Work Text:
Umeed Pasha considered herself an unlucky girl with big dreams. Her bad luck began with her mother’s death when she was five years old and continued when her father sent her brother Sameer to his sister’s in Canada so he could have the best life and education possible. At the same time, Umeed was stuck in Pakistan with an absent father, an aunt who did not like her loud personality, and an uncle who was affectionate enough but a coward when it came to speaking up in front of his older brother. Her dearest friend and cousin, Haya, and her grandmother, Agu Jaan, were the main solace in her home.
Umeed Pasha considered herself unlucky when her brother came back from Canada with an accent, failed courses, and without a penny to their father's name. Yet he was still considered better than her, just because he stayed quiet and submitted to their father's every wish and command, whereas she still talked back to him when he would ridicule her on her want to get rich and open her chai dhaba. However, his disappointment did not deter her from following her dreams because Pasha Sahab was always disappointed in her, even when she was young and naive. Hence, when her best friend from university, Mimi, gave her a pass to the biggest game show in Pakistan, Umeed couldn't let the opportunity out of her hand so quickly. It was a sign from god that he was supporting her in her endeavor to get rich, to make something out of herself.
While her father prepared everyone at home to welcome another proposal for Umeed to get married to, another way for him to get rid of her, she was scheming with Haya to escape. She wasn't quite ready to leave for Islamabad, but she couldn't imagine herself sitting demurely in front of yet another prim and decent boy who her father thought was good enough to marry her off to.
Decked in her mom’s engagement suit and her old but trusted joggers, she climbed her house wall and jumped off, and with what seemed like a stroke of luck, securely got into a big black car parked near her house. She planned to get to her khala’s house and stay there for a few days until things at home calmed down. But the man in the car, with his face turned away from her, assumed she was a thief. HER. Umeed Pasha. She was too pretty to be a thief, and not yet at that stage of her life. But she didn't mind checking the man's wallet before her. He was rich and definitely young, his silky voice shaking a little with terror as he asked her to spare his life. Umeed giggled to herself, and when that little puff of breath escaped her lips, the man turned around and got a good look at his captor.
Flustered, Umeed did what she does best; she opened her mouth and started talking, “Larki nahi dekhe apne phele kabhi? Ghorna tou band karein!”
The man's eyebrows furrowed with anger, demanding to know who she was and what she was doing in his car. And off Umeed went, pleading with him to let her stay in the car while she told him an utterly false sob story. He didn't look like he believed her (and internally, Umeed thought he seemed too smart to fall for her 'stories'). Still, once she convinced him to lend her some money, she wished him farewell and hoped never to see his face again, or go through something this embarrassing. Handsome guys may come and go, but Umeed was already on a path she couldn't stray from. That is until fate brought them back together multiple times.
Maybe Umeed wasn't unlucky. Perhaps she was cursed.
......
Farjaad Khan lived a relatively everyday life. If he would deem losing his father at a young age, having to come back from his university to Pakistan mid-semester, becoming head of the family, and then taking over his father’s company as the CEO all at the age of twenty-two typical, then yeah Farjaad Khan lived a pretty everyday life.
He often told himself that six years was enough to mourn the man who raised him and that he had to be strong for his mother and baby sister. He had to work hard and follow the rules to remain as successful as his father was. So what if he wasn't ready for all this responsibility before, he had enough years to get used to it. It was already too late to go back, to refuse the shareholders that he still needed time to become the CEO, to tell his mother to snap out of her grief and take care of her two children, who were equally suffering, to lead a normal life like a kid, and not as an adult. But his father raised him, and the late Ali Khan always taught him to step in and take the responsibility bestowed on him.
Therefore, he worked day and night. He followed a strict schedule; he adhered to the rules. He didn’t take time out to hang out with friends. He refused every girl his mom suggested that he get married to. The gym was his only break, and the office was his bedroom more than the one at his house. He helped his sister and mother out as much as possible but employed drivers, chefs, house helpers, and gardeners to do the rest. If he was meant to take responsibility for his family, household, and company, then by god, that would be the only thing he would work for.
After all, a CEO doesn’t have time for leisure or love.
However, having a strange girl enter his car one late evening was something other than what he had on his itinerary. And as she stared back at him with her wide doe eyes, he couldn’t help but ask, “Kon hain aap?”
She wasn't a thief as he had thought at first, and she didn't look homeless with what she was wearing. Nor did she seem scared that she was in a car with a strange man (not that Farjaad would ever take advantage of a girl). However, the girl, who he soon realized talked a LOT, went on a tangent about her Cinderella-esque life.
Not the type to fall for sob stories, Farjaad dropped her off at the side of the road but soon came back when he realized she had his cell phone. And thus, he got sucked into yet another useless tale, but this time the vixen had convinced him to take her to get chai first. He didn't mind giving her money if she left him alone. And boy, was he glad to finally get back to his car without her. He didn't realize how draining it was to converse with talkative girls. Farjaad didn't even want the money she borrowed back, but she had promised to return it. He just wished they would never cross paths again. If pretty girls were a good enough reason for him to stray from his schedule, he would've been off track long ago.
However, fate had other plans because this girl planned to never leave his side again.
Umeed despised Farjaad Khan Bahadur from the bottom of her heart. She hated his condescending tone and insistence to follow his schedule and rules. She hated how his lips curved into a smirk whenever she made a fool of herself. She hated how he would intimidate her with his tall stature and broad chest. She hated how queasy she would get whenever he would take slow and careful steps toward her, trying to scare her.
Most of all, she hated how she couldn't stop thinking about him, even when she finally left his house and returned to her own. Even after he lost her mother's watch, the only thing she had to remember her by. And especially after he humiliated her in front of AK in his office parking lot.
Yes, she shouldn't have shown up to his workplace wielding a gun, but she legitimately thought he was the one who was making AK send her those weird, flirty messages. And yes, Haya warned her against this plan, but it's not her fault she acts before she thinks! And Umeed knows Farjaad dislikes her too, even if he stares at her for a little too long sometimes. He doesn't let her explain her side of the story (or stories about how she's always embarrassing herself in front of him) or let her drink her chai in peace. He was the reason she was always on edge at his house, even if Mimi and his mother did their best to make her feel at home while her father wasn't letting her return to her own.
But why would a man- who supposedly hates her- bring her a new watch? And why would he let her drag him inside her house and obediently stay quiet so they don't get caught? And why would he care if she's hurt or not? She would never understand him or how his mind worked. But what she did know was that she needed to quieten down the part of her heart that found him way too attractive in sunglasses, leaning against her new white car, waiting for Mimi to come outside of their university. He was the enemy who did not want her in his house. She shouldn't stare at his eyes (or biceps) for too long.
But she couldn't ignore him either, especially when he did make some right points. So instead of taking her advice, she bought him a replacement phone and went to his office, all giddy like a little girl on a mission. And then Farjaad just had to hold her arm, didn't he? Did he even know what he made her feel? A girl so adamant about never marrying, so unwavering on achieving her dreams before settling down. How could she have been brought down by a man's touch, and not just any man; the man determined to distress her every time they crossed paths.
She needed to leave before she did something she would regret.
......
Farjaad didn’t plan on lying to Umeed or following her down the stairs. But he couldn’t control his emotions regarding the girl beside him. Even when he thought he hated her, he couldn’t help but think about her; her blinding smile, the way her hair curled down her back, or even the way tears pooled in her wide, doe eyes. It was as if she was a witch and had cast a spell on him to lose all conscious thought when she was around, to stick to her like a moth to a flame. Yes, that was it. There was no other explanation for why he was smiling at her like a lovesick fool, even when she looked back at him with disbelief, catching him red-handed in his lie when his office’s elevator doors opened.
But if he lost conscious thought when she was around, why was he still thinking about her in the safety of his room? And why did he get so distraught over AK wanting to marry her? Not that Umeed would ever accept that sasta ghalib’s proposal, but he had to respect that she was smart enough to make her own decisions on marriage and men. But it pissed him the fuck off when he saw her sitting with AK on the patio outside his own house. That too on the day of his supposed surprise birthday party (he knew his mother planned it to have a live version of the Bachelorette play out). But then she followed him inside the house to confront him about whatever he had said to her outside. He didn’t even remember; the sight of her cozying up to AK had made his blood boil and spew shit.
However, Farjaad got his revenge when he saw Umeed’s downtrodden expression after he only addressed Rina during the party. Nevertheless, his mother seemed happy, thinking he had made his choice (Farjaad didn’t know why she wouldn’t understand that he wasn’t ready to settle down), and he left his birthday party soon after.
One would think the girl would calm down after the birthday debacle, but Umeed Pasha was a force to be reckoned with. She was back in his house the next day, not only bumping into him and making his laptop bag fly down the stairs but also throwing her book down to have a reason to be angry at him. He had to control his anger when he saw the look on her face and hide his smile when she skipped down the stairs to retrieve their things. However, she only returned with her book, giving him a high-five on the way to Mimi’s room.
The things this girl did to him, he would never understand.
It was not like Umeed anticipated Farjaad's entrance; it was not like she was a sinister little girl who planned on causing him distress. She was chasing after Mimi to put ubtan on her friend's face, not her short-tempered older brother's, who had consciously decided to wear a white shirt too. And the accident also had to occur in front of Pasha Sahab. Umeed couldn't get a day off on her best friend's mehndi either, could she? But when Farjaad stared down at her, his eyes dark and stormy, outside the bathroom where she handed him a towel to dry off, Umeed came to a realization; this man would be the death of her.
Literally through the fact that he would make sure her father kills her, and figuratively because the thought of him would never leave her mind. He looked at her like she was the bane of his existence, yet the object of all his desires. And Umeed couldn’t help but agree with him. She looked forward to seeing him, to having a hand in messing up his carefully planned day. To see the fire burning in his eyes at the sight of her. Perhaps, subconsciously he arranged his schedule around her now too.
When he asked her out for chai the next day to discuss the terms of the little ‘car accident’ she had caused, she knew it was just an excuse for him to spend more time with her. Even though she should’ve said no because he was engaged to someone else, even though just yesterday he had complained to her father about her again, yet she followed him to his car. Her mind told her to turn back, but her heart roared for him, to be close to him, to extend her hand and touch his face. She would lose herself to him if he asked, she would voluntarily bring her walls down, the ones she had worked all her life to build.
The thought of him consumed her, and she was glad when Mimi came out of the house at the sound of her voice, exposing Farjaad’s little lie. Umeed didn’t know if she could have controlled herself had they gone on that ‘business meeting.’ She had to hold herself back again in the elevator at his office, especially when he looked like he would devour her any second.
The reason she had come to his office was innocent enough; Umeed just wanted him to apologize to her for complaining to her father again. Even though his complaint had dire consequences this time as she was being forcefully married off to Haya’s ex-fiance. But the man had so much arrogance he left her standing in the middle of the hallway with a pleading assistant and an even more frustrated Umeed.
Deep down, Umeed knew she had come to see Farjaad one last time before getting married off to Waleed (she would get herself out of the predicament, that was not what she was worried about). She knew the apology was just an excuse to feel the heat of his gaze and see the lines of stress and hard work on his face. The thought of not seeing him for long caused her anguish. But he did not pay her much heed before leaving.
But when she saw him looking at her in the elevator, his chest expanded, making himself look more prominent; she understood the thought of her caused him as much agony as he did hers. They were too stubborn to voice their feelings, regardless of how fiery or small. They couldn't cross the line they had drawn themselves. They couldn't touch each other or allow themselves to overthink about the other. They had their separate lives to live and goals to achieve.
Therefore, she didn't hesitate to run out of the elevator as soon as it opened, feeling suffocated by the large amounts of tension exposed to the small space. Umeed could only hope this feeling would leave her soon. After all, she had a wedding to stop.
......
His soul had been sucked out of him when he overheard AK inform his mother that Pasha Sahab was getting Umeed married off to someone else. To a man who did not know her as he did, a man who would never understand how she functioned, a man who did not deserve her. No man deserved her, she was a spirit that needed to be free to thrive, and he did not understand how her father constantly tried to contain her. Umeed Pasha was an enigma, and it took him a long time to realize that no one could ever succeed in trying to extinguish the fire that she was.
That’s why he needed to get to her house as fast as he could, not to save her; she could do that well on her own, but to remind her she was not alone in fighting her battles. Farjaad would stand beside her through thick and thin; he would persuade Pasha Sahab to listen to his daughter because that man trusted a stranger more than Umeed. And when Mimi realized how haggard he looked, driving like a maniac to reach Umeed’s house, he could not find it in himself to refute her claims of being in love with her friend.
Because it was love, all those times she looked at him in anger, he wanted to turn her anger into affection. When she had tears in her eyes, he wanted to wrap his arms around her and protect her from everything that haunted her. The times when she brazenly admitted to having even the slightest bit of affection towards him, he desired to kiss her endlessly. Umeed Pasha was the strongest person he knew, a soldier fighting her own battles all her life, and all Farjaad wanted was to be the support she lacked, a shoulder she could cry on, a person she could turn to when all else failed.
He wanted to be the person she could be all of herself with.
Farjaad could only stare at her as her chachi led her to sit down beside the boy she was being married to. Her eyes did not have the same light he was so used to seeing, and he could feel his heart clenching at the sight before him. But he had faith in Umeed, and just like he had predicted, when she came back from her backyard after asking her father for permission to speak with Waleed before the nikkah took place, the boy called off the wedding. He was adamant about it, too, forcing his mother to get up and leave as soon as possible.
Pride was the only thing he could feel at that moment, knowing that no one could ever stop the force that was Umeed Pasha. But that pride quickly shifted into surprise when his mother showed up at Pasha house, with AK in tow, asking for Umeed's hand in marriage. And when Farjaad turned back to look at the girl in question, her eyes were already on him, wonder in her eyes, a vast difference from the despair she had when Waleed was there.
A small smile graced her face before she turned and ran out of the room with her cousin Haya following. Farjaad grinned in satisfaction, knowing that he was the only man who could make her blush, the only man she would willingly agree to marry. But as far as his happiness was concerned, no one could let him stay content. And when his mother announced that it was AK she was here for, he could feel his heart break into pieces. Because the only girl he could ever love was once again being taken away from him.
Getting Asadullah off her back did not take that much effort, mainly because her father disapproved of him in the first place and secondly because she could not bear to see that look of heartbreak on Farjaad’s face for long. She was a woman who did not want to settle down; yet she could not see herself married to anyone unless it was him. She could not see herself falling in love with anyone unless it was Farjaad Khan.
And when he came to save her, Haya, and Sameer from jail in the middle of the night, looking devastatingly beautiful in a black kurta, she realized there could be no one for her but him. They both realized this together because things shifted that night, and feelings shifted. Finally, they could be in love with each other openly.
He could bring flowers for her in broad daylight, asking her to meet with him in the middle of the street. She could tease him about taking her out on an actual date, and he could agree. They could text each other whenever they wanted to, and no one could ask them to stop. They could meet for a date, and he could park her car without making her feel inferior. They could be an actual couple, be there for each other, talk through problems, and find solutions together. And it was true; when she lost all her money and dreams of opening her own cafe, he came with Mimi to comfort her and remind her there was much more to live for. He was her solace and her friend after that night. She quickly realized she could achieve everything with him by her side.
But he warned her against going to the game show again despite her insistence. It took Umeed some time to understand why she shouldn’t go and the importance of working hard for success, but her chachi forced her and the entire family to accept the tickets from Farjaad and go. She could only feel uneasy through the whole journey, twiddling her fingers anxiously, hoping to see Farjaad before the show could begin and explain that she was brought here against her will. But when he showed up, she locked eyes with him and saw disappointment prominently displayed on his face. Umeed did not want him to be disappointed in her too, not when she had lied to her father again and when no one else understood the predicament she was in.
However, he came to sit beside her in the middle of the show, acting as if he had never ignored her. She looked at him with annoyance and asked, “Aagaya khayaal?”
He turned his head towards her, still looking ahead, “Aray yehi tou masla hai, tumhara khayaal dil se jaata hi nahi hai.”
His eyes meet hers, and that’s when Umeed realized his close proximity and the white kurta he was wearing. Her eyes moved down to his lips without her will, and she saw them shift to a smirk. She quickly looked back up and away, knowing she couldn’t stay mad at him for long. Especially after he follows her and her family outside and assures her he’ll handle Pasha Sahab. And gives her that heartbreaking smile, reminding her he’s the only one she can trust without a second thought.
And she does, because who else could ever care for her like Farjaad does?
......
She confesses her love for him on live television.
It’s hard to believe that it’s real at first, but who is Umeed Pasha if not outspoken and direct. He forgets about the audience when he confesses back. He asks her if she would help him learn to live like her, be free like her, love like her, and feel like her. She gives him the most radiant smile in return, and he breathes easily because he finally has her. No more hurdles, no more hiding his feelings. No more meddling family members. No more fake fiances. It’s just her and him. Umeed Pasha and Farjaad Khan, together at last.