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‘Is she still there?’ I text Manoj.
‘Yes. She is.’ He replies.
That’s good. I book a cab, and in no time I reach the studio. Home.
I walk into the metal gate and I see Anu inside the house. She’s looking at me. Her eyes wide open, lips slightly parted, and her body stiff. She looks as if she’s in a daze. What's wrong?
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Mint Animation Studio. Our dream, and we finally made it come true. Three years into turning our little home setup into a Studio, I could say we are doing quite well. We have a good number of amazing artists, who are mostly our friends, and have a couple of decent projects in hand, and our prospects are looking good as well. Even if I say so myself.
And we are finally going to hire someone new.
Our studio has been a close knit group with most of our college friends working here, so it feels a little strange to let someone new in, but I know this is to happen. And it's nice that this is happening, we are growing.
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"Does it hurt?" he signs, his eyes fixated on my hand.
"It doesn't, It's just uncomfortable," I say.
He looks at me for a while, and his eyes go back to my hand.
"How did it happen?" He asks.
"I slipped and fell down," I say, it would be too embarrassing to say that I was running out of the bath to take his call and slipped. .
"Stop signing," his hands are furious.
I realize I've been signing, or at least trying to. I didn't know I could do that.
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I have no choice but to turn around and leave.
The turn of events is unbelievable. I realized I liked him and I confessed to him right after.
What got into me. Have I always been this impulsive?
As much as I tried to ignore them, he did say this is not right and it scares me. What did he mean by that? Did he reject me? I know I confessed but I didn't ask him to be with me or to like me back, so he can't really reject me, can he?
My head hurts. I have been thinking about him all the way back home and now I feel like my brain is not capable of any more thinking.
He didn't text me today. Did I mess up everything?
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There's a wedding in the family and Ammamma and Tatha are here for it. After spending a week avoiding his thoughts, this feels relaxing. I don't have to try so hard to avert my gaze any longer. I don't have to forcefully chuck him out of my mind. With lots of things happening around it's not difficult to keep him out of my thoughts. And the food is amazing. He'll like the desserts here.
'So much for keeping him out of your mind!' a voice inside my head hisses.
I take a plateful of food, and sit next to ammamma. Tatha has already got some food for her. He sure is attentive.
"He looks so happy," she says looking at the groom. The groom is my cousin and at this moment his face has happiness written all over it.
I chuckle. "Totally. He's glowing," I say, as a warm feeling flows through my heart. I am happy for him. And her.
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Manoj walks past me and greets Adi with a hug. Shyam does that too. My heart churns.
"Why did you have to insist on coming alone, I could have picked you up?" Manoj signs. He knew Adi was coming. He didn't say a word about it.
"No need, You are busy as is," Adi replies.
"You could have stayed for longer, Why did you hurry back?" It's Shyam. Longer? He has been away for long enough.
"I've been away for long enough," Adi signs, as if he has read my mind.
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When I wake up - it's already afternoon and Nanna has long left for work. I take my time brushing my teeth, and I skip bathing. I have nothing to do and nowhere to go anyway. I sit on the couch, with a huge tub of mint chocolate ice cream, and put on a romcom. I can't stomach dramas or thrillers. They make me incredibly anxious, so I stick to sitcoms and romcoms.
I watch TV, eat desserts, go on a walk, and I catch up on sleep. How long has it been since I've had so much leisure? Nanna comes home early and we cook dinner together. While eating I find myself wondering about the studio. Did he eat yet? Did he cook today? I hope everyone is staying at the studio for dinner today.
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When I go to the office and talk to Manoj, I understand that what I had wasn't a dream or a nightmare, but a premonition. Hmph!
Adi and I will be working together on a project now? Why? I have worked with many of my colleagues here and Adi is always in the loop. But this is different - this time, we will be working together. Why isn't there anyone else in the team? I understand it is the studios personal project and we can't invest too many resources on it - but Adi is not easy to please. This is going to be difficult.
I walk up to Adi and he looks like he's heard the news already. And he looks as uninterested as ever. Does he even want to work with me?
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I try not to look at him for the next one hour. I go through the studio's old projects and find that he's done the background art for most of them. I have a lot of things to ask him, but he doesn't seem very approachable. I could be wrong though. First impressions may not be accurate all the time.
Manoj calls me over to the conference room and I follow him. He takes me through all the projects they are working on and asks me to pick the one I feel most comfortable with. I chose the one about the forest spirits.
"This one? Great. Karthik is working on this project. I'll have him brief you," says Manoj. I remember Karthik, I spoke to him earlier, he's the one with the goatee.
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I feel a bit nervous. True that I've been dreaming about this day for years - but now that it has come and I'm finally getting to work at an animation studio - it feels quite unreal.
It is a small studio, they started about 3 years ago, but are making quite a good name for themselves. I can't believe I got in. I hope everything goes well today.
I look around and spot this very tall building. The studio should be somewhere around this corner.
'Excuse me,' I hear someone calling out to me. I turn around and I see this teenage girl with an elderly lady. They are carrying a couple of bags with them - I guess they are from out of town.