Atul showed his thumb from behind the camera to let them know he had them in proper focus. Sapna introduced Armaan before greeting him, "Armaan, welcome to the show again. It seems like we're having you here too much lately, huh?"

Armaan laughed, "I know right? I might get tired of seeing your face soon, Sapna."

Sapna purred her lips, "Oh, please. No one can get tired of my face."

Armaan joked along, "You're right. You do look pretty always."

"Aww, thanks!" She gushed, chuckling before moving on. "So, how are the sales for your latest album? I imagine its all good news?"

"Yes, fortunately by God's grace. They're higher than ever before so I guess that says something."

"Hmm, well, don't mind me asking this, Armaan. But everyone's been lately talking about a few pictures that have been circulating the net, calling it a publicity stunt. It seems to have hiked up your sales. What do you have to say on that?"

"See, there are many things people spread rumor on but it doesn't make it true."

Sapna asked for clarification for the viewers, "So it wasn't a publicity stunt?"

"Not at all. Everyone calls me a ladies man and all, and people can believe it or not, but I'm actually quiet grounded. I don't condone people spreading rumors. I mean, what's the point of making a girls' life hard just because she was spotted with someone?"

"So you hold females to a high value?"

"Certainly. We all should. It's sad how easily this country is quick to shift the blame on the girls, labeling them characterless, without morals, etc. In all honesty, that just makes me mad. Two of the most important people in my life are females, so I do know what it means to respect them and I'd never use this as a publicity stunt."

"Sadly, that is true... If you don't mind me asking, where do these value of yours come from?"

"One is my sister. I'm closest to her in my family. And the second is Riddhima. Riddhima Gupta."

"This wouldn't happen to be the R. Gupta you credit for all your songs?"

Armaan smiled, "The one and only."

Sapna pretended to be surprised, "Wow, I never would've thought you'd ever reveal the person's name. Or that R. Gupta was a girl."

Armaan nodded, "Yes. A lot of people used to think R. Gupta was one of my male cousins."

"So why reveal her name now?"

"Because, I couldn't let everyone call her my one-night stand."

"You mean...?"

Armaan confirmed, "Yes, she's the same person."

"Wow, everyone's been wanting to meet her for years now."

Armaan offered, "Well, she's here with me in the studio. How about everyone finally meet her?"

"Really?" Sapna again faked surprise. Riddhima had to hide a laugh as she was learning just how scripted everything was. "Yeah, that'd be amazing. What do you guys say?" She asked the few watching the live telecast from the studio – a lot of them were girls who'd bought the ticket to come and meet Armaan.

At the cheers of approval, he announced. "I'll just get her." He walked up to Atul where Riddhima was standing next to her. He offered her a smile and his hand.

She took it, while muttering. "You're crazy."

Sapna announced as they walked into the frame, "Ladies and ladies, Riddhima Gupta." She stood up for a hug. "Welcome to our show."

"Thank you." Riddhima politely replied before Sapna waved at them to take a seat.

Sapna asked, "So, Riddhima, tell us something about yourself."

"Uh..." Riddhima nervously looked at Armaan who seated at the other end of the couch. "There's not much. What do you want to know?"

Armaan had to chuckle at how cute she looked nervous. He hadn't seen her nervous in years. Since she had returned, she had been so confident of herself.

Sapna attempted to guide her, "How about you tell us how you two know each other?"

"Oh, I've known this idiot since we were like 6? 7? Maybe younger."

Armaan shook his head, "Riddhima?"

"Hmm?" She turned to face him and he reminded her.

"We're recording, you know?"

She recalled she had just called him an idiot in front of the camera. Old habits don't die easily. She'd very often call him that. "Oh. Sorry." She mumbled an apology.

Sapna continued after their side conversation, "Wow, you two have known each other your whole life then! Tell us, how was growing up with Armaan?"

Riddhima chuckled, "Oh, he was the most irritating guy. If we didn't fight atleast once a day, we wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

Armaan interjected, "Don't lie, Basket. You were irritating me by taking me sister away from me." He informed Sapna, "They've been best friends. That's how we became friends too."

"Now who is lying?" Riddhima taunted him, for that was so not the real story of how they became friends. Armaan narrowed his eyes at her, telling her to keep that bit of information to themselves. Understanding the desire to keep some facts personal, she added, "I wasn't stealing your sister. She chose to spend time with me over you."

He rolled his eyes, though glad that she caught on to the look in his eyes. "Oh, please. She'd pick me over you any day."

Sapna commented, "You three must have been quite a group then, huh?"

Armaan grinned, choosing to answer. "Oh yeah. Everyone in Shimla knew that. We'd pretty much always be together. Always been us against the world."

Riddhima looked at him with a smile, knowing the deeper meaning behind his words. They'd always protected each other. The secrets they kept from the world about Khushi and her kidnap and rape...

"Armaan, why not reveal her name before when you've been asked multiple times who write your lyrics?"

Armaan nodded at Riddhima to answer. "Because I've never wanted that. See, whenever I wrote something, he was the first one to read it. That's how he started singing... adding music to my words. As we grew up, he started taking it seriously but I still just wrote as an outlet for my thoughts. I've never cared for people knowing it was me and he knew that. I was okay just staying in the shadows but he still wouldn't listen. He found a way and gave my initials so I'd still get credit."

Sapna commented, "Aw, that's sweet Armaan. People don't usually do that."

Armaan glanced at Riddhima, "Well, she's always been my inspiration. I had to. Actually, I wouldn't have been here right now if it wasn't for me wanting everyone to see the potential in her words."

Riddhima fumbled with her fingers, "Oh, stop it, Armaan. I'm not that good."

He squinted at her, "I'm sure all my fans would disagree. Your words are freaking romantic at heart."

Sapna chuckled, "Alright guys, while these two argue over that, let's take a short break. Don't go anywhere, because we'll be right back with a rapid fire round!"

Atul yelled "Cut" behind the camera and Sapna teased them, "You two really weren't kidding about all the arguing, huh?"

Armaan chuckled, pausing their own side conversation, "Yeah, sorry about that. We shifted off the script a lot, huh?"

Sapna assured, "It's fine. I didn't get to ask a lot of the questions we'd planned, but it'll be a great episode either way."

===

@armaangupta "Think its time to fall in love again. #homesweethome"

With the caption, Armaan added a sunset view from his favorite spot in the valleys of Shimla.

Riddhima was scrolling through her feed when she got bored of seeing the same things. So, she went to the trending ones and she came across this post of his. Why was it not on her feed instead? Because she hadn't followed him. Yes, she was being an idiot for once.

With Armaan's stubbornness on not singing songs that weren't written by Riddhima, he had created a mystery around her. Everyone wanted to know who R. Gupta was. Some speculated she could be a family member – given their similar last names. Armaan never told anyone who she was as she didn't want that. But that just meant that she didn't follow him anywhere on social media, and he didn't follow her either. If he followed, they would figure out who she was with him having only one R. Gupta on his following list.

The life of a celebrity was a cruel one.

23 minutes ago, and the picture already have 80,121 likes and counting. She scrolled through some of his older posts, and they all had hundreds of thousands of likes. They ranged from nature pictures to quotes to selfies to Muskaan's puppy to some of the concert pics, food pics.

At the knock on her door, she glanced away and realized she had spent the hour looking through his posts. Lo and behold, the person himself.

Well, not just him. It was their entire old gang: Khushi, Armaan, and Angad.

She grinned seeing Angad and stood up on her bed. "Angad!! You're back!"

He caught her at the edge of the bed and while hugging, pulled her so her feet would be planted on the floor. Laughing, he called her, "Hey girlfriend. Nice to see you too again."

Laughing herself, she pulled back. "Are you ever going to stop calling me that?"

"Never."

"Your real girlfriend is going to take offense to that one day, you know?"

Armaan commented, "The day Angad Khanna settles on a girl will be the end of this world."

Angad punched him in the stomach for that comment. Riddhima actually sided with Armaan, "You know that's true, Angad."

"I'll have you both know – I came very close to that once." Angad defended himself.

"Oh yeah? When was that auspicious time?" Armaan questioned, for he had seen Angad go through his set of girls and never once had he gotten the impression that Angad actually sincerely liked one of them.

"You never met her." He replied instantly, and then thought to amend, "As far as I know. You might have met her when I wasn't there."

Armaan didn't believe that.

Angad added, "You know what? Just you wait till I find her again."

Khushi teased, "And does this girl have a name?"

"Ofcourse she does." He then admitted without even being embarrassed about it, "I just don't know it."

Riddhima tsked him, "Angad, so mean of you. How drunk were you to not remember her name?"

Angad starting counting off fingers as he clarified, "One, I was very much sober. Two, I said I don't know it, not that I don't remember it. She never gave me her name. But I'm confident I'll be meeting her again. Anyway, can we get going or what?"

"Where?' Riddhima questioned as no one had told her they were going anywhere. She hadn't gotten permission from her parents.

"Out." Khushi answered, "Come on. Change. Your parents already know. I told them on the way up."

Well, there went Riddhima's excuse for not being able to go. So, she said the truth, "You all go ahead. I don't feel like it."

"Excuse us, boys." Khushi told them and pushed them out of the room. They weren't sure if that was a yes, they were coming, or no, you both carry on. Hence, they waited for them downstairs. Inside the room, Khushi asked Riddhima. "Ridz, what's wrong? I know you're tired but come on, it'll be fun! The four of us are together after such a long time!"

"I know... but I want to stay at home. It's been a long time since I spent time with my parents."

Khushi did understand her point, but she didn't want to go alone either. "I know Ridz, but you spent the whole day with them and you have the rest of the week to do that too. Just one night out. Come, please? I promise, we'll drop you home before 11. Pleaseee!"

Riddhima couldn't refuse the pout. "Okay, fine, only if you promise."

"Yes, definitely." She hugged her. "Promise. I love you, you know?" She pulled back. "Okay, I'm going to tell them we're coming. Start getting ready. And please, wear a dress; you've got tons of them!"

Khushi opened the door and pushed her out before she had the chance to argue again about which footwear to wear. Despite Khushi asking her to wear a dress, Riddhima wore a black colored one shoulder top with cut on the side of the shoulder straps and paired it off with white denim shorts, bracelets and hanging necklace.

Riddhima stumbled out of the room in heels, straight into crashing against Armaan. "Whoa, doll, what are you doing?" He looked behind Riddhima, directing the question at Khushi. He was dressed in a white button up and black casual leather coat, more like a jacket.

"Relax Amy, be glad I've only pushed her; not had to carry her out of the room."

"What?" Armaan questioned, confused. Why would Khushi be carrying Riddhima out of the room? They were by now in the living room and the four of them were walking out towards the car.

"Yeah, can you believe it? Once, she was being so stubborn that Kripa and I had to carry her out."

Riddhima wondered. Is it just me who noticed that his arm is still around me? It wasn't until he had opened the car door for her that he moved his hand away from her waist. Khushi sat on the other side and Armaan drove while Angad sat in the passenger seat.

"But why?" Angad asked.

Riddhima shot a glare at Khushi. "Don't you dare!" She did not need the boys to know of her obsession with shoes. She had tons of them, and she could never decide which ones to match with which outfit.

"What? You have to tell now! I'm intrigued." Angad encouraged Khushi.

"You see..." Khushi was tantalizingly speaking slowly to tease Riddhima. "Khushi!" Riddhima threatened. "She was..." Riddhima covered Khushi's mouth with her hand and prevented her from speaking another word.

Whispering in her ear, she threatened, "Don't forget. I know your secrets too." Khushi scowled. She, not for one second, doubted that Riddhima would reveal one of her secrets to get back at her. "Fine, I won't tell." Khushi mumbled the best she could with her mouth covered. "Good girl," Riddhima flashed a winning victory and freed Khushi's mouth.

"You can't just get us interested and then not tell us!" Angad whined.

Khushi gave him a sorry look. "Sorry pal, this girl over here holds the key to my Pandora's Box."

Armaan was silently enjoying this. He had really missed seeing the best friends, Riddhima and Khushi, arguing, teasing, fighting, threatening and simply being adorable together. Only he knew how hard it was for him to not stare at Riddhima when she had run into him wearing the outfit. To channel that control, he had purposefully left his hand on her side waist. He pulled into the parking lot quicker than he had thought.

Armaan definitely learned what Khushi had meant earlier. From what he observed, Riddhima was pretty comfortable in the top and shorts she was dressed in. It was only making it hard for him to keep his eyes off her slender legs and the bare shoulder. Leaving her hair free, they only seemed to be inviting him to nuzzle her neck.

Not only that, she was carefree on the dance floor as well with Angad. Khushi had ofcourse stayed back, not putting herself in the middle of a crowded dance floor and set off her panic attack when someone accidentally or purposefully touched her. From the sidelines though, she looked out at them and grinned seeing Angad putting her plan in motion.

Occasionally, he would purposely bump Riddhima towards Armaan. She had caught on that this was being done in an ulterior motive. Angad glared at Armaan when he strived to be decent. Sighing, he wasn't left with a choice when both his sister and best friend were out to torture him. He danced with her, his hand snaked around her stomach from behind. Grinning, Angad turned away and found a random girl to dance with who was more than happy to oblige after taking in his looks.

Riddhima wasn't naïve. She knew exactly what was going on, and she knew that the more she tried to fight it, the harder she was going to be pushed towards him. Fighting it during high school had worked out so well after all – note the heavy sarcasm. So, she danced with him. She turned to face him after a bit, and with her wrist on his shoulder and his hands on her hips, they danced.

It was a good thing that there were party lights and unless someone was really close, they wouldn't be able to recognize Armaan. It gave him some privacy to openly be with Riddhima. The song changed to an entertaining party song, one Armaan was very familiar with and so was Riddhima. Buddhu sa Mann. It was one of the quicker beat songs of his, lyrics on a happy note as Riddhima had been at a happier place in life – a carefree tone.

After Khushi had explained her equation with Abhi, suddenly, it made sense to Armaan as to why this song that she had written was slightly different and chirpier. It was still a bit romantic, but it wasn't one of the unrequited lyrics.

He laughed hearing his own song played, and Riddhima had to as well. Angad easily excused himself from the girl he was dancing with and joined the two with open arms. "Armaan!" He yelled, and thanks to the already loud atmosphere, the crowd didn't realize that Angad was actually calling him to sing along to his own song. They figured he was just a fan of Armaan too and was thus saying the name.

He grabbed Armaan's hand and started dancing to the song with him as if one of them were the girl and the other a boy. Riddhima went on to laugh and join their craziness. At one point, Armaan took one hand of Riddhima and Angad took the other and they twirled her in together – only for it to end in a complete tanglement. They wanted to get her in the middle and they did, but they also horribly twisted up her arms.

The song came to an end and Angad squeezed her in a hug, having had his laughter for the night. "Adios, girlfriend." He yelled in her ear before slapping Armaan's back and leaving to join his catch of the night again. That told Riddhima that atleast for the rest of the night, they weren't going to see Angad again.

She had to shake her head at his retreating form – for this habit of his was nowhere good or right. But this was Angad. He had always been this harmless player who enjoyed his life to the fullest. He had yet to grow out of his hormonal teenage days and get serious.

After a few more songs, Riddhima was tired and needed a drink for her dry throat. She ordered a nonalcoholic drink and then noticed the time on Armaan's watch. She pulled at his wrist to make sure she was reading it right. 11:25.

Her eyes widened, "Crap."

"What?" He questioned. She nodded towards his watch, as if to tell him it was late! "Come on, basket. You don't have a curfew to meet. Your parents know you're with us."

She shook her head, downing the mocktail in one huge gulp. "Doesn't matter." She started to leave for the exit, and letting out a sigh, he followed but not before he motioned at Arnav to drop Khushi home.

He jogged up to her in the parking lot, "Wait up, basket."

Ofcourse, even if he didn't say it, she'd have to. She didn't know where he had parked the car, and there was no way she was going to be walking home in this chilly night. She was so not dressed for this weather. She grunted, hugging herself to provide some warmth as she waited for him to catch up. She needed to get indoors again.

He slowed down a couple feet from her and noticing her trying to not clatter her teeth, he took off his jacket. Reaching her, he put it around her shoulders. The polite Riddhima had said her goodbye's years ago. This one gladly accepted the jacket and held it closer to her body. "Get in," He ordered holding the car door open for her. Normally, she would have glared at him for ordering her. This once, she let it be an exception.

As she waited for him to come around, she put the jacket over her bare legs instead and rubbed her palms for warmth.

Armaan slipped the question as he turned on the car and blasted the heat on full speed, "Why wouldn't you bring a jacket?"

"Forgot how cold it gets here." She sheepishly admitted.

He offered as his concern for her took over his urge to scold her further. "Give it a minute."

As they drove back, Riddhima stopped shivering and didn't feel the need to continue rubbing her palms together either. "Wow, tonight was fun."

"It was."

Looking at him, she questioned. "You called Arnav here?"

"Yeah, I was thinking we'd just meet when we go back to Mumbai as that's where he is these days, but then he said he was in Nainital visiting his uncle and aunt. He kind of invited himself over."

Riddhima gaped at the information, "Wait what? Nainital is still, what, 12 hours ride?"

"Give or take a few."

"Why would he drive all that?"

Armaan admitted unwillingly, "You might have been right about them. He must feel something for her too... why else would he drive over?"

"So that's good right?" She questioned the lack of confidence in his tone, "We just have to make sure he won't hurt her again." She could tell that he was still unconvinced and she could understand that. His top priority was to look out for his sister and he was concerned. He had every right to be after what Arnav had done. She placed her hand on top of his that rested on the gear stick. "It's okay, Armaan. We're there for her, right?"

"Yeah." He answered, glancing at her hand. Realizing herself, she pulled her hand back.

"Oh hey, I saw that Instagram post earlier. Thinking of a new song?"

He smirked at learning she kept tabs on his social media, "Basket, are you stalking me?"

===

author's note:

I'm sorry guys I haven't been able to reply to comments in last few chapters. I'm a bit busy with tax audit stuff for my dad's business.. I enjoy reading all the comments so do keep them coming! I'll reply to each first chance I get :D

Also, I want to update Chapter 8. Make a Difference before Tuesday so jaldi se vote & comment!!