Sunshine is always outright bright

In its warmth lie our smiles

The one light that enlightens the whole world

When we think only darkness chased us for miles.

So when it has finally reached your doorstep

Giving a whole new meaning to your life,

Hold it close to your heart you beauty,

Don't let your darkness cut you with a knife.

Dusk and dawn, day and night

It's only a mere circle of time

Feel this feeling, this very moment

Watch the love break the dark rime.

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Khushi was a bundle of nerves as she tried for the umpteenth time in the past two hours to focus on something that she needed to focus on- packing!

Although it was a short two days trip, Khushi being an extremely conscious person when it came to fashion and designs, needed to make sure her packing was completely appropriate for the trip. But the otherwise all-time agile girl had only managed to put two pieces of clothing in her suitcase up till now.

Every time she even remotely tried to put all her attention on packing, an echo of a husky voice in the back of her head would meddle with her concentration and she would be back to square one—that is being distracted!

And if that wasn't all, she had right next to her, all her soft toys lined up, the first being Mr. Snuggles of course, and quite obviously, her mind yet again reminded her of his fresh as a June rose dialogue back in the store room: ''By the way, it is a business trip. So, I hope you don't pack your soft toys in the suitcase.''

''Uff!''

She pulled her hair in frustration as she crashed on the couch, her mind not working at all as it was occupied on a wholesome level with his thoughts and she didn't even know why.

Now add to that, her best friend Aly, who was not being of any help at this moment!

Reason?

The girl had been chatting with Khushi on WhatsApp since the past twenty minutes from her office and all she did was tease the latter about her ''handsome boss'' and the ''sexy scarf'' he had gifted her.

Khushi looked like a fresh illustration of red on white, courtesy all of this that was happening.

Yes, it's no exaggeration.

Her blushes were so prominent that they indeed looked like red on white, on her pale white complexion.

She once again tried to focus on her packing but repeated messages from Aly distracted her and the next second even Nancy started WhatsApping her, asking her about her daily routines and whether she was done packing.

Khushi sighed as she finally folded her legs and sat comfortably on the couch. She decided to do one thing at a time, and thought texting with her near and dear ones would be a mood-lifter for her, because in any case, she was not able to divert her attention to packing as of now.

And so, she began replying to the messages.

Of Aly.

Of Nancy.

Of Samantha.

Of Kartika.

In no time, her smile came back and it looked like she was on a relay race or a marathon, where instead of running she had to reply to messages, popping up on her screen without a second's break!

.

.

She was only too excited now that she was talking to so many people at a time—being socially active being her field of expertise that she almost didn't notice that a WhatsApp message also popped up out of nowhere on her screen, with sender name: Voldemort with a Nose!

But thanks to the length of the name she had saved his number as Khushi's eyes immediately caught the attention of it and they pretty instantaneously went wide-eyed as if they would anytime pop out of their sockets.

She didn't know why but the instant registration of the fact that he had sent her a message made her heart skip a beat, and as she juggled between all the chat screens, she finally opened his message.

She read it at the slowest pace ever although it spoke of nothing more than work.

Lord Voldemort with a Nose: ''Please check if you have noticed the captions for the Fleur Designs my P.A. sent via email.''

Khushi quickly tried to open her Gmail on her phone, but the constant messages from Kartika, Samantha, as well as Aly, refrained her from doing so right away!

Knowing how impatient her boss gets when he doesn't get a quick reply, she decided to write that she would check right away and get back to him.

However, today the almighty wasn't even remotely generous for this Princess of Joy, as when she tried to write ''Wait a sec, I'll just check and tell you,'' a massive blunder occurred and she instead ended up sending him, ''Wait a sex, I'll just check!''

She didn't realize the blunder she had committed till she checked her Gmail and re-opened his chat screen only to see what a massive typo she had made, and the fact that he was still online, read her message, but didn't reply made her feel like burying her face somewhere and never coming back from there!

''Oh good gracious god! Why is the letter 'C' right next to 'X' on the keypad?!'

She cursed her fate as she quickly tried to rectify the blunder by typing, ''Wait a sec*''

.

.

The mighty ASR, on the other hand, had two sets of reactions.

The first, was going insanely wide-eyed, as he read the word ''Sex'' come from this innocent as a kitten Khushi Gupta.

And the second, was a smirk, which he didn't know why adorned his face.

He knew quite obviously that it was a typo, but some part of him was just enjoying this blunder she committed, for he very well knew that once she would realize it, her face would transform into a big fat red tomato.

The unusual part here was that he could actually imagine her facial expressions sitting here, envisioning very well how she would look in that embarrassed look of hers.

And as rightly imagined, in no time he got another message from her, ''Wait a sec*'' that rectified her typo.

And if that wasn't all, the next thing he got from her was, ''Sorry, sorry, sorry! It was a typo!''

Right at that, Arnav couldn't help but chuckle at her antics.

But he was a man with incessant pride and though he very well knew how flustered Khushi would be, he took immense joy in keeping her in that quandary and hence, chose to not reply, despite making her aware that he was reading all her messages: courtesy, the blue ticks.

.

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For Khushi, she was back to being a bundle of nerves, and this time even a crazier one.

Her heart was thudding loudly thinking she had vexed him big time, and she didn't know what to do.

''Oh god Khushi! You are such a loony!''

She chided herself as she wondered about what she could do possibly to fix this situation, and not knowing anything more than just being herself, she did what she would normally do had it been anyone else too in case of ASR.

She instantly sent a chain of crying emoticons, one after another, while praying fervently to her god that this would help cool down her temperamental boss' endless anger.

Little did she know that Arnav was far from being angry at the moment and was totally enjoying whatever this crazy yet innocent girl was doing.

But then again, as we all know, Arnav is an impatient man, and so when the crying and sad emoticons kept pouring in, he couldn't help but go to the typing tab.

The moment Khushi saw Lord Voldemort with a Nose was ''typing'' her insanely rapid heartbeat calmed down a bit.

She was gazing at her screen like she was practically in it, and the moment the message he was typing popped up, she dug it like it was the most wanted thing in the world.

''Miss Gupta! I'm not your best friend you are chatting with that you're spamming me with these emoticons!''

Khushi's mouth flung open in disbelief reading the last part of his sentence, and she took it is a defamation tag!

He had defamed her with the biggest criminal offense in the cyber world by calling her a spammer and she was anything but that.

''Haww! Lord Voldemort! How can he call emoticons as spam? Emoticons are little babies who deserve to be treasured forever!''

She spoke to herself while shaking her head at Arnav's lack of appreciating the ''treasure'' given to mankind.

So, choosing to ignore Arnav's taunt, she only replied this time, ''Have received the email. Thanks!''

Arnav too brushed away all other thoughts from his head and being back to business mode just wrote, ''Hope you have taken all the necessary documents and packed well for tomorrow.''

To this, Khushi only replied with a ''yes,'' at the same time rolling her tongue, for she knew what a lie that was, looking at her barely packed suitcase right next to her.

Arnav didn't know why he still had her chat screen on, when technically their conversation was officially over, with her reply that she was indeed ready for tomorrow.

Was there something more he was expecting?

He brushed off the possibility of that as well albeit reluctantly, before switching to another app to check his business emails.

.

.

Meanwhile, Khushi finally managed to open the chat screen of Aly, who had almost sent her a set of 43 new messages, none of which she could see, courtesy her boss and the blunders she committed.

And so, finally heaving a sigh of relief, she told Aly the reason behind her being missing in action in the past fifteen minutes.

''Can you even believe it? I don't even know what he would be thinking of me right now! As if my problems with him weren't enough already that now I gave him stupidly another reason to hold a grudge against me!''

She wrote to Aly.

Aly: Lol! Don't worry pumpkin! I'm sure he actually enjoyed the word ''sex'' coming from you :P Men you see ;)

Khushi: Ugh! Stop it, Aly! He's a true case of Lord Voldemort. The only difference is he has a nose, that too a sharp one!

Aly: Ahan! Someone has been noticing Handsome Raizada a little too closely ;)

Khushi: -_-

Aly: Ok ok! Relax! Wait I will send you something. Maybe that will help you decode your hell of a complicated boss!

Khushi: What?

Aly: Patience, babe!

2 minutes later..

Aly: Click to read the article:

BuzzFeed—Know in 10 simple steps: How to deal with an arrogant, manipulative, cold, and sometimes crazy man

Khushi: :D :D :D

Aly: Go read it!

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Just reading the mere title had put Khushi in a fit of endless laughter, as she imagined all the adjectives mentioned in the title fit a certain Arnav Singh Raizada so well.

Wasting not another second, she quickly clicked on the hyperlink, but as destiny would have it, right then Arnav sent her a message saying, ''Agatha has sent you another design catalogue template. You can take a look at it tonight and give your feedback tomorrow when we meet.'' And the next second itself, her phone started acting up out of the blue, and before she could even process what was happening, the whole article's URL got forwarded to the most recent name on her chat list.

No brownie points for guessing: To Lord Voldemort with a Nose!

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''WHAT THE!''

Those were the only two words that escaped from Arnav's mouth as he saw that link with the weirdest headline pop up on his chat screen, sent by none other than the problem magnet called Khushi Gupta!

He was so taken aback that he didn't even care to open the article and straight away typed to her, ''What the HELL is this, Miss Gupta?!''

Khushi felt like a jolt had hit her unannounced as she wished for the whole Earth to just crack open so that she could take a deep dive into its crust and never come back.

''Stupid, stupid, stupid Khushi! You are so dead!''

She kept telling herself like a little 12-year-old, as she tried to type a reply to him with trembling fingers.

''I'm sorry.. That wasn't for you.. It accidentally got sent to you, because my phone got hanged in between. So sorry!''

Today, it was raining Sorry(s) for Arnav, that too from just one person in particular, who had made a dramatic entry in his life weeks back.

While on one hand, he was fuming at the audacity of the girl for even daring to ''accidentally'' send such kind of a rude article to him, on another hand, a part of him wondered: If it was not for me, then who the hell was it for? Was there another guy in her life who she wanted to know how to deal with, who was manipulative and arrogant?

Damn!

This was by far the worst and most nonsensical paradox of his life, wherein on one hand, he hated the fact that there was a possibility she considered him to be all of the adjectives, and on another, it could be someone else with similar traits who occupied her mind!

Either way, he was at the receiving end, and though he could never admit it consciously, deep inside he was very well aware of this fact.

But right then he recalled her pretty recent confession that she was single and didn't have a boyfriend.

He was not too sure why that recollection out of nowhere pacified him to some extent.

''But that doesn't mean she isn't considering a potential someone, who might be all of these adjectives?''

The rational side of him brought the legit question up.

And then of course there was this tiny part of him that sort of believed she was indeed reading it for him and that's what made his eyebrows twitch!

For the first time ever, the mighty Arnav Singh Raizada was trying to find subtlety in humiliation!

Frustrated with all of it, he just muttered some curses under his breath, before pouring himself a glass of whisky and retiring to his bedroom, but not before looking at the chat-screen once again, where there now remained only one new message from her, a simple ''Goodnight!'' and without much thought, he reiterated the same thing in a reply, before switching his phone off.

.

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Khushi, on the other hand, was sitting like a statue on the floor of her apartment.

It was a day full of blunders.

If she was all jittery about her trip to Austin tomorrow with him all this while, now after her back to back blunders, she was outright petrified!

She pouted like a little kid before trying to put some more clothes into her suitcase, when a sudden thought occurred inside her head, making her open her contact list on the phone right away.

She quickly navigated to the letter ''L'' where his name was saved as ''Lord Voldemort with a Nose'' and she hit the ''edit'' tab soon after.

As she hit the backspace button and erased the whole phrase that was his name on her phone of late, her heart told her, what to replace it with.

''ASR..''

She thought as she typed it.

And in not less than 5 seconds, she deleted it and was back to square one.

''Arnav Singh Raizada..''

She typed, but she was only halfway through when she deleted that as well.

''Lord Voldemort with a sharp nose?''

She considered, but before she could even begin to type it, her conscience reprimanded her: ''SHUT UP KHUSHI!''

And so, after a lot of hits and misses, she finally typed, ''Arnav Sir!''

And with that she kept her phone aside.

After the consecutive blunders that happened with her, all thanks to her stupid phone, there was no way in hell she was going to take another chance with it now that she was going on a business trip with him. What if he asked for her phone, or simply saw her phone and realized she had saved his name as the biggest villain in the history of the fantasy world?!

She could never take chances like that.

She finally breathed a sigh of relief, her mind suddenly clear of all the hazy thoughts as she slowly began to drive her focus only towards her packing, when suddenly a little something tugged her mind and heart- both at the same time, making her pick up her phone from her side, and going back to the contact edit panel, where without any reason, understanding, or thought, she edited his name yet again. This time, erasing the ''sir'' and keeping it just one word:

''Arnav.''

**