Prabhas' POV

"Y/N called me at late night, more than thrice..." somewhat I had to struggle to speak the words aloud so Priya could hear, but she moved towards me in order to understand what I'm saying. My throat felt harder, and my chest heavier than before, while speaking of her.

"She must have needed me. Otherwise why - " 

"She would have needed you because she must have messed something up, and then you have to be there to clean up, save her, to be "the hero" " Priya, who looks clearly pissed off, made air quotations and got up the sofa I am sitting on.

"And being there is my responsibility, as her boyfriend, Priya." I just said the words aloud, without putting any emotion into it, as if I am just stating. 

"That's the ONLY thing you've been doing ever since you got together. Oh, wait! saving her back was what you were doing ever since you knew her! Do you remember ANYTHING ELSE in your relationship other than being into the mess that Arjun, Vijay, and Y/N created??? Prabha, do not get me wrong. This is not going to work out." Priya sat beside me and put her hand on my shoulder, tapping it gently as if comforting me for what she had just said aloud. But I do not need any comforting, as I don't really feel sad about what she had just said, more like my heart knew it before she said it out loud.

Priya who was staring at my face, observing my emotionless eyes, asked me one last question,

"Does your heart really says 'it's her and ONLY her', Prabha?"

I turned to look at her, with my eyes wet, our faces staring at each other.

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VIJAY'S POV

" Iyo Amma I specifically asked you to inform me when he leaves. Why didn't you tell me that he did not go with you and Dad? Do you know how many problems he is causing inside the college, and how as his twin with the same face I have to carry the weight of embarrassment, more over as a lecturer in the same college! Y/N is paavam ma." I shouted in my phone, frustrated. 

"Dei, if her father gave us her as the bride why any of this would happen? He doesn't even speak with us still, doesn't come down to speak of giving her for you then---"

"Wait! Did you and Appa went again asking their daughter for ME?" I gasped in disbelief. The mother replied that she tried contacting him by phone to put an end to the family feud and inserted the talk of asking Y/N for me. God, these parents!

"Ma, do you honestly think Y/N's Appa, to whom you first hid the fact that we're twins, whom we disrespected among the relatives and villagers at alliance would even consider the alliance again?" I asked her very calmly, but inside I am just boiling like the pot of milk in front of me, which I am mixing with a spoon as I talk to my mom, putting the phone on speakers.

"Dei, you have the first right to marry her, he cannot even seek a groom outside when we are interested in the alliance." 

I turned towards the phone and started to shout as if I am talking to a person, while screaming, looking down at my phone I place beside the stove.

"Amma! Stop speaking like this! I called you to scold your other son whose action can lead to suspending him from college and worse to the police station! The only reason college is granting him mercy is because of me okay? Arjun's top rank UG history is long gone. He has no credibility now. Please ask him to pick himself before he gets wasted. That's all I can say. And if you really wanted Y/N to be your daughter-in-law, we shouldn't have approached them with lies and deceits. Now I have to carry that weight too. I am ending the call. Bye."

"Dei drink turmeric and pepper milk da. I ask your father to come to meet you all in the town okay? Until then do not fight. You have to have each other's back. Okay. Mom is ending the call. bye kannu."

Tumeric and pepper milk ka? I was going to brew a nice cup of tea. But why do I smell milk more than I should my is spilling everywhere. I reached the pot with bare hands in reflex and got my fingers burnt.

"Stupid twins, you guys are really." Y/N suddenly appeared beside me and placed the pot down and started wiping the stove and the base with a wet sponge cloth. 

"Hey when did you, and how did you come here?" I asked while blowing my fingers. It is very red and some are forming blisters.

She put the wet sponge cloth beside the sink and took a look at my fingers, then grabbed my wrist and walked me to the sink, which is like two steps in this 10 x 10 kitchen in my house. She let the cold water hit my fingers, which made me wince, then she let my wrist go and I continued blowing my red blistered fingers.

"If you leave the door wide open, even domestic animals would have entered and eaten all the spinach you just left in the hall. Oh wait, one actually did try to enter, and guess who shooed it away? and guess who wanted to find the moron who left the door so irresponsibly." She pointed her and smiled, but her eyes are all angry.

"Well I was removing the bad leaves and left it there to brew some tea and my mom called, wait, were you eavesdropping on our conversation? Standing beside me all along?" I asked her; she is adding tea powder to the milk and the kitchen became so fragrant.

"I say it again, eruma maadu vara maathiri veeta thorandhu potutu ne kelvi kekalama? and no I did not eavesdrop, just waited because I do not want your mom to know I came here to see you. " She now filtered the dark brown tea. I guess she too likes to drink tea with a very strong decoction.

"Let me bring this." She held two cups of hot tea and followed me to the hall; I pushed the newspapers lying on the sofa to make space for us two.

"Can you hold this?" She asked and I took the cup with my other hand.

"Where do you keep your medicine box?" I pointed her to the cupboard as I'm sipping the tea Y/N brewed and enjoying every bit of the small sip. She returned with a gel to apply for the burns. She gently applied it to each of my fingers in my right hand. After finishing and gently returning my hand to my lap, she started sipping her cup of tea too. 

"What made you come here? At this early?" I asked her and she was enjoying her tea, eyes closed, lips pursed.

"hmmm. *opens her eyes* do you know what your brother did?" She asked me. I nodded and she was surprised - guess she actually visited me to tell me what he did.

"So both of you are--"

"Hey hey hey. Stop tensing up. calm down. He called me in the middle of the night, while going in a cab, I learned what was happening when he blabbered to me, in a drunken state." Y/N is furious, not gonna lie. I have never seen her this furious before.

 "He spoke nonsensical things as if that would shake me from my relationship. He also spoke wrongly about you and me. I don't know whether he said it out of anger that you and I are on good terms now, but none of what happened yesterday is right. As a brother, you have to help him. He seems to be in a bad state of mind. What was he even doing all this time?" She looks genuinely worried about Arjun.

"Y/N, I know Arjun. He doesn't do things for a thrill or something. What he does was wrong. Arjun has issues I know. But Arjun does not lie." I told her and she placed the cup with force and got up, angrily.

"does not lie? Excuse me, he lied about him and I making out in the club and that is where all of this crap started! Now he wants me to suspect my boyfriends with his only friend Priya. I am here to just tell you that next time I won't hesitate to reach out to authorities if he keeps on with this." And then she walked towards the door.

"Y/N wait! I understand your commitment to the relationship. But from what I heard from Arjun last night, something is... I don't know how to say that..."

***********FLASH BACK***************

"Dei Vijay, why do you act like that scoundrel da? What are you doing with another man's girlfriend? " Arjun said in a slurry tone.

Vijay from the other side, "What is this,  Arjun, and where are you now? and mind your words as a staff I went for drama co-"

"Stop your acts man, say you went on a date with her, in the cover of costume shopping! Adhu sari, her man with Priya, you with her ra? Both of you illegal couples would roam with others. but I am the only bad guy in common la? Y/N told me never to see her face again and threw me from her house da."

"Wait why did you visit her at this hour? Arjun what you're doing is not right. our parents won't be happy learning this."

"They are the ones who told me she is their daughter-in-law," Arjun shouted.

Vijay took a deep breath, "Y/N and I was to be engaged in hitched. Until you entered involuntarily and created a disaster between family. go home safe I come in the morning and we can discuss further."

"If you just did not enter the family again after all these years, she would be mine. I wish that astrologer told our family to just never make you come inside again." Arjun's words teared up Vijay for the first time. He had to live under another caregiver, while knowing his parents and his twin are alive and well-doing, was excited to meet them all after these years, as a successful lecturer, especially his brother who exactly looks like him, only to be crushed off by his words.

"You're drunk. Go home safe." Vijay ended the call; he wiped the tear that rolled down his cheek.

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.

"Arjun could have mistaken Prabha and Priya just like he mistook you and me." Y/N replied, but her words do not hold the same power as before. I can say she is wishing that Arjun is mistaken. 

"Then let's find out. I invited Arjun here for lunch. I talk to him about.. everything. You go talk to Prabha. Look Y/N, we're adults and we need to talk, to avoid further problems among us." She nodded and walked away. I wanted to ask whether she needed a ride home, or at least to the bus stop, but we are already mistaken and I do not want the talk to grow in college, as I am her professor; I'm pretty sure Arjun would have blabbered to his friends who buy drinks for him.

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Arjun's POV

"Don't you care about your friend Saara? She is in here alone, struggling with her relationship, with her unfaithful boyfriend and a backstabbing Priya." 

"And whose fault is that Arjun? That she is in that college alone?" Saara spoke, on the conference video call between me, Saara, and Bobby - friends of Y/N. She looked at me eyebrows raised, hands folded; Bobby maintained an idle face.

"What do you mean by unfaithful boyfriend? We know Prabha better than you." Bobby talked for the first time in this call.

"Do you have proofs for your claim?" Saara asked finally.

Finally, the conversation came to where I wanted.

"Wait just a sec Saara."