Beautiful post, honeypriya, and some great replies here!!!
I would agree with you about having faced rejection once, and so brutally at that, I really don't blame Khushi for having shut herself off from all romantic thoughts of Arnav ... he came on to her strongly on Diwali, then left her, refused to talk to her and went and publicly announced his engagement to another girl immediately. On top of which, when he dropped her home, he basically accused her of being a gold-digger and coming on to him ... and told her that he was not interested! Any girl would feel not just used but cheapened ... and if she had an ounce of self-respect, would never look at the guy in a romantic light again! But Khushi being Khushi and also because of the circumstances, can't cut herself off from meeting him, so she just tucks that incident firmly into her past and refuses to face it again or even acknowledge that it ever happened. Because she has no choice ... she has to meet Arnav socially, she even has to join with him for her sister's sake ... but she will NOT allow herself to think of him in any romantic way ... once bitten, twice shy ...
Arnav also is behaving completely true to character ... he once told Anjali in those very words ... if he feels love, he will turn and run in the opposite direction ... and that's exactly what he's doing ... (and the cv's had better have a really good back story for why he feels this way!!! )
Right now, he has acknowledged that she is important in his life, but he has given her the role of an adversary ... a worthy opponent, someone he has to challenge and defeat ... because looking at her as an adversary is acceptable, but looking at her as a girl he is in love with, a girl whose feelings he is vulnerable to, a girl who makes him weak and vulnerable, makes him lose control ... that is not acceptable he can't take that, because he doesn't want to be weak or vulnerable ever again ... and for some reason, he has lost his faith in love, and so can't accept that what has happened to him is love.
And so I also feel the sangeet ceremony, and whatever happens during it, especially in terms of their challenge, should move their story forward ... it's high time now!
If ou watch that fourth promo (my favourite one 😍) ... Khushi says, chahkar bhi main tumse door kyun nahin reh paati ... Kaash tumse nafrat kar paati ... she tries her best to hate him, but she can't, she can't stay away from him , even though all she sees is his hatred ... but again and again she comes back to him ...
And he can't show her his love, even though he loves her ... mera dil tumhein pukarta hai ... kaash tumse mohabbat kar paata ...
So Khushi has to understand his feelings somehow ... because he will keep taunting her, hurting her ... somehow she has to read behind those taunts and jibes, to figure out that he actually loves her ... a tall job for any girl, and I really wonder how the cv's are going to do it ... the war between ASR and Arnav ...
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