(Warning: it's long-winded.
Warning2: I am not affiliated with the show and everything here is PURE conjecture.)
Despite AK very sweetly bending down to take her hand as she turns to walk away (unlike all the other times in the past when he just grabbed her upper arm, unceremoniously, arrogantly, painfully), and despite the fact that he will be sincere (as only our boy can be) and scared to death (very unlike our boy of old and therefore, more convincing), KS is going to be brutal and turn him away.
I finally finished watching the clips of all the old episodes that I'd missed --
* the earlier fights between these two headstrong people who have COMPLETELY different outlooks on life;
* the slow gaining and regaining of respect between the two; the even more unexpected blazing flowering of deep love (forget slow dawning of affection, not for our intensely passionate twosome!)
* the direct spilling into promises of forever-after that they fight and fight against the odds to uphold;
* until AK cracks under the pressure of everyone+Harshini;
* followed by AK's complete brutalisation of his relationship where he is really fighting to convince himself that it was all a sham but ultimately ends up more destroying KS' faith in him than his faith in her;
* and nothing he can do to give her the world on a plate is enough to convince himself that he was anything but scum to her, or restore even a shred of her faith in him.
And I surmise that what he did was fundamentally wrong. There is no real justification in the way that he was brutal. AK is super-intelligent enough to have realised that love was a two-way street. I believe that he was trying to cut all of his love for KS out of himself. But to echo his own words when he gifts Daadi's bracelet to KS: "what's the difference if you wear it, or I do?" -- what's the difference if he cuts himself or her? He's cut her to the deep as much as he's cut himself.
So tough: he's going to have to live with the reality that his worst will have to have irrepairable repercussions. And he may be gorgeous and utterly loveable, but that's it.
The only ray of hope on this horizon is that KS is also a strong character, in different dimensions of course, but she has steel in her soul. She is the only one who can now rescue them out of this mess. The way she has been presented to us so far, there doesn't appear to be much of a chance that she will rescue AK&KS, at least not just yet. I think it will either take a miracle, or a death -- AK's, I'm afraid! -- to have her forgive him. I just hope that she still has enough affection for Prithvi that she will not mess up his head by giving him any real hopes.
End of hypothesis. :-)
BTW, folks, did I or did I not notice a big fat gold ring on Josh's finger? Does that or does that not mean that he is already married? :-)
-E