Chapter 1: The Case of the Missing Jalebis
Note: Shyam is good in this story & had only brotherly affection for Khushi. Oh btw, I don't know Hindi so it's all in Eng. I watch the show with subs.
Light music played in the background while the people in the huge living room either chatted lightly with each other or congratulated the couple standing in the center of the small stage set up for the occasion. Huge red and white balloons hung from the ceiling, and beautiful orange and yellow flowers decorated the entrance to the grand house.
Even a regular passerby would understand that the day was a joyful one for the Raizada household. Everyone had a smile on their faces except for one lonely person sitting in the corner of the grandly decorated room. She was decked in a pretty pink and blue sari with matching jewelry. Her attire looked bright but her mood was the exact opposite. To her, the only highlights of the day were seeing her elder sister's happy smile and the stack of jalebis sitting right next to her on the food stand. She checked to her right and left before grabbing her fifth jalebi and stuffing it into her mouth.
"The perfect amount of sugar and syrup," Khushi thought to herself blissfully. She was going to grab another when someone appeared before her.
"Khushi? What are you doing sitting by yourself?" Payal asked her sister with worry. "Do you feel okay?"
Khushi faked a smile and took her sister's hands into her own. "Of course I'm okay Jiji. It's just so busy in here that I needed to sit down for a bit. What are you doing talking to me? You should go thank the guests that are starting to leave!" She wasn't exactly lying. It was busy in the room, and she was tired. Other than that, there wasn't much of a reason to be depressed.
In fact, the only reason she was wallowing in her own self pity was because of the stress of having to avoid Arnav the past few weeks. Khushi had thought that Arnav was finally out of her life two years ago when they had left Delhi for Lucknow suddenly. It seemed fate didn't like that idea and had brought her right back to the Raizada mansion as the sister of Akash's bride. It had all happened so suddenly. A groom had arrived for Payal back in Lucknow a few weeks ago, and much to everyone's shock, it was Akash. Nothing much had happened after that, except for Khushi realizing that Payal would obviously live in the Raizada mansion after marriage and that she would probably become a regular there if she ever wanted to visit her sister. Putting her own worries aside, Khushi was ecstatic that her Jiji would be married to one worthy of her and to one that loved her.
Her Jiji broke her out of her thoughts once again. "Alright Khushi, but you are happy, right? You seemed a little dull the past few days. Don't think that I'm so caught up with my wedding that you can't talk to me anymore."
Khushi smiled. "It's nothing like that Jiji, I'm fine." She finally got out of the chair she had been stuck in for the past hour. "I know that you're always there for me."
"Good, now go and talk to people. Amma is starting to worry that you look too unsocial," Payal warned before she walked off where Akash was standing.
Khushi glanced in her mother and father's direction and they really were giving her looks as if to say "You look too dead. Go talk to people!" She sighed but decided that they were right. Khushi knew that she shouldn't let someone like Arnav get in the way of her happiness. When her parents weren't looking, she grabbed another jalebi for walking into the crowd of people.
-----
Arnav leaned against the wall tiredly, casually observing the people around him. He was exhausted because of the chaos and was secretly happy that the wedding was over. Though he was happy for Akash, he could not have been more shocked when Akash had announced to the family that he was in love with Payal. Nani had made a ruckus about Akash being married before Arnav, but agreed after realizing that Arnav would not get married anytime soon and Akash could not keep waiting for him. On the other hand, it took heated arguments and restless nights to convince Manorama that Payal was a deserving daughter-in-law.
As his eyes wandered around the room, they fell on a pretty girl dressed in blue and pink, sitting by herself in the corner. Not surprisingly, he found himself staring at Khushi. She looked very pretty in that sari, though he didn't want to admit it to himself.Arnav resisted the urge to smirk when he saw her stuff a jalebi into her mouth, only because it would look odd to people walking by if he was smirking to himself.
"I wonder how she would react if her dear plate of jalebis went missing," he thought to himself haughtily before walking towards her and deciding to play a harmless prank.
----
Khushi talked to a few people before she felt the need to get another jalebi. She could not stop eating them! However, when she reached the food stand, the plate was gone!
"Did somebody move the jalebis?" Khushi asked a woman standing nearby, "or did they run out?"
The woman shrugged, "I saw someone take them. He walked in the direction of the kitchen, so you might want to look there."
"Thank you!" Khushi exclaimed as she walked towards the kitchen. The woman probably thought she was pagal for acting so anxious over a plate of jalebis. She reached the kitchen soon enough and walked towards the fridge, guessing that they would be there. Unfortunately, they weren't.
"Where are the jalebis?" Khushi thought sadly with a pout, closing the fridge door before checking a few other places. After no luck, Khushi sank into one of the chairs at the dining table and put her head in her arms sadly. She knew she was acted like a child, but the jalebis were so good that she really really felt like eating another one.
She felt her spirits rise as a caterer holding a platter of gulab jamuns passed by. "Ji, are there any jalebis left?"
"Sorry, we only got an order for one platter, and if those are done, there are no more," he answered unsympathetically, leaving Khushi to her misery again.
"Who in their right minds would order more gulab jamun than jalebi?" Khushi whispered out loud, getting up and deciding to resume her search. According to the woman, someone had taken the platter, so they had to be somewhere!
She continued to walk carefully down a hallway near the kitchen and opened the doors to several rooms, quickly scanning the insides. She was so lost in her search for the jalebis that she forgot the next door that she opened was Arnav's room.
"The jalebis!" Khushi gasped with delight. The round, orange treats were sitting safely on Arnav's bed. Still not realizing whose room she was in, she grabbed the platter and plopped onto the bed, happily munching on a particularly fat one.
Meanwhile, two naughty kids were playing in the hallway right outside Arnav's room. They were kids of some of the guests who were invited to Payal and Akash's wedding reception. One little boy, Rajiv, saw Khushi march into Arnav's room and he suddenly had a very mischievous idea. He knew that Arnav was in the bathroom in his room, and he knew that the girl had just walked in there looking for jalebis because she kept muttering to herself.
Rajiv turned to his best friend, Jay, and whispered, "Let's lock them both in there!"
Jay looked fascinated and grinned mischeviously along with his friend, "Yea! Nothing interesting has happened all day. At least now we'll have some fun."
They both exchanged another grin before slamming the door shut with all their might and clicking the lock on the outside into place. Without waiting for anything else, they ran back into the main hall where the party was still going on.
--
Khushi jumped at the sound of the door slamming and spilled all the jalebis onto the bed of whoever's room she was in. Before she could worry about the locked door, her eyes went wide at the mess she had made.
"Oh no! The bed is all sticky!" Khushi panicked. She spotted some napkins on a table and ran to get them. That's when she stopped and realized whose room she was in. "Oh my gosh, this is Arnav's room!! How could I not realize it before? Why, oh why does this always happen to me?"
She looked in dismay at the mess she had created, grabbed the napkins, and was about to turn the knob of the bathroom to wet them when someone else stepped out of the bathroom instead.
Khushi covered her mouth with the napkin in shock. Arnav had just stepped out. His eyes went round at seeing her in his room.
"Hey Devi Maiyya, he's gonna kill me," she thought anxiously.
Edited by aishi.muffin - 13 years ago
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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