to reach the water body. By the time we reached there, the sun had dipped further in the horizon, a light breeze blowing through the air. It was a welcome respite from the scorching heat of the entire day.

"It is beautiful," I murmured softly, as we reached a bench onlooking the lake.

"It is," Dhruv agreed.

We sat there in silence for a while, admiring the serenity of the atmosphere. There were couples littered around the area surrounding the lake, basking in the sweet breeze and the picturesque vista before them.

"Better than your light and sound show?" Dhruv quipped after a while.

I chuckled lowly. "Much better."

We saw the sun dip further down, paving the way for twilight. "Before I forget, which you will know in some time that I do - forget a lot I mean - I had an amazing time today. It was perfect," Dhruv smiled down at me, before turning to the lake again.

I kept staring at his face, the smile wiped out from my face. As much as I wanted to deny it, it was true. Today had been perfect. The perfect day.

I had wanted to bore him, frustrate him so much that he wouldn't want another day out with me. I made him travel by the cramped metro, made him walk in scorching heat, took him to historic places that were boring in the textbook sense, and yet, here he was, looking truly happy, proclaiming what a wonderful time he had.

Now even if he did have a wonderful time, despite me wanting it otherwise, I shouldn't have enjoyed the day out.

But that would be a lie. Because I did enjoy the day.

And that thought scared the shit out of me.

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