I Sell Bottled Water for Gold in Another World!-Chapter 206: The Delusioned Cousin

After enjoying an restful week in Goa without any more disturbances and enjoying peaceful time together, Alex and Riya finally returned to Mumbai feeling refreshed and content with their quality time spent away.

The moment Alex stepped through the elegant doors of the luxurious Lotus Crown Villa, his expensive phone buzzed with an incoming message notification that immediately caught his attention with its urgency.

He pulled out the phone and glanced at the screen. Seeing the sender, he groaned visibly with frustration building in him.

The message was from his aunt.

The message read:

Alex, your cousin has completely lost his mind over some girl! I am desperately begging you, please help me! This situation is so ridiculous that I do not know who else to ask for help. You know that Yash is so close to you. That is why I am messaging you, begging you to come and help him....

The message continued scrolling down the screen endlessly. Alex had to scroll down repeatedly just to reach the end of it.

When Alex at last completed scrolling through everything he was astonished by his cousin’s circumstances. He had just gone through what seemed like a ten-thousand-word essay.

His aunt provided a description of every detail regarding his cousin Yash.

Ultimately it essentially boiled down to this: his cousin had fallen so deeply in love that he was no longer able to differentiate reality from his own fantasy.

His cousin Yash had apparently become so utterly infatuated with some girl he barely knew for more than a week or two that he had lost all common sense in the process.

In his pursuit of her he ended up sacrificing his self-respect and basic dignity.

Based on the bits he managed to gather from his aunts message his cousin was chasing after a woman who was obviously not attracted to him at all.

Nevertheless Yash was completely certain that each refusal he got from her actually indicated she was secretly fond of him, which was obviously a misconception on his part.

Alex brought his hand up to his temple to rub it with growing frustration.

This was the scene that Riya witnessed when she came into the living room from the kitchen wearing an apron, carrying food that she had prepared herself.

She saw him sitting on the sofa with his hand pressed against his temple, frustration written all over his face.

"What is wrong?" Riya asked with genuine concern, noticing his extremely troubled expression as she came closer to him. "You look like someone just told you some terrible news. What happened? You can tell me."

"Oh, it is nothing but some family drama actually," Alex sighed heavily while taking her hand in his and pulling her gently into his arms. "My cousin is apparently having a serious romantic crisis that requires my immediate intervention brfore it is too late."

"Oh no, what kind of crisis exactly? What happened to him?"

"Nothing except that he is completely delusional about reality. It needs urgent intervention from me. Otherwise he might ruin his entire life, or worse, he could even end up in jail for harassment of a girl if she decides to file a complaint against him."

Riya heard him and winced sympathetically at the implications.

"Is it really that bad?"

"According to my aunt’s novel length message that I just spent ten minutes reading, yes, it is obviously that bad and possibly even worse than she described." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

He grabbed his expensive jacket from the coat rack.

This was definitely not something that could be handled through a few text messages or phone calls. He needed to meet his aunt in person and understand the full extent of this disaster before attempting any kind of solution.

Just as he was preparing to leave, he turned, gently took Riya’s hand, and asked, "Do you want to come with me, or would you prefer to stay here?"

"I need to go deal with a family emergency right now," he told her seriously. "If you want, you can come with me, otherwise you can watch some TV. I should be back by evening."

"And miss expending some more time with you? Absolutely not, I am coming with you," Riya said immediately without hesitation, grabbing her own jacket from the hook.

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Thirty minutes later after a quiet drive through Mumbai’s evening traffic, Alex and Riya arrived at an upscale café in Bandra’s expensive shopping district.

His aunt was already waiting there, sitting anxiously at a corner table positioned away from other customers. She was nervously stirring a cup of tea that had probably gone completely cold a long time ago.

The instant she noticed Alex entering the room her anxious expression brightened with relief as if she had been awaiting a rescuer.

"Alex! Thank God you are finally here!" She stood up so quickly in her excitement that she nearly knocked over her chair in the process.

"I have been going absolutely crazy worrying! You have to help Yash immediately.

I have tried everything I can think of: talking to him calmly, yelling at him angrily, even threatening to cut off his monthly allowance completely. Nothing works at all!"

"Auntie, please calm down first," Alex said gently but firmly, guiding her back to her seat with a reassuring hand. "Let us start from the very beginning. What exactly is going on with Yash?"

His aunt took a shaky breath, trying desperately to compose herself and organize her thoughts properly.

"Three months ago," she began with visible distress, "Yash met this girl named Kirti at his college. She is beautiful, I will give her that much credit.

Within just one week of meeting her, he became completely obsessed with her to an unhealthy degree.

At first, I genuinely thought it was just a normal crush that would pass naturally. Young people fall in love all the time and get over it, right?"

Alex nodded encouragingly, listening carefully to every word.

"But then it got progressively worse with each passing day. He started messaging her obsessively, sending dozens upon dozens of messages every single day without stopping.

He would show up wherever she was; like a stalker following her movements. He bought her expensive gifts she never asked for. He even..."

She trailed off, looking genuinely embarrassed to continue speaking.

"He started writing terrible poetry about her and posting it online for everyone to see and trust me Alex.... it is too bad."

"That does not sound too bad yet," Riya said from the side, trying to be supportive.

"Oh, it gets so much worse later on, trust me," his aunt said darkly with a grim expression. "She barely responds to him at all.

When she does actually reply, it is usually just to tell him firmly to leave her alone and stop bothering her. Yet Yash, my boy takes every single thing as a clear indication of secret love!"

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Alex asked carefully, though he was beginning to understand the disturbing pattern.

"She will say clearly to stop messaging her, and he will somehow think ’she is just playing hard to get like girls do!’

She at one time block him from all social media profiles, and he said to me that ’she is testing his devotion to prove he is serious!’

She even threw hot coffee directly on him once in public in front of everyone, but it still did not bother him at all!"

Alex and Riya exchanged deeply concerned glances with each other.

"That is... actually pretty seriously bad," Alex admitted with genuine worry creeping into his voice. "This goes beyond normal crush behavior."

"It is not just bad, Alex. It is absolutely terrifying to watch as his mother. He is completely delusional about reality. He cannot see what is actually happening anymore no matter what anyone tells him."

His aunt reached into her designer purse and pulled out a small worn notebook with a conflicted expression on her face.

"This is his personal diary. I know reading someone’s private diary is morally wrong, but I am his mother. I absolutely had to know how bad things really were inside his head."

She slid the diary across the polished table to Alex with trembling hands.

"Read it carefully. Then you will fully understand why I am so desperately worried about him and his future."

Driven by increasing intrigue Alex gently opened the diary.

The diary cover was covered completely in stickers and childish doodles: hearts everywhere, flowers, and poorly drawn portraits of what Alex assumed was the girl in question named Kirti.

He began reading the first entry:

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March 21st - Sunny Day

Today turned out to be an INCREDIBLE Day! As usual I texted Kirti to share details about my morning habits what I ate for lunch my classes in the afternoon everything, about my day. Normally she never answers,. Today... TODAY she actually replied!

She responded: "ohh..alright."

TWO COMPLETE WORDS! She’s at beginning to open up to me! I dedicated two hours trying to decipher what "ohh..alright" might signify in this situation.

I believe it indicates she is becoming at ease with me. This is a breakthrough!

I am so happy I shed tears of joy. Even if she scolds me every single day for the rest of my life, I would still be grateful just to hear her voice or see her messages!