A/N 

This chapter is something that made me cry, made me want to hit Divya in her head, made me regret having Divya meet Madhav and for the first time I thought what kind of people are Divya and Madhav? 

So do read this chapter and let me know what are your thoughts on it. I would really curious what you all think of them. 

For a long time the war of Aww kept on going, it even became a thing between Nandini , Madhav and Divya when they had to irritate each other or taunt them they would send each other that expression. But through this Divya realized how it wasn't just her in this whole thing, even Madhav was there and she needed to think about what he felt as well.

She wished for Madhav and she could have got a chance to talk about this, but then how was she to bring it up... this was just a joke, a game, and Madhav didn't even know that she liked him. There would be days she would keep on contemplating over it. She didn't even meet Parth after their conversation, at least not all alone, for she was scared he would ask her questions, and she didn't really have answers for anything at that moment. Hence she resorted to meeting him with her brother or her siblings or the times when his family would come over for lunch or dinners which was happening on a regular basis now.

It was mid of May and Divya and Natasha were talking over the topics of love, what perspective the two had of love. To which Divya had said,

"I have always found love to be a grip, it's like a sweet pain, but you know after a while it starts suffocating you... I would love someone but I am scared of that pain, the fact that the kind of love I am wishing for isn't there in this world it scared me."

"I understand, the kind of movies and books we have seen and read has given us a very unrealistic essence of love." Natasha replied, to which Divya said,

"Yeah, but I do understand the difference between reality and reel... you know what I want... I just wish that the person whom I love would understand me and I would understand him. I don't want him to do grand gestures for me, I just want him to support me, and give me a chance to support him, to make me believe that we are equal and whatever we do will be for us and not just me or him. But then there are as well compromises, it's really difficult for me to accept a few things, mostly I get scared that if I were to get a person in my life, I would have to let go off a few things... compromise on the things that I like, be it even a little bit but a compromise is a compromise, and I might even do that... but what if that isn't acknowledged? What then? What if it's just me in this whole thing?"

"Divya, the case with Madhav is different, when you will surely be in love and someone will love you back you will know that dude love isn't about compromises, if you love them then it's all about understanding, accepting, believing and loving back. There will be an understanding that will get you through it well."

The conversation ended there for that night, but Divya wished something like that to come true. She wished it would be a possibility with Madhav. Someone might think she was stupid, for the kind of guy Madahv was but she wanted to know what would happen, was there a possibility?

She than was reminded of her past crush, the way he had walked all over her, unknown to the fact that she liked him... but he wasn't to be blamed, divya never confessed her feelings to him, and yet it hurted her when he had walked passed her as if he didn't knew her at all. For years she had wondered if she was such a person who could be easily forgotten?

That fear had made her stand up and make sure that the next innings of her life would be easy and that she wouldn't have that regret or give someone power to walk all over her the way the past crush had, she wanted to let madhav know how she felt... not because she wanted to be in a relationship... but because she wanted to move on, she wanted to let her know that it was okay to like someone, that it's fine to be rejected, that it was alright to go and tell your feelings to someone.

And all she needed at that moment was an opportunity. An opportunity that came up to her door a few days later through a video call.

****

It was right after her sisters birthday, that night Nandini and Rohit had called her and they were playing a game wherein they would give each other a dare, the person who is to do the dare will be given a statement they have to go and tell that to the person they will be telling, and they are not to reply to that person till the next day morning and only to reply after consulting with the ones who are giving the dare.

Divya was a bit confident for she knew Nandini and Rohit wouldn't give her any stupid dare, but how wrong she was .

"I want you to go and text Madhav that you like him." Nadnini said.

"You gotta be kidding me. Nandini you know I am not doing that at all." Divya snapped back.

"You will have to, you never know this might work out well for you and the least that could happen is he would reject you, you can then tell him that it was a dare and that your friends had given it to you."

Divya contemplated it for a while and then said okay. She then went ahead and texted Madhav,

Hii Madhav

I actually wanted to tell you that I like you. And trust me I am really serious when I am saying this.

She left the message at that and sent the screen shots to them and Aditi and Sakshi, her school friends.

On a random May night at 1 pm she confessed her feelings through a text message... she thought how stupid she was, she took help of a thruth and dare game to tell her feelings?

But as she closed her eyes, she felt as if a weight was lifted off her shoulder... maybe this wasn't as bad as she thought.

However, if only things in her life would have been as easy as she had thought.

The next morning when she woke up she could see that Madhav had seen the message, she could feel her heart beat increasing and anxiety filling into her. Her hands were shaking and she was nowhere in her senses.

She couldn't even think of the right thing that she would say. An hour later when she checked her phone she saw that there was no message. She decided to let it be and kept her phone aside and began working on a few things.

It was around 11 she walked into her room and laid down in her bed tired and mentally exhausted. She opened her kindle and began reading a book, however she began feeling sleepy when she received a text from Parth who had sent her a list of things he needed for their get together. She quickly replied to him and thought of checking if Madhav had replied to her, but he hadn't. She kept her phone beside her and closed her eyes and was about to sleep when something blinked on her phone, however there was nothing, she thought maybe she must have hallucinated and decided to sleep, a few minutes later she felt her phone buzzed, and the way her heart lurched out she thought she might die off heart attack. It was a reply from Madhav.

She waited for a few minutes before she could reply or even open the messages. There were about 6 – 7 messages and she couldn't read them all in the notification box. Hence she opened the chat.

Dude.

See

The thing is

I knew you liked me, it was quite evident, but the thing is it's not gonna work, even if I liked you it's not gonna work because I would be back to Jaipur as soon as I wind up my things from there

And I am very bad at long distance.

Sorry.

As well I know I should not be saying this... but as a friend I will say one thing

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Please don't take this in a wrong way Just messing with you.

Its just that dude you are such a great friend, I was happy and sad for you, I had to say that.

Divya read those messages thrice or maybe 5 times, and all she could do was laugh. She felt as if she was in a different world. Maybe she had lost it, she left her phone there, and she stood up and went out, she sat there with her family, but she felt hot. Her face was burning. And she was laughing.

She didn't reply to Madhav. She left him on seen.

Divya once again stood up and went off into her room and picked up her phone and saw she had a photo reply form Madhav.

She took a selfie, her face was red but she had this smile... one that she had forced to control and seemed as if she was sad.

Rather she was laughing her ass off.

She thought what should she reply... should she say that it was dare and let all his huge messages go to vain?

However she received a reply from him, she opened it and it had a text..

Whats app pe reply dena hai ki nahi?"

He was laughing as well.

She took a photo and replied,

Yeah thodi der mein. P.s I cant stop laughing.

She had gone mad for sure.

"Divya what's wrong?" her mom asked. Divya shook her head and said, " Nothing"

Divya stood from the swing in her leaving room and went to her room atleast there she could do all the stupid thing that she was upto.

She first thought it was better to reply to Madhav, and wrote back. I am in the middle of something right now, will text you back later on, maybe will give you a call.

"yeah sure I will call you."

Divya thought that would be better, to give him a call and to sort it out. But she couldn't help but laugh at it.

Throughout the day Divya didn't receive any call from Madhav, she talked about it with Sakshi, with Nandini and Natasha and as the day was coming to an end she could register the seriousness of the situation.

She had confessed her feelings to Madhav, who rejected her... she was rejected.

But it didn't feel that bad, at least not now...somewhere she knew that would be an answer but she felt light... at least now she wouldn't have to think twice before doing anything. Or maybe the worst was yet to come?

At night when She didn't received any call from Madhav she contemplated for a last time and wrote a reply.

Divya: Hi Madhav, earlier in the morning I was a bit busy with a few things and I was laughing my ass off so couldn't really reply to you.

Madhav : Ohh okay.

Divya : So all I wanted to say was that I knew about the long distance issue of yours, I remember you telling me about this, so you don't need to be sorry about it. My main reason to let you know about my feelings was that I didn't want to keep on playing the hide and seek, I wanted us to be clear, it didn't matter if you liked me or not, I have a lot of things going right now and being in a relationship is nowhere near them, but yes I thought that since I liked you a lot, I really need to tell you about it so that I can move on.

Secondly Madhav, I want you to know that this doesn't change anything. If there is anything that you want to talk about let me know, but I want you to know that I have found a really amazing friend in you and I want us to stay the same. I really wish we could get over this.

Madahv : Awww , I feel the same. So chill nothing would go wrong, and I am glad to have a friend like you.

Two days later while everyone had slept off and Divya was seated in her swing listening to music and seeing the pictures, she cried. Things were finally getting into her. No matter how much she tried to think how natural it was she cried over the fact that Madhav didn't like her... that all that she felt was just for what he called them... a really good friend while all this time Divya thought that all that she had was a special connection with her.

She blamed it all on Sakshi's call, if only she hadn't said that : Divya at times it's completely alright to be the one to receive advice and to let your tears out... after all even you are just a teenager and a human. It's okay if you feel bad for yourself and want to cry over the fact that you got rejected... don't let your tears be suppressed inside let them out, accept it. And Move on.''

That very evening even Nandini had told her, "Dude I am mad at you, you should have told that asshole that it was a dare, but you know what it's okay, I have always felt that confessing your feelings is quite courageous, I had taken my chance and confessed... Though not a boyfriend, surely it gave me a friend whom I would cherish the most. I wish the same happens to you as well."

And here she was today... crying her eyes out, she knew it was going to be difficult but she wanted to move on, let the tears flow and the next day come back as a great friend of Madhav. She wondered if this was it, and if they could really be friends. All that she could do was wait.

*****

Those few weeks, Divya and Madhav kept on discussing this topic, Madhav would tell her why he laughed and how cute he felt about it, and that he didn't mean to disrespect her, that he really thought of her as a good friend and wanted her to be comfortable around her. He even warned her that if they were to meet the boys won't spare them and that she should be careful.

Divya knew that there would be repercussions but till what extent she didn't know. This whole thing for a few days was taking a toll on her , and to add onto it, she was also helping her dad with his business. It was the first week of June and Divya for some odd reason was feeling under the weather.

She decided to call it a night earlier than usual but couldn't really sleep. Her body was sleeping but her mind was somewhere else it was as if something was about to happen. That gut feeling where you felt uneasy and unsettled, that was how she felt.

In the middle of the night she even heard her phone vibrate but she didn't have it in her to go ahead and answer it. The next morning when she woke up, she had a message from Nandini.

Dude I swear these people aren't like this but I am so pissed off with each of them. Man kar raha hai jake thapad lagau... I am really disappointed with them. I am glad you weren't there yesterday.

That very text gave Divya a bad feeling, she wondered what all went wrong. Throughout the day Nandini kept on telling her in bits and pieces as to what went wrong, but not everything.

For two days Divya was left in suspense because Nandini herself was quite busy and Divya wasn't well. On the third day Nandini called Divya and finally told Divya everything.

"You know how they all are, Manav was quite curious about things, and Madhav told Dev that you confessed to him, that was expected because he is his best friend, and Dev went and told that to I guess Rishi or Manav and he texted that in their group. They wanted to talk to you. They were like Madhav should take the proposal in consideration, and then they were like bhai sahib. Was it because she liked Madhav that she used to come to knock at our door in pretense of giving us instructions and telling us things... too bad did she think that would impress Madhav?"

"I swear I was so pissed off with them I yelled at them as well, and then Madhav is like I should have told you not to tell him."

That statement made Divya hurt, not because everyone was talking nonsense but Madhav thought that it was wrong and he yelled at Nandini, what could have she done? Divya had clearly told him to tell whatever it was that he felt and thought about this he should come and tell her, and not to bring anyone else in the middle. And most of all how can Manav and others even think so lowly of her?

Making fun of someone was at a different place and mocking someone's genuine feelings and care was a completely different thing. For the first time that night she felt she should have told Madhav that it was a dare and let everyone know that he really thought that she liked him.

One reason she didn't let him know the other truth was that she didn't wanted him to feel stupid. Both of these things were the truth, but it was better to have one fool than two.

" I am really pissed off now, I don't know what to say, I shouldn't really have taken care of those assholes. Let that idiot Dev call me for Black book. I would never help him now."

The very next day Divya got a call from Madhav who explained to her the whole thing that happened. How the boys were just making fun and that she should expect this from them and as well not give much attention to it. Divya as well told him how disappointed she was with him for he didn't even thought how bad she would feel, she had always told them to talk to her on her face, she was ready to take all the fun that they wanted to make of her, but if they want to do that, do that on her face and not behind her back. If she didn't really answer that call they could have called some other day that discussion could have stopped there.

On the verge of being pissed she was about to tell Madahv about her insecurities but called it off and luckily he was being called by someone. She thought that would be all, maybe after a few days things would sort out.

Alas she was wrong as yet again on a random Wednesday her phone rang at 1 am with 5 people calling her.