Hi lovelies!!

Finally the chapter is here! Enjoy! :)

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"Oh, great! This man," The finger pointed out at Neil, showed off Aarohi's radiating anger, "who is intolerable for me, is going to be here for almost a week. Matlab zindagi kyun itni kharab hai meri?" Aarohi complained, with hands open in air and looking above, as if asking Gods about the injustice they did to her.

"Oh hello Madam! How can you speak like that? Ek toh main yahan tumhara sur- ow" Neil held onto his shoe-clad foot that was hit at by Kairav, who with his wide eyes and nervous laugh signalled in a no, making Neil's eyes widen. He was about to reveal everything! Damn!

Passing a guilty smile to Kairav, Neil looked back to where Aarohi stood with a suspicious frown and narrowed eyes looking at the two's exchange. When Neil looked at her, she recovered from her expression and rose her eyebrow, signalling him to continue. Clearing his throat, Neil said, "Servant, I mean. Ab tumhare ghar pe hoon, toh servant hi hua na, even if it's in the form of an employee."

"Well, my bad. I can't get rid of this haunting truth even if I want." Aarohi gave a tight-lipped smile dripping with sarcasm while Akshara rolled her eyes with a smile at her sister's antics and everybody else held back a chuckle.

The calm expression that had come on Neil's face had gone away the moment those words skipped out of Aarohi's mouth. He was downright furious. "What is your problem? Ek toh I'm here, stuck with you because I didn't know you were Dr. Aarohi Goenka. On top of it, you are hell bent on making it difficult for everybody."

While the banter went on, Manish, Swarna and Mimi were overwhelmed and surprised to witness memories. Memories that made them laugh, that gave them bitter-sweet pain and lovely warmth in their hearts that just never ceased to exist. While they were shocked to see Aarohi put in a different and all the more new intensity into this fight and man, they were overjoyed to see her lively and genuinely showcasing her emotions.

Sure, their Aaru princess had never let go of the love and liveliness she held but after the parents left them, her light had dimmed. She had closed herself off. She tried showing that she was there but they knew, she wasn't. She had lost everything a long back but had put on a facade.

"Aaru, aaru sun toh bacha." Realising that both the children were only getting nowhere, Akhilesh planned on interrupting them. When his words caught Aarohi, for that matter, everyone's attention, he nodded to himself in satisfaction and strode to her in two long steps. "Bacha, meri baat sun. You've just come home and you need to freshen up after exhausting patients and staff members who ate away your brain, yes?" Akhilesh smiled warmly at the sound of the soft chuckle that came from his favourite Goenka's mouth. Patting her head with affection, he beckoned her to leave while everyone else settled back amd she obliged not before giving a cold look to Neil indicating it was not over.

"Aaru toh bina bataye hi nikal gayi." Akshara whined as he sat down on the couch while everyone including Neil looked on confused. Neil took a glass of water and put it to mouth while his eyes were trained on Akshara, indicating she had his attention. "Par, I guess, Neil humein zaroor batayega ki kya baat hai, right Neil?"

Even before he could decide what to say, suddenly a force came to him and pushed the glass towards him, wetting his shirt and trousers making everbody gasp. It took him a second to realise, with the weight on him, that a person had fallen on him.

And it probably, rather, surely was a certain long-haired woman who recently turned him crazy while doing absolutely nothing.

And today, as he took a sniff of her, he knew he was a goner because the smell of strawberries only intoxicated him more with the coolness of the hair surrounding him. The smile his face held with eyes closed, froze for a second before his eyes snapping open and his face held an expression of horror, slightly pushing Aarohi away, landing her on the wooden table.

"Ouch! What the-"

"Aaru, language!"

"Arey, to hell with language, bhaiya! Yeh banda pagal hai kya? First he himself picks up a fight and then, when I return to apologise, he pushes me off him and I land on the table so hard that my elbow hits it. Are you kidding me bhaiya?" With a groan and glare at the indicated man, Aarohi stood up without any help from Neil's held-out hand for assistance, making him cough awkwardly.

"It's not my fault. You just land on me, shocking the daylights out of me and I can't even give a weird reaction? Wow! And then she says she wants to apolo-wait, what?" With eyes wide in disbelief, Neil looks at Aarohi, stumped out at the prospect of Aarohi apologizing to him.

"Yeah!" Aarohi mutters awkwardly, with embarrased eyes cast on floor, making Neil admire her once again. Clearing her throat, she raises her head high back in confidence and clears the air around. "Well, technically it was my fault only. I should have not been so rude with you so yeah, I apologize."

"Oh wow!! Aaru, the-mahan-Goenka is trying to say sorry to me. Me! The petty Neil Birla, eh?" The smug tone of Neil's voice and his smile only made the maddening urge of punching him stronger in Aarohi but she controlled herself.

"No!"

The snap of her voice made everyone else to look at them while they were too lost to notice anyone else. "I did not say the s-word. So just shut it, alright?" The smile on Neil's face only widened and Aarohi was getting all the more flustered making Neil's eyes switch to admiration from humour, "and we do not pretend I'm your buddy that you call me Aaru, yes?" Blinking and turning serious, Neil nods.

"Okay then, I want you to accompany me to my room. Follow me!" Aarohi spun on her heels and moved ahead for a few steps. Realising that Neil did not follow, she halted abruptly and turned to him with irritation shining in her eyes, while he only raised his eye brow implying something she quite didn't understand. "What are you waiting for? Probably some priest to declare an auspicious time?"

"No, not that. But yeah, I'm surely waiting for you to tell me the reason you want me to accompany you for." Even if Neil was thrown off by Aarohi's snapping, he didn't show it on his face, leading to just two conclusions. 'Either he wasn't bothered by what you said, or he's a master at pretend game' her conscience answered and she gave a hum of approval. When all the attention snapped towards her, she realised she did it aloud.

Composing herself before doing something even more embarrasing, she swallowed audibly and ran her tongue over her lower lip in nervousness, making Neil's gaze to go to that movement for a second and return to her eyes, "Well, paani maine giraya, toh isn't it my duty to help the guest?" She raised her eyebrow while the youngsters nodded in approval, in a daze. With a tight-lipped smile, she gave a slight bow, beckoning him to follow her, "So, please accompany me sir."

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Shell-shocked at the number of shocks they got today, the Goenkas were simply sitting on the couches in a daze when suddenly Kairav stood up with a horrified look on his face and announced, "They both are alone together." When he realized he got everyone's attention on him, he continued, "Yeh thik nahi hai. They could barely survive with each other in our presence, they'll probably kill each other alone."

"Nahi bhaiya, rukiye." Akshara held Kairav's wrist only when he was about to rush to the girls' room. "Nothing of that sort will happen. I have a gut feeling that says so, so just calm down." With a reassuring smile, Akshara made him sit down even after his protests.

"Par yeh-yeh sab kya tha? Aaru ne aaj tak kabhi is tarike se kisi ke samne apne aap ko nahi rakha. She keeps her points to herself to avoid an arguement and today, she went out and started it all herself?" Swarna muttered in disbelief and amused at the scenes that took place in front of all of them today.

"Wahi toh Swarna, humare Kittu aur Sirat ke jaane ke baad usne aaj khud ko khulke dikhaya, sab bahar aane diya jo bhi tha uske man mein, woh bhi kisi ajnabi ke saamne? Kaise?" Suhasini spoke, getting emotional reminiscing losing her Kittu and the aftermath of her children's deaths. Everyone only nodded in response remembering those haunting days of their lives where every single happiness had turned upside down in a short span of time.

"Well, we don't know what follows but we know that things will happen only how they are meant to be. So let us just enjoy and relish in this daily dose of entertainment jo meri behan aur mera de- dost de rahe hain, haina bhaiyon?" Akshara chirped happily with a wink in an attempt to cover her blunder and mentally scolding herself to be more careful. Kairav and Vansh only nodded with an evil grin.

◇◇

As soon as Neil and Aarohi entered their room, Neil smiled, impressed.

(The Goenka sisters' room)

"Well, not bad. Girls ka room and super pink, as usual." He chuckled.

"Oh please! It's not as if you being a boy won't have those black, blue, grey or white shades in your room." Aarohi rose her eyebrow in challenge and gave a smug smile when Neil did not retaliate. Raising his hands in surrender after clearing his throat and rolling his eyes, Neil looked around the room to check the room, pretending to be checking where the washroom was.

While he was moving his head here and there, he sensed some movement and was about to turn, when suddenly he felt like something had been aimed at him, so he ducked and simultaneously, he heard a hiss, bang and some incoherent profanities showered at him by Aarohi.

"Whoa madam! What in the actual hell were you intending to do?" With wide eyes, as Neil stood up and inspected her fist, he heard her breath hitch at the contact just the way his did, when he felt a spark of electricity course through him. As Aarohi cleared her throat, Neil looked up in her direction and nodded for her to continue.

She narrowed her eyes and said, "You came to my room to visit the restroom, toh why were you snooping around? That too in my presence?"

Looking offended, Neil reasoned, "Excuse me! Ai-aisa kuch bhi nahi hai. Just for your information, me being an interior designer, main room ko inspect kar rha tha. Looking at the designs and everything." And if it was not surprise, he did not know what he felt when for the second time Aarohi simply agreed to him, this time with a nod.

"But, tum kya pagal ho?" Scrunching her nose, Aarohi suddenly asked him while he was drying his coat with the dryer and Aarohi was tending to her bruise that started to turn blue.

"Nahi."

"To fir, you hit your head while you were a child?"

"Nahi toh. And why are you asking these questions?"

"Shush! Don't counter question. Last wale ka jawab do bas. To tumne apne dimaag ko kuch waqt ke liye holiday pe bhej diya tha kya?"

"No!! And will you answer me? I'm asking you something."

"Oh! If you did none of the three above, then why were you about to spill about our first meet? Have you lost your mind or what?" Aarohi then revealed, snapping at him in anger.

"What? Are YOU mad? Why don't you want to share it with them?" Even when Neil was hurt with the contempt Aarohi held in her voice regarding them being acquaintances, he didn't let it show and rather masked it with confusion.

"It's none of your business. You only have to make sure that you don't spill it in front of anyone. You get that?" And as Neil bobbed his head after abruptly closing his open mouth, to probably counter question, Aarohi added, "No one, means no one."

"Alright, I won't do anything such..." Aarohi narrowed her eyes slightly at the way his voice trailed and asked, "Why do I sense a but here?"

"Because a but exists. Simple!" Neil clicked his tongue to mock her showing his fake dissapointment in her with a teasing smile. "Well, agreeing to you gives me nothing. But if I chip in a condition of mine, things will get fair, won't they?"

When Neil stopped speaking, Aarohi's silence gave him a silence approval to go on and he smirked devilishly with a tilt to his head in the right side, continuing, "So, my condition is.."

"Is..."

"Is that I get a chance to have five coupons. Five coupons joh I will use, jab meri marzi, irrespective of the time or situation. And you cannot deny, alright?" Without paying much attention to the 'whys' and 'what fors', she thought of it thoroughly yet briskly. With her clenched jaw and irritation marred on her face, Aarohi hesitantly nodded to the request because she knew he had the guts to share that prime and very important fact with her family.

No one would be that much of a hassle, but her sister, Akshara. Her big mouth would be a problem because she would share it with Pari and Nirvaan who would leave no tables unturned for teasing her. And she could not afford that.

Clearing her throat, she agreed to his request and said, "Okay then. Bring those five coupons, I'll sign for an agreement. And please, make sure to keep it secretive."

With a big grin on his face, he nodded and went back to drying his clothes, while Aarohi simply slumped down on her twin bed with a sigh, thinking the problem was tackled.

However, what she was unaware of was the fact that the main problem had just begun to surface.

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*Ducking behind my chair* sorry loves but I couldn't manage doing it before today. Either schedule did not give permission or sometimes I couldn't do it.

And yes, I'm taking a break for a while. I genuinely have no idea ki when I'll be able to continue but one thing is sure, I will come back.

Thanks for your patience! Will be eagerly waiting for love, criticism and votes.

Keep reading, keep smiling and stay safe:)

Love,
~Love Kaur.