Khushi was on her way to the library when she noticed a group of friends making fun of NK's way of speaking in Hindi. They're giving long sentences for him to read in hindi, and when he struggled with the pronunciation of the words, they started laughing mockingly, making him feel embarrassed.

Khushi gulped as she halted on her steps, thinking how to save NK from that group of seniors ragging him. She wasn't that courageous to go and face them directly, but she needed to do something. An idea popped up into her mind, and she rushed towards the group to put it in action.

"NK," she called him as soon as she neared them, and the senior group's attention shifted to her, making her gulp afraid of their reaction, still she gathered courage to speak, "Dean is calling you."

When they heard that the college dean is calling NK, the group of senior students escaped from there, leaving NK who sighed in relief for a moment, then looked at Khushi confused, "Why is the dean calling me now?"

Khushi smiled a little, shaking her head, "He's not calling you. I lied to them so they would stop teasing you and leave you alone."

"Oh.. thanks, yaar Khushi. You literally saved me from those seniors making fun of my hindi," NK said, smiling genuinely, his eyes filled with gratitude.

"No need to thank me," Khushi smiled politely at him, "I'm going to the Library. I’ll meet you in class then."

NK nodded. Khushi took a few steps forward but then remembered Arnav's words when he was taunting her that there's a separate world with only women for her, she needs to learn how to adjust to this world with men and women.

She then turned back to look at NK and asked, "Do you want to join me?"

NK smiled as he walked up to her again, "Yeah, sure why not?! By the way, I'm not a fan of books.. I'm just going to give you company there, that's it."

When they reached the library, Khushi picked up some books she wanted to read before classes started, while NK sat with her, playing games on her phone and listening to music with his headphones.

She tried hard to keep herself focused on the lines of the book she was reading, but eventually, her mind got carried away by Arnav's thoughts. Everything he revealed to her today was a huge blow to her. She always had this feeling in her that he looked at her differently, that when he used to address his new home as our home, he was including her too, and when he was he would wait four years to get married, he was hinting the time she would have finished her studies. But she never had the courage to admit even the possibility of him having feelings for her. Because she is afraid. The fear in her heart for her father is so profound and huge that even if it's not her but someone else who fell in love with her, then she gets scared too thinking of her father's reaction. And now, Arnav himself admitted that he was in love with her, and he went so far with his planning that he was about to include her father in this plan too by trying to impress him during this four year period. Hearing this was enough to make her heart beat race so fast that she felt her heart would just jump out of her mouth at any moment that time. Thankfully, his mother intervened at the right time and stopped him from taking this risk and committing a huge mistake that would cost her a lot.

And then he says he's not sure about his feelings for her. Well, it's good for her if he really doesn't have feelings for her anymore. Because she didn't come here to Delhi for all this. But then... somewhere in the corner of her mind, she wondered if it was so easy for him to stop loving her after being so convincingly in love and taking huge risks, like lying to his entire family and even want to impress her father to marry her in the future. Anyway.. this topic shouldn't matter to her at all. She mentally chided herself for letting her mind go in that direction, and she redirected her mind thoughts to another point of her conversation with Arnav.

The lies.. he confessed the few times he lied to her. And here for a moment, she started to think he's not a good and trustworthy friend as she had initially thought. But after NK's incident, she caught herself lying too to save him from those seniors ragging him. So, in the same way, Ayan lied to Nani and Ratna about Arnav dating Sheetal so he could save his brother, and that led them into a chain of lies, landing them into a maze where the only way out was to finally speak the truth.

The truth.. now this is something she really admired about him, his guts to say his feelings, his side of the story openly to her. She would never dare to say such things to anyone.. like how he even had the courage to confess it to her that he called her father Amrish Puri, the reason why he didn't want  her to call him bhai, that 'Oh Rabba' when he saw her..

Even recalling this part of the conversation is making her cheeks heat up. She now wondered how she survived for so long in that car, listening to everything he said live to her.

Okay.. that's it. She needed to take a break from these thoughts now.

And, much to her relief, NK dropped his headphones on the table as he looked at her side, asking through his eyes what she was reading.

She replied to him in a whisper tone. They kept talking about their next class of Introduction to Programming for some time. And when they had no more topic left to talk about, Khushi, whose mind had no choice but to be occupied with Arnav's thoughts today, hesitantly asked NK, "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah," NK looked at her curiously, wondering what she wanted to talk with him.

"Would you still be friends with someone who fell in love with you despite knowing you two decided to be friends only and nothing else?" Khushi asked in a whisper tone, being careful so that the librarian doesn't ask them to leave for disturbing others.

"It depends Khushi.. I mean, if that person respects my choice and doesn't force me to love her back, if that person is willing to be my friend even after knowing the love is one sided, then I wouldn't have any problem to be friends with that person.. after all, falling in love is not a crime," NK replied.

Khushi sighed, losing herself in her thoughts again. NK is right, Arnav didn't commit any crime by falling in love with her. He also confessed everything to him and apologised for his wrong deeds. He was willing to give a second chance to their friendship. However, the decision was on her hands now.

Would it be right to punish him by distancing herself from him? Would it be right to punish him by ignoring his presence in her life?

She didn't want to do this. The bond she shares with Arnav is something that even she doesn't know the right words to describe.. if it was any other person in Arnav's place, she wouldn't think twice before distancing herself from that person after knowing all this. But since it's him, she  is having a tough time making a decision.

It's hurting a lot. She's been feeling a pain in her heart since the fight with him yesterday. And now it's just worsened. Maybe she would accept to continue to be his friend, but the fear of her father and Nani is holding her back. 

She doesn't have a choice but to close his chapter of her life now.

*****************************************

Arnav's office..

Aman raised his eyebrows questioningly at Arnav as they walked out of the conference room, "What happened? You were totally in your la la land during the meeting.. do you know our boss was staring at you as if he would kill you at any moment due to your lack of attention?"

"Yaar," Arnav sighed, "Maine na.. sab bataya Khushi ko (I told Khushi everything)."

"Aur ye 'sab' ka kya matlab? (And what does this everything mean?)" Aman asked, confused.

"Everything.. that I fell in love with her at the first (Aman gasped in shock), that I didn't want her to call me bhai because of this, that I lied to my own family that I've a girlfriend so that I could spend more time her without any disturbance, that I wanted to impress her father, that I called her father Amrish Puri of my life, that I wanted to wait four years to get married to her, that I talked to Ma and you about this, that I'm not sure of my feelings anymore," Arnav said elaborating the long list of confession to his friend.

"Woah.. wait! Now, this is too much to digest," Aman raised his palm to his friend with his eyes widened in shock as he dragged Arnav with him to a silent corner, "First, tell me what exactly happened that led you to confess everything to Khushi suddenly like this? Or did you just wake up one fine day and decide to tell her everything?

Arnav started narrating his fight with Khushi that happened after they reached home yesterday and then in the morning when he was trying to seek forgiveness from Khushi, but Sheetal's unexpected visit ruined his plans.

"Yaar, I thought it would be easy to pretend in front of my family that Sheetal is my girlfriend. But I didn't feel good while performing in front of my family and Khushi.. it felt disgusting.. imagine what Khushi would think of me? I'm using my best friend's girlfriend to lie to my family, so I have time to impress her and make her fall in love with me. That's when I realized that what I was doing until now was childish in the name of love... and I needed to put an end to it before it escalated and started affecting my life, our relationship, your relationship with Sheetal, my relationship with my family, and with Khushi. This one lie would have literally ruined everything, Aman. I just kept landing in situations where I had to lie to cover up another lie, and it just went on. And this is just not Me.. I always like to keep my life simple and sorted. So it was really important to start with telling the truth to the main person, Khushi."

"I understand.. and you did right," Aman patted his shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Yes.. I finally took a step on the right path," he swallowed, with a sad smile on his face, "But I think I opened my eyes too late.. now I'm going to lose her friendship too."

"Yaar, don't be like that... you have many friends who won't let you feel the loss of that friendship," Aman said, wrapping his arm around his friend's shoulder, consoling him, "You know what.. let's close this chapter from your life with a big celebratory party tonight.. from tomorrow, you'll be back as the Arnav you were before Khushi came into your life."

"Aman, I don't know about you.. but it doesn't really make sense to me to celebrate my own miseries. You know, it takes me time to heal.. I suffer.. I curse myself.. I think too much.. and then I try to move on and forget the past.. and only then do I heal completely," Arnav said sarcastically to his friend.

"Miseries are a part of our lives.. why not celebrate the way we celebrate happiness as a part of our lives, too?" Aman shrugged, "Whenever my mood is off after a heated up argument with Sheetal, then the best way to cheer up myself is to party hard," he winked at Arnav.

Arnav chuckled softly, "Alright.. we'll try your method tonight."

"Ye hui na baat!" Aman patted his back enthusiastically, "Now let's work, and tonight we'll party hard!"

*****************************************

Khushi's college..

Khushi, NK, and Lavanya were settled on a bench at the park of their campus after their classes. It was their lunch break, and after getting their burgers and cold drinks, they decided to sit at the park and have their lunch there.

NK was sharing with Lavanya the morning incident, how the senior students were ragging him, and Khushi appeared as his saviour.

Lavanya was angry to listen to what the senior students did to NK, "Why did you agree to do what NK asked? And why didn't you two beat up those stupid idiots? Or even complain about them to the dean? You two need to stop being good and innocent all the time. Otherwise, these dumbheads will take advantage of you."

NK discreetly nudged Lavanya, gesturing for her to stop blabbering and look at Khushi, who had tears streaming down her face.

Lavanya instantly got up and asked NK to hold her burger box for her. As she rushed to Khushi and sat on her knees before Khushi, resting her hands on Khushi's lap, guiltily said, "Khushi.. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. You know that.. I was just angry with those senior students who ragged NK. I'm really sorry. Please don't cry." 

Khushi was brought to reality when Lavanya's voice reached her ears. She looked at Lavanya on her knees, apologising to her guiltily, startled, and confused for a moment. She really didn't know what was Lavanya apologising for as she wasn't paying attention to the conversation since they reached the park. But since Lavanya asked her not to cry, she cleared it out, saying with a low tone, while wiping away the tears from her cheeks, "I'm not crying because of you."

"Then why are you crying? Is everything okay, Khushi? Tum theek ho na?" Lavanya asked worriedly.

The moment Lavanya asked this, she just started crying. She wanted to share her problems with someone, but she didn't feel comfortable talking about her problems or her feelings with anyone. Arnav is the only person with whom she has recently started to share her thoughts, her feelings, and even the biggest problems of her life, like her family problems. It's the helplessness and inability to voice out her feelings and keep everything bottled inside her that made her burst out crying, unable to bear this heavy feeling in her chest anymore.

Lavanya and NK looked at each other, worried, wondering what happened to her.

"Khushi, please dhona band karo (please stop crying)," NK tried to console her.

Lavanya held her hand, pressing it firmly, "Please tell us what happened, Khushi.. maybe we can help you. Stop crying.. we are here.. we are you with you.."

"Yes, if it's something that's bothering you.. then please tell us, we will try to help you," NK added.

"Arnav ji.." Khushi whispered in between her sobbings. She only managed to speak Arnav's name, continuously crying.

Lavanya started panicking now seeing Khushi’s condition. She was also helpless because she didn't know why Khushi was crying like that.

She immediately grabbed her phone and called Arnav for help.

*****************************************

They waited some time for Arnav, settled on the same bench, Lavanya made Khushi rest her head on her chest as she wrapped her arms around Khushi, caressing her back to calm her down.

NK was trying to convince Khushi to eat her burger, but she refused to eat or speak anything, only tears continuously rolling down her cheeks.

NK defeatedly kept the burger back in its packaging, and as he did so, his eyes fell on a running Arnav, who was approaching them.

"Look.. Nanav is here!" NK pointed at Arnav, who came running towards them.

Khushi immediately looked up and saw Arnav actually coming towards them. She didn't even realize it the moment she saw him, her heart breathed a sigh of relief!

"His name is Arnav," Khushi cutely corrected NK. NK hit his forehead, "Yeah, right.. I forgot his name."

The moment Arnav reached, Lavanya glanced at him with a hopeful look, "Thank God you came.. Khushi ko dekho.. she was crying continuously and didn't even want to say what made her upset."

Arnav nodded, glancing at Khushi, who instantly lowered her eyes, "Let me talk to her privately."

Lavanya nodded as she signalled to NK that they should leave now. The two picked their belongings and left from there, leaving Arshi alone.

Khushi sat straight, wiping her cheeks and nervously fidgeting with her fingers.

Seeing her eyes filled with tears, her face red, he felt bad as he blamed himself for bringing her to this state. Instead of taking the seat beside her on the bench, he knelt down before her.

"Khushi, everything I told you this morning, it is my problem.. you've nothing to do with this. It's not your fault as you didn't even know what was going on behind your back. You were just being a friend to me.. It's me who was thinking something else. So you don't need to feel bad or blame yourself for anything. You didn't do anything wrong, okay.. you didn't cross your limits. You don't need to feel scared of your father because of what I told about my feelings. I promise you I will never let him know about this. This will remain a secret. Only a few people know about this. And I'll make sure this doesn't affect your studies as well. No one will take you away from here.. I promise you that you'll achieve your goal, you will complete your studies. I'm the one who fell in love with you, I'm the one who made mistakes.. it's purely my fault, not yours.. so I'll make sure you won't have to pay for my mistakes.  Okay.. now, please don't worry. Don't cry, Khushi.. I can't see you like this," In the end, he raised his hand to wipe the tears from her face, but then stopped halfway hesitantly as he remembered her words, she feels uncomfortable with men's touch, so he stopped right there and rested his hand again on his lap.

Khushi was just staring at him with moist eyes. She was feeling even more guilty to push Arnav away from her life like this. It would hurt a lot to break a friendship like this. This friendship means a lot to her. Even though he lied his real feelings from her, they were certain moments she spent with him that she would never forget in her life.

He was the first person who noticed her nervousness on the first day of college, and he arranged a friend (Lavanya) too for her and warned Lavanya not to leave her alone in college. He didn't even hesitate to buy a MacBook for a girl he barely knew for days. He fought with his own family for her. She clearly remembers to date his argument with Nani to let her attend Aman's mother birthday party with him. He took her to watch a movie for the first time in a movie theatre. He always makes her feel a part of his family and his group of friends. Whenever he buys something for Ayan, he buys it for her, too. He never made her feel like she's a stranger to them. He always made her participate in everything he does with his family and friends. He's the first person who convinced her and promised to support her whenever she decided to speak against the forced marriage with her father. He's her Toota Taara friend.. the bond they share in this short span of time is very deep, precious, and valuable to her, that it's breaking her heart to even think of breaking their friendship. It's because of him that she is even thinking of going against her father's rules and disobeying Nani, who asked her to distance herself from him.

Getting nothing but silence from her side, Arnav gulped as he continued, "Okay.. if you're feeling uncomfortable and awkward with me after knowing my feelings. Then I'll stay away from you. And also you don't have to worry about this.. as I'm going to shift to my new house soon.. so you won't have to see my face anymore at home, only when I'll pick and drop you off at college."

Hearing this from him, Khushi started to cry even more, staring at him painfully, "Is it so easy for you to end our friendship like this? Am I not your Toota Taara friend?"

"No, it's not easy. But I don't know what to do to make you feel better. You're just crying, and it's freaking me out.. even though I'm trying to act calm here," he confessed to her.

"I'm not crying because of you.. I'm crying because.. Babu Ji and Nani won't let us be friends.. if it was just me, then I would forgive you for everything you did.. because you were honest to me, and you repented for your mistakes.. par Babu ji aur Nani nahi manenge (Babu ji and Nani won't agree).. Nani asked me to stay away from you and stop going out with you at night.. she doesn't want me to be your friend, and if she tells this to Babu Ji, then even he won't allow this, he will straightly book my tickets and take me back to Lucknow and then force me to get married."

After hearing everything she explained, Arnav sighed in relief, shutting his eyes momentarily. He looked back at her as he asked again to confirm, "So you're scared of your father and Nani?"

Khushi nodded her head innocently.

"You still want to be my friend even after everything I did?" he asked in a soft, hesitant tone.

Khushi nodded her head again, lowering her eyes, "Voh, you.. didn't commit a crime.
Also, I promised you that I'll help you with your new house renovation process as your toota taara friend. If we break our friendship, then how will I fulfil my promise?"

Arnav smiled a little, "You don't know how much happy and relieved I'm after hearing this."

He got up and sat beside her on the bench, maintaining a certain distance from her.

Khushi looked at his side worriedly, "But.."

"Don't worry about your father and Nani. We will find a solution for this," he blinked his eyes assuringly while taking his handkerchief from his pants pocket and handed it to her, "Ye lo. Now, wipe your tears. And please smile Khushi.. I've not seen your smile since yesterday night, and it's not a good sign for someone named Khushi."

Khushi's lips broke into a soft, faint smile after hearing what he said. She took the handkerchief from his hand.

"I'm sorry, okay.. I'm really sorry for everything I made you go through yesterday night and today Khushi ," he said genuinely guilty.

"It's okay, Arnav ji.. I'm not upset with you anymore," Khushi said.

"Sachi? (Really?)" he raised his brows.

Khushi nodded her head, wiping her face with the handkerchief, "Haan sachi.. muchi." 

"Okay," he smiled, then his eyes fell on her burger box and cold drink untouched, "Ye kya? You didn't have your lunch yet."

Khushi nodded sideways, "I'm not feeling hungry. Aur waise bhi, now I don't have much time to eat.. my classes will start in a few minutes."

"How will you even concentrate on your classes with an empty stomach? You didn't even eat anything at breakfast this morning, and now you want to skip lunch," he scolded her with a concerned tone, "Finish your food first, then you will go to attend your classes. If you miss a few minutes of your class, Lavanya and NK will help you later."

Khushi agreed as she picked up her burger box to take her burger, and then she looked at him curiously, "Did you have your lunch, Arnav ji?"

Arnav didn't want to say that he was on his way to have his lunch when he got a call from Lavanya because that would have made her feel guilty. But then, he didn't want to lie to Khushi anymore, so he simply  shook his head, "Not yet."

Khushi divided her burger in half to share with him. Arnav was denying it, asking her not to worry about him, but she didn't listen to him. Instead, she surprised him by threatening him, "If you want me to be your friend, then you'll have to eat this burger too."

Arnav shook his head, smiling in disbelief, "Theek hai.. de do!"

He took half burger from her hand, and they started eating. Arnav started to talk about how the college park looked different now to distract her and make her mood better.

When they finished eating, Arnav accompanied Khushi to her classroom. Their professor recognised Arnav and came outside to meet him, and that gave the opportunity to Khushi to apologise for being late in private to him as she rushed inside her classroom and joined Lavanya.

Lavanya was asking Khushi concernedly if she was fine or not. Khushi nodded her head smiling and blinked her eyes assuringly, "Now I'm fine."

Outside the classroom, Arnav was sharing with the professor where he was working at the moment, and the professor was satisfied with his progress as he encouraged Arnav to keep working hard to achieve more in life.

After they were done with their little conversation, the professor walked back inside the classroom, and Arnav peeked in to see Khushi. He waved his hand at her, whispering, "Goodbye!"

"Bye," Khushi mouthed, displaying her beautiful smile to him while waving her hand.

As he walked back through the corridor, he looked up at the sky, smiling in gratitude, "Thank you, DM.. you rewarded me with good news for speaking the truth to Khushi. Now I feel more relieved for telling her truth and not losing her friendship, too."