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Originally posted by: Eccentrica

Chapter 29: The reunion (Part 1).

8^th March, 2009.

Reunion! A day when long lost friends meet, acquaintances catch up, long lost memories are reminisced and of course, the past merges with the present. The second Sunday of the month of March, 2009 was to become a memorable occasion. Several people would hark back on it after many years. This reunion marked the second phase in Arnav and Khushi's lives. Khushi hadn't been wrong about her skepticism; indeed S.M school had no such tradition of planning a reunion for its students. But the academic year of 2008-09 would mark thirty years of the school and hence the authorities had carried out five day long festivities; hosting a party each day for students of five different years. Needless to say, Khushi and Arnav were clubbed in the fifth day of the celebration.

The party was held on a short notice. Priya had called up Khushi on Friday night, the party was to be held on Sunday and hence Khushi was thrown off balance. There was so much to be done and with just a day before the event not much time was left with the preparations. There wasn't any dress code as such; Khushi was thankful for that but not completely because late Friday night she had received a call from Urvashi stating that they were all planning to wear one-piece dresses for the occasion and that she was to follow suit in order to blend. That put her in sort of a mini quandary. The Guptas weren't conservative by any means, but Khushi didn't have prior experience of a one-piece dress. She had to broach the topic hesitantly and did so in front of her mother knowing well that she stood a higher chance of coveting a dress if she asked her mother rather than her father. The ploy worked; Garima had consulted Shashi and had assured him that she would be assisting their daughter while shopping; thus it was an undisguisedly excited Khushi who had been accompanied by her mother on Saturday for the dress shopping.

***

As part of the norms of the IIT, Arnav stayed on campus for most part of the time. It was only during weekends that he would come home; those visits too were infrequent, for the institute activities ran erratically and sometimes extended in the wee hours. Fortunately, he was supposed to come home for the weekend and was apprised by a couple of friends regarding the reunion. Typical to his personality, he had backed out of it and had checked on the school website by chance; it was then he came to know the party wouldn't be restricted to his batch alone. And that had caused him to change his plans. From not being available to suddenly being overly excited for the party, the transition surely had taken place quite quickly. Of course, there was no guarantee of Khushi's presence on the day, but he liked to believe that if he remained positive, things would turn out in his favor. He had no help from Aman's side; not that he hadn't tried, but for a person's whose presence itself was doubtful, how could he have asked him about Khushi? And so all that was left to do was anticipate.

The D-day arrived and students started pouring in at the venue in hordes. The school had no means to accommodate the large number of people and since the celebration was supposed to be grand, it had been arranged in a hotel- 'The Palm Club'. The event was an open air cum indoor one with a provision for indoor refreshments. By 6.00 p.m. the venue had filled out. Arnav had arrived at the allotted time and had decided already that the duration of his stay would depend upon Khushi's attendance. It had already been half an hour to his arrival and Khushi had yet not arrived, leaving Arnav restless. He arbitrated on waiting for another half hour before leaving the venue. While he was pondering over this, Aman arrived with a few common friends. Aman had a major exam coming up and had wanted to give the occasion a miss, but then decided that a few hours of fun wouldn't harm anybody. Besides, knowing that both Arnav and Khushi were going to be present, he was surely not bent on missing the fireworks.

The gang of girls arrived by 6.30 p.m. The delayed entry was owing to the time taken by the girls to dress up. They had gathered at Priya's house since she lived closest to the venue, and had also prepared for the event together. And boy, was it a madhouse! There was running helter-skelter for the right shade of rouge and the lip liner, the smudging of kohl had to be taken care of, hair styles had to set and reset and eyeliners had to be tastefully applied. The dressing up itself had left the girls exhausted. Khushi had been a part of this hubbub but she wasn't huge on makeup. She had kept the painting to a minimum and had contributed more to others' touch-ups.

Though they had arrived as a group, Arnav's eyes were automatically transfixed on Khushi. Dressed in a Dartmouth green one piece dress, Khushi looked the attire had been made for her. The green brought out the creaminess of her skin; the sleeves of the dress were in dotted net extending upto the wrists, thus adding length to her lean arms. The collar of the dress was V-necked highlighting her slender neck against the sheer covered shoulders. The garb extended just up to her knees; the silk material fitting snugly onto her. A black belt accentuated her narrow waist. She had completed the look with nude peep toe stilettos, simple diamond shaped studs and her newest possession, the diamond encrusted platinum ring.

Any individual watching Arnav could have described him as a person who had been perennially thirsty, for his countenance resembled that expression. His eyes drank in Khushi's appearance greedily as though making up for the last three years' absence. Every minor detail was noticed as she neared the location where he stood by his friends; be it her waist length hair layered at the front or the slim waist which he found too appealing; his observation puzzled him, never had he looked into so many of her details. Sure she had blossomed into a woman; the changes were more than evident, but it was his response to them that surprised him. It was like he was seeing her in a different light. Khushi, who was listening to one of Yasha's jokes wasn't aware of the scrutiny that she was being subjected to; nor was she aware of the fact that Arnav had already arrived. The girls entered in and then began searching for their other friends. Priya quickly placed a call to Aman in order to ask him if he and Arnav had already arrived.

Another thing that had caught Arnav's eyes was the glint coming from her left hand. The lights from the venue had been reflected from the ring that Khushi wore on her ring finger when she had raised her hand to adjust her hair. Arnav saw the location of the ring and was flummoxed. He knew there was only one explanation for the same. A never before experienced dread began to fill in his mind. If there was any possible explanation for the ring, Aman would have told him; but then again why would he? Arnav had never talked about Khushi to him in the past three years; their encounter itself had been sparse over the long span of time, with both of them being busy in their respective fields. But there was one thing that Arnav was sure of; he had to find out the story behind the ring, before he became insane. He got an opportunity for the same soon.

Aman, having completed his conversation with Priya on the phone, prodded Nilesh and asked him to go ahead with what they had planned. And so Nilesh exclaimed loudly, "Khushi Bhabhi!" The sound made Khushi groan inwardly. It reminded her of the food fair when Akash had addressed her in a similar way. Recognizing it to be Nilesh's voice, she proceeded towards him and said, "Oh cut it out Nilesh! Is this the way to greet a person'by giving her some tag?"

"Not some tag Khushi, it's the right tag. Besides, I gathered that with so many Khushis around here adding the suffix of Bhabhi would be important. And I was right; it sure grabbed your attention!"

"Don't be cute!" Khushi snapped back. "Is this why you called me; to justify the suffix?"

"Nah. I called you here Bhabhi", Nilesh replied taking a long pause "to let you know our Bhai's here", pointing towards Arnav.

In all her irritation towards Nilesh's manner of addressing her, Khushi had forgotten that Arnav would be amongst the guys. Her head jerked towards the direction in which Arnav had pointed. Coincidentally at that time the fairy lights began to glow. There had been some primary lighting facilities from the beginning of the function, but the organizers had left some till the onset of darkness. The newly lightened bulbs gave a soft glow to Arnav and Khushi's faces; mirroring what they actually felt. It was the feeling of warmth that spread through both of them when their eyes met. The eye lock continued long enough for the surrounding members to make impatient noises in order to bring them back from their reverie. Both were considerably embarrassed and Khushi immediately made a gesture of fixing her hair that was swaying in the mild breeze. That brought back Arnav's attention to the light flashing from the ring. He knew that he couldn't waste any time in settling the whole matter about this ring.

"You got it all wrong Nilesh." Arnav said. "In case you aren't aware, Khushi's already engaged. Check out her ring and yeah before you get any ideas, here have a look at my fingers. I have nothing in them. Which means Khushi has a lot of answering to do, don't you Khushi?" Arnav smirked.

At this, everyone's attention was riveted on her left hand and commotion followed; several questions were bombarded on her, all at the same time and Khushi became helpless. There was only one thing that she could do before several other bystanders came and saw what the whole hoopla was all about. And so she screamed at the highest possible octave; the voice loud enough to be heard above the bluster and the background music being played. "Enough guys! Stop making wrong assumptions on the basis of an equally wrong statement", she said, sending Arnav a baleful look. "It's just a ring." Khushi reasoned.

"Yeah dear, but what from what I know, this looks like a diamond", Urvashi said. 'So we are bound to come to such a conclusion. Why don't you give us a justification for the same?"

"Great! Now I can't even do things the way I want to or wear things where I want to. But I guess an explanation is necessary. So listen all. This ring was gifted to me by my father on my eighteenth birthday. I have always wanted to possess a ring and when I was asked to choose a gift for my birthday, I opted for this", she said pointing to the 3 stone emerald cut diamond encrusted in platinum. I agree the placing of it is bound to raise questions, but it's just that I like to wear a ring on my ring finger and wouldn't want to wait for an engagement to actually wear one. Does that answer all your questions? In case you are still doubtful, you can always ask Bhai for corroboration." Khushi took a deep breath on ending the monologue.

Now that all questions had been answered, everyone went back to enjoying the party. Khushi made up her mind to completely ignore Arnav for the rest of the evening. All attempts by him to start a conversation were merely ignored. Although Arnav was happy that his fears had been baseless, this new demeanor of hers wasn't comforting either. He knew that he was to be blamed for her hostile attitude but couldn't settle for the fact that the remainder time would be passed in Khushi sending him murderous glares or treating him as though he were invisible.

Khushi's reply might have been calm but she was boiling with anger. That guy sure had the audacity to just announce right about anything that came in his mind. Plus now he was making these cute puppy faces asking for apology, which were melting her resolve. Hey Devi Maiya what should she be doing? Here she was hoping that now that they were adults, things would go smoothly between them. Afterall hadn't she waited for 3 years and 28 days? Yes she had counted this duration like a hopeless fool lost in love and there he was doing what he could do best, rile her. But she too had her self-respect to salvage. After what he had said, in no way was she going to be cordial with him, leave alone let him talk to her. Sure, her stance was going to cause some heartache, but it was high time for Arnav Singh Raizada to stop acting all cocky.

"Why did you go through all the trouble of peeving her when you could have directly asked me?" Aman questioned Arnav.

"What are you talking about? Be specific."

"Cut the bu**s**t will you Arnav? Ever since Khushi arrived and you noticed the ring, your face was writ with worry. So the easiest thing for you to address your fears was to ask me. But no, instead you took it out in front of all our friends. No, wait", Aman said cutting in Arnav's attempt to speak, "you have to accept that what you said went down badly with her. So I'm saying this as her cousin and not your friend- rectify the mistake you have made; I want Khushi to be smiling genuinely by the end of the day and I want you to make it happen, the 'how' I leave up to you. And I won't repeat this again but it's high time that you stop skirting around the issue and go headlong into it. In that way, you shall not only save time but also save the hurt that you cause to my cousin. As for my stand, it will remain the same; I am your friend as well as her cousin. Now scoot off and try to make amends."

To this, Arnav merely nodded taking Aman's short speech as an approval to whatever he felt for Khushi and began racking his brains to come up with some suitable course of action.

For PMs, buddy me.😃

Note: Chapter 1 of Love~Life~Labyrinth will be posted tomorrow; however PMs for the same will be sent on Friday along with the next chapter of IMTBE.

P.S. Many readers are curious about Shyam's career option; your interest in him was overwhelming and sure took me by surprise. However, it will be revealed through the course of the story, so I request you to be patient.