"No Man, I always believe there is so much more to this ... It has to be." Aman said. He sounded so dejected like that of a man who had lost everything, yet wanted to keep going for it. And while things were serious Divya couldn't help but think how stupid his and this whole talk was.

"Aman, Let's be honest, who can give it in writing that after 3 months we would still be as good friends as we are right now, you never know some would have work, some might not be in the town, for some the circumstances won't be as natural as they are. I always thought I would live up to the moment I was supposed to, and later on, I don't know we all move on in life, if things are to fall apart then they will."

They were all seated in the bus on their way to some place that none knew about. Ms.Jain said they would have their dinner and then go on their way to Delhi and it was then they all sat dejectedly having this discussion on how things were going to be different from now on as they realized that this was it, their journey towards going back to the reality.

"I think we will manage, yes we all will separate, Madhav would go back to Jaipur, Manav would be an actor or something huge in life, Dev would have his business to run, Rishi would be busy with his work, I don't know what I want to do with life hence I might just get busy with figuring it out, Nandu would be busy with her events, you would go off to working on your competitive exams and the rest would be equally busy with their life, but then there would be days when we would Video call each other, we would text randomly asking what are you doing make plans for weekend, plan holidays and gateway.... I am sure this story of ours that began 3 years ago won't just come to an end like that."

"Well, cheers to your high spirit, Divya, pass me some of the kachori?" Dev said as he smiled at Divya who was glaring at him while passing the said kachori.

"I had asked who all wanted to have, and you specifically said you did not wanted it." While Dev laughed sheepishly, Divya's eyes went off to Aman, Rishi and Madhav, it seemed this conversation was far more than done.

*****

Divya and her friends got off the bus at an open road lined with various hotels and shops. Many of them were already closed but there were these two Hotels that were still open, it was 9:30 and it seems fairly possible for the shops to be closing off.

As Divya got off and stood at a side watching everyone, she decided it was best to lock all her feelings for about a day more now, she decided it would be better for each and everyone out here that she just reacted the way she was expected to. But then she wondered if it was possible to do that, she knew within a few hours she would be an emotional mess and only hoped that she wouldn't do any more drama now.

"Students please start moving towards the back side of the hotel." The Tour guide instructed. Slowly Madhav, Aman along with Dev, Rishi and Atharva began walking towards the way. Divya and the girls as well began following them when Madhav all of a sudden missed a footing and slipped. He fell on all of his fours and the moment he did everyone began laughing. The scene was hilarious, the almost giant like Madhav on all of his fours trying to get up.

Both Divya and Nandini controlled their chuckles and went ahead to help him up. "You okay?" the girls asked and helped him towards the steps so that he could sit down. Divya then took out her water bottle and gave it to him so that he could calm down, while he drank that, Nandini saw the scratch on his knee.

"your knee is bleeding." The moment Divya saw that she got scared, she quickly asked everyone if they had any medical stuff, mentally she cursed herself for keeping her medical kit in the bag, what use was it for while being there in the bag. Listening to all the commotion one of the juniors said that he had soframycin he gave to Madhav who applied it.

Divya was still worried; it felt as if someone was hurting her while Madhav was hurt. She felt scared at that moment, she wanted to be away from here, far away from Madhav so that she wouldn't feel all these things that she was feeling at that moment. Divya was on the verge of tears when Madhav looked up at her and said, "I am okay now."

Was it supposed to assure her? Was that to make her feel good?

Divya wondered what better did his assurance do for her heart was beating even louder, she wanted to hug him, she wanted to scold geet for scratching his hand, she wanted to scold him for being so careless for using that shawl so carelessly, she thought what was the need of shawl he could have simply got a sweater, she then as well wanted to scold Miss Jain who was ignoring the fact that Madhav was hurt, but all Divya did was just nodded her head and began walking off to the back side of the hotel where they were supposed to be.

She didn't want to be anywhere near Madhav, to gather any more memories and instances that would haunt her for life.

Madhav had plans that didn't involve her. She was just a friend and she didn't have anything to do with his life. This whole thing was not supposed to happen in the very first place.

"Divya... Divyaaaa... areee Divya wait." Natasha's continuous calling got Divya out of her thoughts and she finally saw her surroundings.

"what are you thinking so seriously... dude Ma'am has planned HOLI for us... like seriously." Natasha said as she looked around. the back side of the hotel was a huge open parking lot there weren't any cars parked here, in the middle of the ground a few people were making the setup for the holi on one side there was a DJ setup and right in the far end there was a shade where they had made an area to keep their bags.

Divya nodded her head and said, "can this trip get any more like YJHD. I would lie if I say I am not enjoying this, but I don't know."

"What's wrong? Did Madhav say anything?" Natasha enquired.

"I wish he would have, but this is just me, I guess we shouldn't make a fuss of it, look Rishi and Sanket are already out of their mind, let's go.'

The group began taking pictures as the hotel staff worked on the holi set up, Divya walked about wishing everyone Happy holi and time and again her eyes would go around in search of Madhav and she would scold herself for how could she even think about him in such a situation.

"Divya, it's okay right if I take a picture of this unlit Holi?" Simran asked.

"Yeah that's not issue, this is just holi there aren't any rules for this." Divya smiled and looked at how everyone was going about on their own. The setup was finally done as the holi songs began playing. She wondered how long it had been since she had played holi. It was surely a long time ago. Her parents didn't allow her to go out to huge places to play Holi, one of the major reasons was there had been so many cases of assault and physical harassment during Holi. That one incident with her friend who was sexually abused by some boys in pretext of applying colors had made her parents not to allow her to go out there to play holi.

Divya was still lost in her thoughts when she felt something rough being smeared on her cheeks. She screamed in freight and turned around to see Aman smiling at her brightly with his hands filled with green color.

"Aman!!" she yelled while on the other side a similar situation was with Nadnini and Simran as Rishi and Madhav smeared colors on them.

"where did you guys get colors from?"

"I, Madhav and Dev had gone to get them, I swear I have never walked so much to get colors, we could have got so many of them in Haridwar if only Ms. Jain could have informed us earlier." Aman cursed the poor Professor as he smeared more color on Divya.

"NOOOO, Aman yaar"

"Bura na mano Holi hai didi." Aman teased as Divya saw the rest of the boys walking up to her. She extended her hand and asked for some color herself as they all began applying colors on everyone.

She didn't know when she would be playing Holi again, she didn't know if they would be ever in contact again, she didn't know if she could ever get over her feelings for Madhav all she knew was she was glad that she decided to come here. To be here with all of them.

"Happy Holi Ma'am" Divya wished both her professors as they smiled at her and hugged her.

"So how did you like our surprise?" Ms. Tawadia asked.

"It was wonderful, Ma'am we had thought that this year we won't be having any holi, we were just happy that we were all going to be together on holi."

"I know, we thought that you guys gave us such a wonderful gift on Women's Day why not we as well surprise you a bit." Divya smiled cheekily at her and was glad that she decided to apologize to these ladies. She didn't know if they had any kind of hidden agenda of theirs all she knew was that these ladies had been wanting to have best for them and that they deserved way better than what they all had given.

As the Dj began playing music Divya and the girls began dancing, on the other side the boys were dancing on their own. Amidst all this Divya tried to locate where Madhav was. She had wished everyone out there but him. All of a sudden the music stopped due to some technical issue. Divya saw Atharva along with Dev walking towards the DJ set up as one of their juniors walked up to them to wish them Happy holi.

The group then clicked a few pictures and were busy taking pictures when all of a sudden Natasha screamed calling out Divya.

DIvya turned around to find Madhav smearing Natasha's face with colors and right behind him Dev standing watching the two of them with a weird face.

"Divya get him away" Natasha yelled as Divya called out to Madhav and asked him to leave her. But then Madhav was he ever going to listen to anyone? He rather ignored her and put some more color on her face while Natasha glared at her.

"I can't help you with this." Divya shrugged her shoulders and was about to walk off from there when Madhav held her hand and pulled her back. The two kept on looking at each other as he very slowly smeared the color starting from her forehead to her cheeks and then to chin from the left and then from the right.

"Happy Holi." He whispered. It was more than enough for Divya to hear, as she smiled at him and took some color from his hand and repeated the action, applying a bit on his nose as well as she whispered back, "Happy Holi."

The two were still busy in their bubble, Divya unable to believe and breath at the same time when Sanket yelled at Atharva to play the song. Soon everyone gathered in a circle around them and began dancing. Divya as well gave up on all her inhibitions and began enjoying having a gala of a time when someone began playing the mashup for farewell. The song began with "Tum jaise chutiyo ka shara hai dosto" as everyone yelled when they spotted Rishi by the Dj.

For a good amount of time the things were going well, each one of them ignoring any kind of eye contact but the moment the song "Yaro dosti" began it was as if the hell had broken loose, each and everyone from their group had tears as the boys began hugging each other. It was Dhawal who began, running off to Aman and engulfing him in a hug. Divya walked off to SImrana and Nandini and held on to them. she feared if she would let go off any of them she would break into tears,.

As the lyrics proceeded Divya could remember each and every day of her college life, the times when she had first met them, she realized how she had a story of her own with each one of them here, the days of their CR election, then the committees, the gossips their plans, their cupid to change things and their teamwork and the dislike for each other that changed into something as beautiful as this friendship.

"Why are you all crying?" Ms. Jain asked and that was it. All those who had been holding in began weeping. Divya and Simran hugged each other into a tight hug as Madhav wrapped nandini into a tight hug of his own, she envied Nandini and the other at that time as well for, at that moment Madhav couldn't see Divya. It was then she realized how little while they had known each other.

She couldn't compete with the connection that these all had, and how stupid she was to think that may be she was as much of an equal for him as the others. But her that pain was no less to the knowledge that these carefree days were to come to an end.

That possibly this was the last trip that they all were at together like this. While they all cried their eyes out, Dev along with Rohan took pictures and videos of them all. The emotional drama continued for a while and they soon went off to get ready into comfortable clothes and for dinner.

*****

The dining area was filled with their group and a few people from the hotel staff preparing the dinner. The girls were tired to their bones and all that they wished for was to go to sleep. As Divya held onto Natasha's hand and walked more inside the room, she saw the boys seated on a table along with one of their juniors. Divya stood still in her steps, she could feel the slight irritation and her already sour mood getting even worse at the sight of Gauri sitting right beside Madhav laughing and smiling all the while playing with his ears.

"I don't understand what's so good about ears that she has to play with them." Divya muttered unknown to herself. "What ?" Natasha asked.

"Nothing, let's go until now somewhere I was happy that I had a good end to the day, but it seems it won't be any more." Divya huffed and took a seat far away from the boys. She didn't want to be near them, it was getting more and more painful as the time was passing by. She wished she had a power to forget everything and just be into the moment.

"What's wrong? You don't look good." Natasha asked as she took a seat right opposite to her. From the corner of her eyes Divya saw Nandini walking up to the boys and began talking to them, a slight commotion began erupting on her arrival.

It surely made her curious as to what it was but then she was quite tired emotionally as well as physically to get to any of it.

"I am just exhausted, it's like this all is getting onto me. I knew that there was nothing to happen between me and Madhav, but it hurts me that I have liked him so much but he... for him, I am just a friend whom he met through an event. I know all the things but it still hurts and it's getting onto me. I know, I shouldn't be jealous of Gauri but I am, I don't like her getting close to him, I don't like it when Madhav casually tells me that he doesn't need anyone else to take care of me when I am there..."

Divya took a deep breath to control her tears and said, " You know it's the best day of my life. People die to celebrate holi with the person whom they like, and here I am not just celebrating it but as well planned for it, and went through the whole process, but what's worse is, I don't know where would we stand from the day after tomorrow, I don't want things to be such that after going back he would just ignore me or that there would be that boundaries around us again that we had before this trip."

Tired and exasperated, divya rested her hand on the table, the cool marble of it made her skin feel so hot, she wanted to cry but her tears won't come out, she wanted to sleep it off but knew that it won't be possible at all at least for an hour or so more, and at the same time she wanted to go and hug Madhav but she couldn't do that as well for it would call out for gossips, she didn't know what was it that she was supposed to do.

"you do know right that you are just overthinking things?" Natasha whispered. Divya let out a huge sigh and nodded her head as Natasha continued. "I don't know him for as long as you know, but what I have seen in him, I know he won't be different, I can give him at least that much, and you guys have been doing so well, everything will be okay."

"I guess I don't have any other way out. Do you want to have dinner? I am in no mood to have anything." Divya explained fumbling through her bag to keep her phone in it. She realized it had been a whole day since she had last contacted her parents. For once she thought she might call them but then seeing the time it wasn't feasible to call them.

"What are these guys even doing?" Natasha squealed and began laughing. Divya turned around to see Madhav being attacked by Rishi once again, while Nandini tried to stay far away from them.

"I swear during times like these I feel as if I don't know them... let's go all of a sudden I want to eat something. The way my mood is changing it seems like I might have periods, but I don't... Ahhhh '' The two walked off towards the counter, as Natasha kept on laughing at her friend as well as the weird companions whom she could call friends as well. On the way they asked Nandini if she wanted to eat who nodded her head and tagged along, leaving the boys to their mischief.

The menu for the dinner was rather simple with Tomato soup, dal khichdi, Roti and some paneer sabji. The moment Divya's eyes went off to the dal khichdi she could feel a few rumbles in her stomach as her mouth watered. It had been a while she had, had dal khichdi and was delighted to find it here in the menu. The bonus was the tomato soup, as they went closer into the line they realized that there were no bread crumbs quite dejected. Divya was about to give up on it when the waiter informed them that they could wait for a few minutes as they were preparing the same.

The girls then stood there watching all over the room seeing what everyone was upto. After a good while when the bread crumbs arrived, they began eating a hearty meal. It made Divya wonder where all her appetite came from.

"seems like mood swings can make you a completely different person." Natasha joked as they walked back to their bus with Divya holding onto a Maja bottle that she was finally able to find.

********

Divya woke up to find the bus standing at some Dhaba, the boys had already gotten off the bus, and were jumping around. She quickly checked her phone to see it was 2 in the morning. Sitting up properly she found Simran looking around and the moment their eyes met she asked,

"I want to go to the washroom, will you come?" Divya nodded her head and woke Nandini up asking her to tag along as well, seeing the commotion even Natasha woke up and soon all the girls got off the bus to go to the washroom.

The weather was brutally cold and it reminded Divya about the time when Madhav had wrapped her in a shawl at Jim Corbett. Unknowingly a smile spread across her face as she felt her face burning up as she blushed with giddiness. She so wished Madhav would have been here at this moment.

"Even we don't know where he is." Natasha's sudden statement made Divya confused as to what she was trying to imply.

"Even though we don't know where Madhav is, I was sure you were going to ask us about him."

"No I wasn't. He must be with the other..."

"Madhav is on the other side they are having a smoke, by the way, why were you discussing him?" The sudden appearance made the girls shriek in freight. They turned around only to find Manav standing beside Divya walking along with them.

"Mavan, you scared us."

"Oh Did I, Sorry." He gave them a smile that surely said how he wasn't sorry at all. About a few seconds later he asked. "So why were you looking for Madhav, Divya, Do you like him or something?"

The girls stood there in shock for a second as Divya composed herself and said, "No I don't, and I really don't understand why do you even think like that."

"Then why were you girls discussing him?"

"Why don't you boys discuss us?" Nandini countered. "And we weren't discussing him, we were just wondering where he was for we wanted to kill him. He hogged away all our blankets, I am so not sharing it with him."

Divya and the girls looked at Manav intently trying to fathom whether he was buying it or not. If ever it would have been Dev or Rishi or someone else things would have been different but this was Manav, if he smelt something fishy he would for sure try and find out everything. After a long agonizing moment, and him scrutinizing the girls one after the other, did Manav laughed and said,

"Alright if you say so. See you." He walked off to the washroom and so did the girls. None of them tried to react to it until they were inside the washroom and the moment they were inside with the door closed they all began cursing.

"Behencodddddd.... What was that? How did that even happen?" Divya questioned.

"I am sure they have some doubt, dude you just stay the way you always are. I mean the way you have been reacting to Madhav it was obvious but still." Simran commented.

"And you are telling me this now. UGGGhhh" all through the journey back to the bus the girls kept on cursing Manav as to how difficult things were going to be now. Once in the bus Rohan handed a packet of Lays cream and onion to Divya who was seated in Aman's seat as Nandini went off to sleep. On the last seat Divya saw Dev sleeping like a log with her blanket covering him from head to toe. On the first seat, Dhawal was sleeping with his legs sprawled across.

Letting out a huge sigh Divya said, "Manav legit gave me a heart attack."

"Manav, dude what Madhav did today was the cruelest, I curse him he won't be able to .play holi at all ever." The girls laughed as Simran kept on curing Madhav. It seemed that while Divya was busy looking around, Natasha was about to approach Dev to wish Holi when Madhav came right in front of her all of a sudden applying color on her face.

According to Natasha it could have been the best scene for her and Dev but all because of Madhav it got spoiled. Divya along with Simran and Rohan fell into fit of laughter as Simran said, "Aww Natasha your moment got busted soooo sad."

"ha na yaar." The way Natasha said it made them laugh even more. Divya then opened her chips along with Maza and Began munching on it along with Rohan and Simran. The three would have a few chips rather than a sip of maza and then Rohan would say something that the girls would take it in the most x rated way and began laughing.

On one such moment Madhav walked into the bus to which Rohan said, "Madhav Aa gaya" at that very moment Divya and Simran looked at each other and then at Madhav and began laughing like anything.

Madhav thought it was something related to him and that maybe he looked funny so he adjusted his shawl a bit and walked ahead. He then sat behind Divya and asked "Koi piyega"

The moment he said that the girls began laughing again to which dev woke up and said, "Madhav don't say anything, just be quiet, if possible take away whatever these two are eating... bhai Pagal ho gayi hai ladkiya"

It was hilarious, Divya and Simran literally stood up from their places and began jumping as they laughed. They themselves didn't know why they were laughing, but they were laughing like anything. Soon The rest of the boys came and the moment they came and every time anyone used to say anything the girls along with Rohan used to laugh.

"What's wrong with them?" Aman and Rishi asked at the same time. The two were a bit high but could fathom easily that something was wrong. When none answered to them, Aman asked Divya if she was okay to which she looked at simran and said, " he is asking if I am okay...dudeee!!"

Divya herself couldn't understand what gibrish they were talking as they continued to laugh. Quite shocked all the boys then sat down quickly observing what was going on. Aman and Athrava began asking them if they had drunk anything from the stores or if they had got drunk and if yes they should drink some water and calm down to which the girls shook their head negative and began laughing again.

At that very moment Simran looked back at Divya with her eyes squinting to which Divya began laughing, seeing this Simran as well began laughing. Quite exasperated with this exchange the boys began scratching their heads as Aman and Rishi said,

"Dude I am sober now, look at the way they are behaving... bhaiii meri sari uttar gayi."

"Aman, look, look at the way simran looks at you isn't it funny?" Divya said, trying to mess up with the boys. When Aman gave her a blank look she then asked Madhav who as well shook his head negative and asked,

"Divya you okay?"

Divya waved him away and turned to Atharva asking him the same question to which even he replied in a no. She then got tired of laughing and said to Simran,"these boys are boring, let's sleep."

And with that she let her head rest on the window and closed her eyes letting the sleep take over her. But before she could have succumbed to sleep completely she surely heard Rishi saying.

"behenchod, yeh kyaa tha, bhaiiii konsa maal fuka tha inhone?"