Song: Tu Hi Re  - Love is Love Version by A R Rahman 

() watch the video if you will, brilliant choreography!

===

A student came in from a younger class to inform something to the teacher. She called, "Armaan, Riddhima, they're looking for you in the staff room."

Confused, we got up and followed the student to the staff room.

Ms. Rhea Tagore, the director of arts department, was waiting for us there. She ushered us in. After greeting, she got straight to the point. "Armaan, Riddhima, I wanted to talk to you about the final audition performance of yours. All the teachers agree that it should definitely be a part of annual celebrations."

I smiled, and looked at Armaan to see he was happy with the news as well.

"But, we also decided that we would like for it to actually be performed, not just sung. As you know, we also have a few dances. I want that you work with one of the teams for a collaboration."

"But ma'am..." I started to object.

She interrupted, "I know, it'll take more time for rehearsals and I have talked with your teachers. They are okay with you missing a few of your extra-curricular classes like gym and music so you can rehearse during school hours. That way, you can focus on practices for basketball matches after school and not have a lot of your time taken off from studies."

Armaan asked, "Can we think about it? We've never thought about performing this with a dance routine to it."

Ms. Tagore nodded, "Ofcourse. Let me know tomorrow? Annual day is quickly approaching so we should get started with it right away."

"Sure." Armaan answered for both of us, and we left.

As soon as we were on our way back to class, I announced my opinion, "I don't want to do this."

"Why?"

"It'll take up too much time! We already have basketball and semester exams are approaching. Adding dance is going to be hectic."

"Yeah, but didn't you hear Ms. Tagore? We can practice for the performance during school hours. It's not like we'll be missing a lot in gym and music class anyway. It's not going to affect studies or basketball practices after."

"I don't know." I answered, not sure I was up for this.

"Come on, it's our last year. I say we make the best of it."

"I guess."

He grinned at my answer and hugged me from the back. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

I rolled my eyes and tried to keep my heart at bay as I tried to wriggle out of his hold. "Yeah, whatever. Now move it." He laughed at my reaction and moved his hands to my shoulder. He started pushing me up the stairs to get back to our class." Armaan, I'll fall! Let go."

He stopped pushing me, but he also stopped me from continuing to walk. He stood in the step behind me and tilted his head sideways to look at me. "I'd never let you fall."

The sincerity in his voice all of a sudden took me aback. Since the last couple days, he'd been a little hostile towards me as if he was mad at me for something. And suddenly, he was telling me this, hugging me and what not?

I cleared my throat and moved my face away a little. Being that close to him was giving me all sorts of feelings. "Yeah, sure." I said as if I didn't believe him, "Let's get to class before we get in trouble."

I started going up the stairs and for a few seconds, I didn't hear him behind me. Then he climbed up skipping steps at a time to fall in step with me.

I may have agreed to this, but how was I going to handle spending even more time around him?

I scolded myself. I may have learned to say 'no' to other people, but I still couldn't say no to him when he looked at me with those blue eyes and that adorable begging look in them.

===

He held up his finger, "Shh, I'm not done." She inched herself further in the wooden door if it were possible when he took a step towards her, placing one of his hand on the door beside her ear. "You may have been quick to give up on us, but know that I never will. The next time I call you, you will answer the damn phone and you will talk to me. If it makes it harder for you to 'move on', then fine. I can live with that, but don't ask me to live a life without you... because that? That kills me."

Once again, Riddhima couldn't find it in herself to say no to him. He told her, no... demanded, that she would answer his phone whenever he'd call, and she couldn't stand up for herself and say no. It may be his eyes, or his words, or how close he was standing to her. Perhaps, it was all three that conspired against her, causing her brain to power down and stand there a statue listening to everything he poured out.

Also, she couldn't forget what he said about friendship. It's what she herself used to idealize about when she'd have conversations with Khushi as kids. She wanted the friendship people always talked about. She wanted to be that person. But she was learning the hard way that it wasn't as easy.

He was right.

She couldn't stop being his friend because without realizing it, he made her fall for her. It wasn't his fault that she fell for him. He had never said she needed to have feelings for him. But as they continued to grow sense and mature, he himself realized his own feelings. Just because it became an inconvenience for her to be able to move on while still talking to him, it wasn't right to break their lifelong friendship – no matter how much it would hurt. In order to truly move on, one had to face that object and in this case, it was her feelings for Armaan.

By continuing to avoid it, she was only suppressing her feelings. She wasn't getting over them. She realized how right her mother was. She couldn't move on from Armaan simply by pulling miles between them.

Armaan stepped back after he had said everything he needed to. For now, his goal was to get her back as a friend. He could clearly see she wasn't ready to talk about anything else. So, he decided he would make what was possible happen. He had a feeling that if he pulled too much, she'd push back and things would end worse than they already were – if it were possible. It was how their cat and dog fights went after all.

He wanted his love to be selfless, but he didn't want to take a step in the wrong direction either. With her, he had already made many mistakes. He couldn't afford another one.

She stepped away from the door and he left the room. "What just happened?" She asked to herself as she stood in the room, alone. The silence didn't answer, but the recall of few minutes ago did flash in her head.

Armaan happened.

She could not believe how affected she had been by his standing right in front of her. It may have been a crush before, for she believed nothing would ever come of her feelings. But, now that he returned her feelings, everything was becoming too real. She realized it wasn't just her heart responding any more, but her body as well.

===

The basketball practice was horrible. The coach seemed to taking some frustration out on us. She barely let us play. More than half the time, she made us run laps and work on our foot technique. After the two hours when she dismissed us, I went to the bench were my bag was and pulled out my water bottle. Despite it being winter, I was sweating.

I gulped down water hungrily. My teammates all bid bye, all ready to head back home before it would turn dark.

Armaan walked over to me with his basketball dribbling next to him, "Quick game?"

"I'm tired, Armaan. You didn't see coach. I swear, she must have been pissed at her husband and she took that out on us." I commented, starting to zip up my bag.

He laughed, "Oh, I noticed. Coach Shukla let us out almost 45 minutes ago."

I narrowed my eyes, turning to him, "Then what are you still doing here?" He couldn't have been waiting for me, could he?

"Well, seeing as she wasn't letting you all practice a game, I figured I'd stick around and help you out. Now come on, the first one to get five."

"Tomorrow."

He baited me, "Afraid you'll lose?"

I rolled my eyes, falling for his challenge, "As if." I snatched the ball mid-dribble and ran off to the center of the court.

He followed with a smirk of his own. I motioned for him to come and try to steal the ball from me as I carelessly dribbled in spot. He did try, and I dodged each of his attempts, moving closer and closer to the basket. I threw it and it went in the hoop.

That was too easy. He was holding back, I could just tell. The next two were not so easy. Deciding to quit playing around, he had gotten serious. With one arm, he kept blocking me. When he made the second basket and took lead, I started to get into the game. There was no way I was losing.

He threw the ball at me, given it was my turn. With a huff, I grabbed it just before it would hit my face. I lead to the center and he came up to block my path. I continued to move towards the basket, and he continued to block by standing in front of me, moving backwards. But, he wasn't making any attempts to steal the ball.

I made it look like I was going to throw it from my right and jumped to throw it from the left. His hands had shot up as defense, but he fell for the trick. I landed on my feet with a grin on my face seeing we were now tied. I could hear the ball bouncing on the floor and gradually come to a stop, but I couldn't move to grab it. I was in a trance, the way Armaan was gazing back at me. There was barely a foot of a distance between us, given I had jumped and landed right in front of him.

"What?" I eventually asked, breathing heavily. My heart was pounding in my chest with the rush of adrenaline.

He blinked, shook his head with a smile, and turned away to get the ball that had rolled off the court. 

Shaking my head, I decided to focus on the game, not the player.

I managed to steal the ball right as he took the plunge for a basket. I ran off to my side of the court, not giving him a chance to catch up and threw it through the hoop. Then I bounced it back to him, at his turn. Just then, it thundered and the clouds rumbled.

It had already been windy the entire day. We knew the weather was going to get bad and perhaps even rain. Just as I thought it, rain drops started to fall. I looked at him to see if he was going to continue the game, and he did. He refused to call it off and accept defeat. I went along, blinking my eyes against the rain drops on my lashes.

Both of our clothes started to stick to our skin, and I was momentarily distracted at the show of his biceps and sculpted body. He took that chance to even the score. When I heard the ball hitting the ground after going through the hoop, I blinked and realized what had happened.

Focus Ridzzi.

I gulped down the shiver from the cold winds and the rain. I tried to make a basket, but he came from behind to try to snatch it from me mid-dribble. I tried to block, but his arms kept brushing against mine, making it extremely difficult for me to ignore just how close he was. I pushed off the ground a little to aim at the basket. His foot got tangled with mine and he fell, along with me. But I watched to see if the basket would make it in. You know that anticipation when it keeps rolling around the hoop and you're waiting for it to score? Yeah, those were the longest five seconds. But, finally, it did fall in.

I cheered only momentarily until I realized I was half on top of him. I found his eyes travel from the hoop as if he had been glaring at it hoping it would burn, to me as he too registered our position. His eyes traveled further down my face before he glanced up at my eyes again.

Wait... Did he just glance at my lips? What? That's never happened before... Suddenly feeling conscious of his gaze, I pushed away and stood up.

I hoped to go get the ball, but he grabbed my hand by the wrist. He was in the process of standing up when I turned to look at him. That's when I noticed the scrap on his elbow. I didn't wait for him to stand up completely. I twisted his arm so I could look at the skid injury. I winced. The layer of his skin was completely scrapped and blood was started to ooze.

Probably noticing my expression, he assured, "It's not that bad."

"You kidding? It's bleeding!" I exclaimed, starting to get my handkerchief. The rain was doing a good job of wiping it clean, but I patted it clean anyway.

I was worried about his injury, but casually he went on to speak. "See, this is why I call you Basket. You get so lost when playing basketball, you don't realize anything else."

"Are you saying I disconnect with the reality?" I questioned, unsure exactly what he meant by that. What was I supposed to realize right now?

Without thinking, I reached for the front pocket of his shorts as I knew he always kept a kerchief on him. Only, the rain was making it harder for my fingers to slip in as the fabric stuck to him.

"What are you doing, Riddhima?"

I glanced up at his strained voice. He was staring at him unblinking. I'm not sure if it was the look or the rain that caused me to shudder and bring about goosebumps on my skin. Realizing where my hand was, I pulled back. "Give me your kerchief." I held out my hand since mines was already stained with blood and I didn't want to wrap that one around the injury.

He did take it his out of his pocket and handed it over. The only thing was he still hadn't blinked or shifted his gaze from my eyes. I had no idea what was going on in his head and it was unnerving being the one to not able to read him. I can always sense his moods, but his face was blank right now. It wasn't helping my pounding heart.

Fresh blood was starting to trickle out of the wound, and I reminded myself to focus on the task. Even though it started to get damp from the rain, I folded it crossway and tied it over to stop the bleeding.

He dropped his hand and I scolded, "Keep it up, Armaan." He should know better than to levitate it where the blood would continue to flow. He rolled his eyes at my instructions, but listened nonetheless.

"You know, you cheated." He commented while his other hand ran its way through his hair that had started to stick to his forehead.

I went on to behave as if I didn't find that action hot, and gaped instead, "Say what now?"

"I fell. That's a foul."

I scoffed, "I know how the game is played, alright? You fell on your own accord. I didn't push you or anything."

I turned to get the ball and then start heading home, but he grabbed my wrist, twisted my arm behind me, and pulled me to him until my back was against his chest. He whispered in my ear. "You. Cheated."

His breath falling on my ear caused me to stiffen and hold back my breath for a second. I gulped before answering trying my level best to not stammer, "Oh, really? Please explain how?"

He opened his mouth to say whatever his explanation was, and then shut it without uttering a word. Weird. "You just did." He claimed otherwise, as if simply saying it was enough of a statement.

I turned my head to look ahead again, "Unless you're going to explain exactly how I cheated, I'm going to count that as a score, making it 4-3. You lose."

He countered. "We agreed on first one to reach 5. You haven't reached 5 yet."

I explained, "Yes, but you need to go home and bandage up that wound properly."

"One more round isn't going to make a difference."

"We can play that round another time, Armaan." I said in a concluding tone as I tried to wriggle my hand free. "We already wasted half hour, and I need to get back home before dad gets back. Besides, I'm not about to get pneumonia."

"Fine." He offered an alternative, "Only if you answer one question."

"What?" I asked, beyond ready for him to let me go so I could put some distance between us.

As if sensing my thoughts, he allowed me enough leeway to turn so I was facing him instead of my back. I wasn't sure if that was any better, since he asked the question, "Are you and Angad dating?"

"No." I answered in a heartbeat.

He narrowed his brows, "Don't lie, Basket."

I sighed. "Why would I lie?"

He had an answer ready, "You two kissed and you wouldn't let anyone kiss you if you didn't have feelings for him."

See, this is why Angad should have let it be. I did not need Armaan to be misunderstanding things. I tugged at my hand, and he easily loosened his grip. I stood on my toes with my hands on his right shoulder to keep my balance. He seemed to tense, probably wondering what I was going to do, but stayed in place. I placed my lips on his temple quickly before pulling back and taking two steps away. "That was the kiss he was talking about."

There was a shocked expression on his face, and I assumed it was because he hadn't expected me to peck his temple. I don't know why I did that either. I went with the first thought in my head, and I deemed it better to simply show it rather than try to explain.

His whole demeanor changed as he expressed in a single word, "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." I answered, crossing my arms over my chest and rubbing them to provide some warmth. We really needed to get indoors someplace instead of getting drenched in the rain. "Now can we go before we both get sick?"

I didn't exactly wait for him to nod his head or anything. I started walking towards my bag and placed it over my shoulders after putting on my coat. He came and mimicked my actions, though he did not have a coat. He pulled out an umbrella from his bag and held it over us. In silence, we started walking towards home. Even though we kept bumping into each other to stay under the umbrella, it wasn't big enough for both of us. One side of mine was still getting wet and I assume it was the same for him.

I pulled my hair out of the ponytail and ruffled it a bit so I wasn't walking around with damp hair and increasing my chance of falling sick.

===

Still feeling dazed, she made herself remember where she had planned on going before this conversation and took off for the hospital. It was a wonder she made it to the hospital in one piece, for she barely remembered the ride over. Her brain was subconsciously driving while all together on another continuum.

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authors note:

Ah, the basketball scene ^_^  Hope you enjoyed the gifs (: I couldn't find one where Riddhima kisses his forehead - I'm sure there has been plenty in the show...right?

Lemme know your thoughts on this chapter! What do you think of Armaan wanting her back as a friend first, and his thoughts of not giving up on friendship because romantic feelings came about unexpectedly?

Chapter 19. Boyfriend? on Friday or 14 votes & 10 comments for early :D