Arshi OS: Happiness' Worth

A/N... Hi guys! I go by the name jjsinghraizada. Because just like so many of you out there, I dream to be Mrs. Arnav Singh Raizada. Any who I'm a 19 year old girl from the island of Jamaica. Now you may wonder what would I know about ipkknd? Well bless the Lord Jesus that someone at one of our local t.v. stations got a whiff of this amazing show and decided to translate it to English so the masses could enjoy back in 2015 and Jamaicans have been in love ever since. So i've read a ton of stories and many ideas have come to mind but for some reason the vibe of actually writing down one of my ideas has now descended upon me and so here I am! I hope you guys like it. Please be gentle with your comments I appreciate constructive criticism but no mean comments please. If you have nothing good to say, don't bother saying anything. And without further ado...

Continues from the scene where arnav screams at khushi claiming "what about the hurt you've caused me!!!!" (just to note, we're going to assume khushi is not at the mercy of the raizada's money, rather she too has her MBA as well a bachelor's degree in economics. And has just been offered the positon of GM of a conglomerate, which Arnav knows nothing about.)

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After Arnav stormed off, Khushi stood rooted to the spot. Tears running a trail down her cheeks. She ponders what have I done to arnav? In another far apart of her mind she thinks my baby, why would I hurt him? But she quickly shoves that thought away and chants her mantra he's the enemy and we hate the enemy. With that thought she makes her way to the kitchen to prepare some kheer. While stirring the kheer she exclaims "oh my God! He knows!" Shyam enters the kitchen at just that moment. "Who knows what khushiji?" "Look shyam let's cut the crap here I only talk to you to keep up the charade in front of the family but when we're alone we're gonna pretend we don't know each other, copy that?" "but khushiji-" "do you copy shyam!!!!" khushi roars as her eyes narrow to slits. Shyam steps closer to khushi. She exclaims "Boy! I will burn you with this hot spoon and if you think I'll have remorse you can think again!" Anjali hears shouting in the kitchen and decides to investigate. As she approaches the kitchen she hears shyam say Khushi I love you! She halts at the corner. She can hear her heart breaking but she chooses to keep up the faade. "Shyamji? Khushiji? What's going on? Why are you shouting?" Shyam became rigid and a look of fright flashes across his face. Khushi smirks. Turns off the stove then carefully folds her hand across her chest. "yea shyamji" placing emphasis on the "shyamji" she continues "tell Di why we were shouting" "um I, uh- Khushiji and I were arguing about the cricket match between West Indies and India. You know, about who was the better team and so on hehehe" he ends humourlessly. Khushi cocks her head to the side really boy, a cricket match???? And if Di's smart enough she'll know I don't watch cricket matches either. At least the ones that last for days, I honestly don't have enough attention span for that khushi moves to exit the kitchen but stops and looking through the corner of her eyes, she remarks "Shyamji it baffles me a great deal as to how you made it into the law profession" and then walks off leaving the ill-fated duo.

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While sitting in her room she ponders on her next course of action. Upon deciding on how to proceed with her life she decides to await the return of the coveted Arnav Singh Raizada. While painting her nails, Arnav thunders into the room. "Damnit Arnav! You scared the shit out of me! And you made me smudge my nails too!" Arnav pauses momentarily in shock. His eyebrows straining to meet his hairline and his eyes wide and bulging as he snaps his head in khushi's direction. Khushi turns to him "what?" "Nothing" he mutters and heads to the bathroom. Since when khushi speaks like that? "Arnavji!" "What Khushi!" "Hurry up will ya? I need to speak to you it's important" "Khushi I have more important things to do than listen to your shit furthermore I don't want to talk to you" he hautily replies. "Arnavji I don't recall asking you whether or not you want speak to me" khushi states as she moves from the door. The f**k? Who does she think she's talking to? Arnav rages into the room and bellows "who do you think you're talking to Khushi Kumari Gupta Singh Raizada?!" "why, you my dear Mr Arnav Singh Raizada" khushi calmly replies as she sits and crosses her legs on the recliner" Her calm demeanour irritates arnav to no end. "Why don't you have a seat?" khushi suggests and gestures the bed to arnav. He reluctantly obeys her orders and says "what do you want khushi?" "why don't we start off by talking about why you married me? "Damnit khushi I'm not talking to you about that" "the hell you are raizada! I deserve an answer and today at that too!" "like hell you do khushi!, all you deserve is pain! And I won't rest until every last drop of anguish and suffering is showered on you" "you're such an asshole you know that? And an idiot" khushi replied. "oh yea and I guess your precious lover shyam is the best thing since slice bread isn't he?" Arnav's sarcastic and unplanned retort also lets the kitty out of the bag. Damnit he thinks. "Well what'ya know! You've got it all figured out huh!" khushi claps in pseudo excitement. "khushi I can't believe you! After everything this family has done for you! After all that's happened between us" he whispers the last sentence "and you have absolutely no remorse do you?!" khushi's heart begins to palpitate. She can feel her resolve breaking so he does feel something for me, she smiles on the inside, and now he's just hurt and venting but why didn't you come to me arnav? You could've asked me about it. I would've told you the truth our present and future would've been so different now I wish- "Answer damnit!" khushi was brought out of her reverie by arnav's shout. "I can't have remorse for a crime I didn't commit arnav" she calmly states. Apparently, that answer didn't sit too well with arnav. He immediately reached out and grabbed khushi and slammed her forcefully against the floor to ceiling glass window. That should've hurt but khushi was blinded by anger. As the hot magma of tears spewed from the crater of her tear ducts, she kneed him the jewels and pushed him to the floor. A sadistic smirk made its way across her lips. "feels good to be abused and man handled doesn't it arnav?" arnav could only groan in protest. "Good, now that I have your attention I'll proceed to tell you what really happened and you have the option of choosing to believe or not" "Arnav? You remember that day when I ran into your room crying and you held me and asked what's wrong, and if my fianc hurt me, and I nodded in agreement? Well turns out that my fianc and Di's husband were one in the same. I know you're thinking I'm only pretending to not know who he was at the time, but it's true I didn't. He wasn't introduced to me as Di's husband until that point, because for whatever strange reason Anjaliji gave, he was never around before." Arnav finally recovered from the blow to the nuts khushi gave him and continued sitting on the floor, analysing her face to see if her verbal communication matched up with the non-verbal aspects. Her eyes that were once spitting fire and vengeance were now distant and glossy. Her once confident and loud voice now reduced to a mere whisper. Did I err in judging her? "I never meant to hurt you arnav, you or Di. I-I loved you all too much to do that." Arnav couldn't help but zoom in on the tense she used loved, does that means she doesn't love me anymore? Before khushi could continue he butted in "Really khushi?, where was your love when you were on the terrace that night on your jiji's wedding? "Don't think I didn't see you guys on the terrace! I saw him professing his filthy love for you!!!! I saw him holding you!!!! And I saw you telling him to leave Di!!! He said as his eyes blazed with accusation. "shut up!!! Shut the f**k up arnav!!!! You're acting as if you and your sister are the only ones who exist in the world! Like only her and your feelings matter! But what about mine huh! Who gives a f**k about mine!!! To say arnav was stunned was an understatement. Who knew khushi knew about and could use expletives. She treads towards him slowly with her finger pointing at him. As tears made their way down the familiar trail she said "neither you, shyam nor di, hell! Not even my own family thought about how I'd feel!!!!! Buaji didn't think of how I felt when she practically blackmailed and forced me into getting engaged to shyam!, my family didn't think about how I felt when they without so much of a second thought disowned me because of your misdoings and because I'm not their blood! And you! You Mr Raizada never ever thought about how I felt especially when you made me an orphan once again! So don't you dare lecture me on considering someone else's feelings when you've never done that." Arnav gulped and looked away while khushi went back to sit on the recliner. "He was staying at our house as a paying guest. Posing as a bachelor without any family. I don't know what he said to Buaji but pretty soon she kept insinuating that shyam was such a good catch and any girl would be lucky to have him and obliviously I agreed with her. After that all hell broke loose. She started blatantly insisting that I be the lucky girl to marry shyam, and when I didn't break she started using Babuji's ill-health against me. Saying that I'm ungrateful and I don't want to grant my babuji his dying wish to see me marry off before her dear Nan Kishore takes him away from us. And so I cracked. I finally gave in. Jiji and Buaji were the witnesses. If you don't believe me you can go ahead and ask all the Gupta's themselves. And before you say they'll cover up for me. I think you gave them enough ammunition to not want to lie for me. That's it I've told you my piece." Khushi sighs as she goes towards the washroom to freshen up. "but what I don't get is Khushi, why didn't you come to me? Or anyone in the family? Why khushi? Why?" "would you have believed me arnav?" That question had arnav hit for six. However, khushi continues "by the way I did try to tell your Di, on the day I came her mangalsutra broke, seeing how hysterical she became I realized she wouldn't be able to handle the news I had to tell her so I just left" "it wasn't your decision to make khushi!" "but isn't it the same decision you made arnav? Contrary to the popular belief; I care about Di as if she were my own sister. But it doesn't matter anymore. Only her future is at your mercy now." Before he could reply a knock came on their room door. It was Anjali. And unbeknownst to them all she heard their entire conversation. Trying to disguise the hurt in her voice she called them down for dinner.

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Arnav ran a rough hand through his hair. He took up a vase and threw it against wall. He took his pocket knife and cut through the curtains and pillows. He slammed the closet door open and stilled. He saw that her clothes were gone. His eyes caught sight of a letter in the corner addressed to him. With trembling hands he opened the letter and read the contents. He let out strangled cry. His family rushed up to his room. They were flabbergasted to see the state of his room. "Chote!" his family cried out. They all hustled inside while Anjali hobbled to embrace her brother. "Chote what happened why are you like this?" he turned in her arms and choked out "Di! Khushi, my wife she's gone" and fell to his knees holding her letter to his chest. At that moment, the worth of a girl everyone had forsaken assailed them. The pain of a broken heart felt. And the weight of guilt rested on everyone's shoulders while ties that were created were severed possibly forever and in the echo of Arnav's cries, happiness's worth was finally made known.