Having finally added Rahul on Instagram and Facebook, Anjali was smiling exceptionally brightly.
It felt as if her relationship with him had taken a massive, tangible step forward.
After finishing their meal, Anjali thoughtfully hailed a CNG auto-rickshaw for Rahul, just like she had the day before.
When the auto pulled up to Rahul's budget hotel in Gulshan, Anjali gently grabbed his sleeve to hold him back for a second, her expression turning slightly serious.
"Rahul... the girl who came to see you at the hotel this morning—do you like her?"
Rahul was momentarily stunned by the question. He hadn't expected Anjali to have actually spotted Samina looking for him right from the start.
However, it wasn't a secret, and there was absolutely nothing shameful going on, so there was no need to lie. Rahul felt he was still miles away from ever sitting at the 'Scumbag Table.'
"No, I don't," Rahul said earnestly, looking right into her eyes.
"Oh... I understand!"
Hearing his firm answer, a massive surge of pleasant surprise and relief flooded Anjali's chest. Her heart, which had been hanging in anxious suspense all day long, finally settled peacefully back into place.
"Goodnight, Rahul!"
Anjali beamed, waving at him happily as the auto-rickshaw drove off, her mood lighter than it had been in years.
Rahul watched the rickshaw disappear down the street, shaking his head with a helpless, fond smile.
Returning to his hotel room, Rahul took a long, cold shower and collapsed onto the bed, grabbing his phone.
His WhatsApp, which had basically been operating in single-player mode since he arrived, suddenly had a new message notification.
He tapped it open and saw it was from his college best friend, Kabir.
It had been sent at 5:30 PM, and the content was just a single 'Confused Nick Young' meme.
Rahul immediately hit the video call button. To his surprise, Kabir rejected it instantly.
Refusing to be ignored, Rahul dialed again.
This time Kabir picked up, but the screen was completely pitch black. It looked like he was covering his front camera with his palm.
Rahul was utterly confused and immediately blurted out, "What the hell, Kabir? What kind of stupid game are you playing?"
"I call you, you hang up. Then you pick up and hide your face?"
Just then, Kabir's highly wary, hushed voice came through the phone speaker.
"Bhai, you haven't been kidnapped and locked up in one of those Myanmar scam compounds, have you?"
"Why can I see that you're not wearing a shirt? Did they taser you? Are they forcing you to make this call?"
Only then did Rahul realize that this idiot had completely misunderstood the situation and genuinely thought he had been trafficked by an international cyber-scam syndicate!
"You're the one who got tasered, you absolute moron! I just got out of the shower in my hotel room!"
"Can't you have a little faith in me? I came to Dhaka to travel and vlog, not to join a shady call center!"
Hearing Rahul's familiar scolding tone, Kabir finally moved his hand away from the camera. His face appeared on the screen, looking incredibly embarrassed.
"Sorry, bhai, my bad! Total misunderstanding!"
"Why did you suddenly message me, man?" Rahul asked, amused.
"Because I was worried about you, obviously! You quit your job, flew to a foreign country, and haven't posted a single WhatsApp status or Instagram story for two days. You completely vanished off the grid!"
Kabir looked genuinely concerned, his tone carrying a heavy hint of reproach. He and Rahul were incredibly close, basically brothers since their first year of college.
"Wait... hold on a second!"
Suddenly, Kabir leaned closer to his phone camera, his voice filled with extreme confusion.
"WhatsApp video calls don't have beauty filters. Why the hell do you look so... handsome?! Your jawline could cut glass right now!"
Rahul smirked smoothly. "The water in Dhaka is just magical, bro. If you came and stayed for a couple of days, you might actually become decent-looking too."
"Forget it, bhai, now I definitely feel like you've been brainwashed in a scam compound," Kabir said, shaking his head. "Is this the part where you try to recruit me to join your pyramid scheme?"
"Piss off!" Rahul laughed, throwing a pillow at the phone screen. He then got serious. "But really, why did you message me? Is something wrong back in Mumbai?"
On the video screen, Kabir let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Bhai... did you see Ananya's Instagram stories today?"
"Honestly, man, sometimes I feel like you dodging that bullet was a blessing from the gods."
"Stop right there. I don't want to hear a single word about Ananya," Rahul interrupted, his tone turning firm and cold. "Anything she does has absolutely nothing to do with me anymore."
"No, Rahul, you need to hear this!" Kabir said, getting anxious. "She's publicly taking shots at you on her stories!"
"She posted a picture of a steering wheel and wrote that after dating you for six years, she never once got to sit in the passenger seat of a luxury car. And now that she's with that new guy, she's riding in a Mercedes E-Class after just one day!"
"I'm so angry on your behalf, man! Do you have any idea how disrespectful that is?"
Hearing this, Rahul did feel a brief flicker of anger, but it was purely directed at his past self for being so incredibly blind for six years.
Ananya posting that story wouldn't make her look cool or popular to anyone with half a brain.
On the contrary! It instantly exposed exactly what kind of shallow, materialistic person she was, making her look incredibly cheap!
Seeing that Rahul didn't say a word and still had an indifferent expression on his face, Kabir panicked, thinking his best friend was secretly heartbroken.
"Bhai, why aren't you saying anything?"
"Look, society is brutal. We men need to have money in our pockets to earn a woman's respect. That's just a harsh truth."
"Didn't you say you wanted to start a YouTube channel? Tell me exactly how much funding you need for equipment and travel. I have around five lakhs saved up in my mutual funds right now; I'll break them and transfer the cash to you tomorrow morning!"
"Rahul, I swear, I just want you to succeed and work hard so you can go back and shove your success right in her face!"
Hearing Kabir so desperately offer up his hard-earned savings, a deep, overwhelming wave of gratitude washed over Rahul.
However, there was absolutely no way he was taking Kabir's money. Kabir's family was from a small town in Punjab, and he had been grinding away in the brutal Mumbai corporate scene for years just to save that much.
"Kabir, I really appreciate it, man. Truly."
"But your entire mindset is completely wrong."
"It's not a universal law that a man must have money to attract a woman's affection. That's a toxic lie we've been fed."
"Since coming to Bangladesh, I've realized one absolute truth: Men really need to step out of their tiny bubbles and see how big the world actually is!"
Kabir blinked, completely lost. "Bhai, what are you even talking about?"
Rahul took a deep breath, a massive, arrogant grin spreading across his face.
"Kabir, have you ever experienced the sheer madness of being surrounded by gorgeous girls, all begging just to take a selfie with you?"
"Have you ever been in a situation where, at our age, when we go out to a fancy restaurant, the girl effortlessly pays the bill without a second thought? Or a girl who wakes up early just to hand-deliver fresh breakfast to your hotel room?"
"Wait, wait, wait. Bro, have you been reading too many of those weird fantasy web novels again?" Kabir asked in pure disbelief.
"Where on God's green earth does that kind of exaggerated nonsense actually happen?"
"Stop messing with me, man!"
In the video frame, Kabir's face was a perfect mask of utter skepticism.
"Hang on. Let me show you something."
Rahul reached over, grabbed his DJI camera, flipped the screen on, and opened his media gallery, pulling up the raw footage he had shot over the last two days.
He turned his phone's camera around, aimed it perfectly at the DJI's small digital screen, and hit play.
On the screen, Kabir watched high-definition footage of Rahul standing at the entrance of Jamuna Future Park, swarmed by layers of beautiful, stylish Bangladeshi girls, all practically fighting each other to get into his selfie frame.
Then it cut to the high-end restaurant, where the stunning, wealthy heiress Samina was leaning across the table, holding a glass and gently feeding Rahul Coke through a straw.
Then came the footage of Samina standing on her tiptoes outside the hotel, pressing a quick, secret kiss to Rahul's cheek before blushing and running away.
Then the scene completely changed to a modest local eatery, where the beautiful, incredibly elegant Anjali was gently holding Rahul's hand under a running faucet, carefully washing the grease off his fingers with soap.
Followed by Anjali aggressively defending him at the police station, and finally, her shyly taking a selfie while resting her head against Rahul's broad shoulder in the back of the rickshaw.
One unbelievable scene right after another.
On the phone screen, Kabir's jaw had literally unhinged. His mouth was hanging wide open, and his eyes looked like they were going to pop right out of his skull!
Rahul only showed him a short highlight reel before turning off the camera and flipping his phone back to the front-facing lens.
"So, what do you think, Kabir? Is your brother winning at life or what?"
"HOLY SHIT!"
Kabir suddenly let out a deafening, startled scream. His phone slipped out of his sweaty hands and hit his desk with a loud thud.
A second later, the video feed violently shook as Kabir practically dropped to his knees, pressing his hands together in a desperate plea, shouting directly into the camera:
"Prabhu! Guruji!! Please, I beg you, teach me your ways! I want to be surrounded by girls too!"
"Is it too late for me to book a flight to Dhaka right now?!"
Rahul threw his head back and let out a loud, roaring laugh. Once he finally caught his breath, he looked back at the screen.
"If I edit this and post it on YouTube tomorrow... what kind of reaction do you think it'll get?"
"Bhai," Kabir said, his voice trembling with absolute certainty, "it is going to completely break the internet!"