ONE CHANCE GIVEN 2.8
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CID Episode 65 - 2 August
Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai - 02 August 2025 EDT
Congratulations SRK National Award
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Asli Gunehgar
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Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai - 03 August 2025 EDT
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ONE MONTH TIME 3.8
Chapter 16: Where There's Smoke There's Fire
Prem felt relieved when he saw the familiar faces of Pia's sisters hurrying towards them. Preet was walking not too far behind. "Pia, what do you think you are doing?" Bani reprimanded.
She turned uneasily at her sister's voice, "Oh, hey."
"I told you to leave Prem alone," Bani continued.
"So sorry," Rano apologized. "We really did try but she was so fast she just disappeared on us."
Prem gave a faint grin, "It's okay Rano I know you guys did. Enjoying the party so far?"
She smiled, "Yes, thank you so much for inviting us. Happy Diwali."
"Happy Diwali. And you're welcome," he answered.
"Hey, PB," Preet greeted. "Ma, said she needed your help in finding some candles and sparklers in the storage room." Prem and Preet excused themselves from the Dixit sisters and walked to towards the garage.
"So there in a box?" Prem asked.
"Yea, but it's not labeled she can't remember where she put them. But she knows they are in the storage room somewhere," Preet explained.
Prem opened the door to the storage room and walked inside searching for the box that his mother wanted. Preet cautiously stayed near the door as he watched his brother wander deeper into the room. He peered out of the doorway seeing if anyone was walking down the hall.
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Heer gazed downward at the floor as she moved about through the crowd looking for something. "I don't see your earring are you sure you lost it here?" she questioned.
Meher shrugged her shoulders, "I did walk over here tonight. I don't know...I was playing hide and go seek with Rishi early maybe it fell over there," she pointed towards a long hallway.
"I guess we can go check there," Heer said and began walking in the direction that her sister had pointed.
"Didi I'll check this side. Why don't you go check that side?" Meher suggested. To her relief her sister complied and walked further down the hallway towards the storage room.
Preet hide behind the door as he sensed Heer approaching the storage room. Heer naturally wandered into the open room looking to see it was possible that Meher might have dropped her earring there. Preet smirked and quietly slipped out of the room. He backed up against the wall to the right of the door waiting for the best opportunity to close the door. He wanted to make sure Heer was far away from the door before he closed it.
Prem shuffled through the boxes and scrunched his nose in defeat. "Preet, I don't see anything," he said as he came walking out of the back of the room. He looked on in surprise as Heer jumped at the sudden appearance of his voice. "Heer? What are you doing here?" Prem asked.
"I was---" she started and then turned quickly around as Prem rushed passed her. She saw a shadow of a male figure in the hallway as the metal doors of the storage room closed shut.
Prem scowled in anger as he heard the lock fasten on the other side. "Preet, you little..." he yelled as he banged on the door.
Preet snickered confidently that he completed his plan. "Yes, and without a hitch," he said as he gave Meher a high-five.
"That was brilliant I have to say," she congratulated.
He softly whispered, "Now, time will do the rest."
Inside the storage room Heer was trying to register what had just happened. When she heard Meher's voice and the laughing that was happening on the other side she realized she had been duped. "Meeeeheer," Heer shouted as she banged on the door alongside Prem. "Let us out right now!"
Preet and Meher just ignored them and continued to praise each other over their work. Suddenly there was a loud forceful thud. Meher jumped at the sound and looked worriedly at Preet as she heard Prem continue to shout angrily. "Um, why are we doing this again?"
"Look, they'll cool down in a minute. Don't worry about. They are lock in there'no place to go'it's like survival...your hormones get going...they don't know when they will be let out...things start to happen...a bond forms...and then looowe," he explained twisting his hand up in the air.
"Looowe?" Meher replied with a confused expression on her face.
"Love," Preet translated. "Love is looowe. You don't love some you looowe someone. A looowe marriage. Come on now, that's a line from Hum Tum."
"Ah, yea I remember now," Meher said. She looked worriedly at the door. "Is that thing going to hold them?"
"It's metal he can't break that thing down no matter how hard he tries," Preet answered. He grabbed Meher's hand, "Come on, let's go dance."
When they made it back to the party Meher glanced down and realized that Preet was holding her hand. Preet looked at her wondering why she had suddenly stopped walking. A faint blush was creeping on Meher's cheeks. Preet looked down and saw that his fingers were intertwined with hers causing him to blush immediately. They both dropped their hands when they saw Sang walking towards them.
"Dude, I've been looking for you. So, time to start the music, right?" he asked.
Preet grinned, "It's time to get this party rockin!"
Sang smirked, "All right then let DJ Sang handle everything from here," and walked away heading to his turn table.
*********************************************************************Heer rubbed the side of her hand trying to ease the pain of banging on the metal door. She could hear from the distance echo and vibration coming from the hallway that they were playing music now at the party. "Prem," she said touching his shoulder. "I don't think anyone will hear us now."
Prem huffed and slapped his hand against the door, "I'm going to break his legs when I see him."
Heer crossed her arms, "Little miss is going to get it...she'll be doing the dishes...the laundry...all the cleaning in the house." They both turned and smiled at each with an evil grin bonding over what they planned to do to their sibling once they got out.
"So, how did Meher get you in here?" Prem asked.
"She said she lost her earring," Heer replied. "And I was helping her look for it...and the storage room door was open...and well I think you know the rest. What were you doing in here?"
Prem sighed, "Looking for candles and sparklers."
"So what do we do now? It's still early and they just started playing music. Who knows how long before someone notices us missing," Heer said.
Prem filed his hand through is hair, "I guess we have no choice but to wait. Eventually someone's going to be looking for us." He looked about the room, "Let's just find a place to sit down." He walked over to the left and moved some things so they could sit comfortably against the wall. He found an old rug and unfurled it so they didn't have to sit on the hard concrete floor. "Miss," he gestured with his hand inviting her to sit down first. Heer giggled and leaned herself against the wall.
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Meher and Preet were enjoying themselves out on the dance floor. They had completely forgotten about Heer and Prem being locked in the storage room. After the song they were dancing to slowly finished Preet and Meher moved off the dance floor to rest a bit. "You thirsty Meher?" Preet asked. "I'll go get us some drinks."
"Okay, I'll be waiting here," she replied.
Preet smiled and disappeared into the crowd heading for the refreshments table. On his way over he spotted Harman in a corner being very anti-social. Preet grinned and walked over to his brother. "What are doing here? You should be out dancing with all the pretty ladies out there," he advised.
"I'm fine where I am," he replied.
Preet arched his eyebrow noticing how his brother kept checking his phone. "You waiting for someone to call?"
Harman shook his head, "No, what gave you that idea?"
"Because you keep looking at it," he pointed with his finger.
"He's been doing that all night," Veera said joining in on the conversation. "He got a phone call like two hours ago and wandered away to talk...like he's hiding something."
"Something? More like someone," Preet replied teasingly.
"Is it a crime now to talk on the phone? I walked away because it's hard to hear anything in this room with all these people," Harman defended.
"Well, enough sulking in the corner...go out and have some fun then," Preet said. He then pushed him into a throng of girls who were standing on the side of the room. "This is my brother Harman. He's tall and handsome but I'm sure you can see that already. He's studying law. He's single and ready to mingle. Ladies, I'm sure you know what to do." Before Harman could say anything the girls descended on him like a pack of hungry wolves. They surrounded him and dragged him to the dance floor. Preet just snickered at the sight.
"Nice work, bro," Veera applauded as she gave him a high-five.
"Thank you my job here is done," Preet replied and left to complete his task.
Veera walked back to her friends and joined back into their conversation. They were busily talking about the fashions that they were seeing at the party; those they thought dressed well and those they thought had no fashion sense at all.
"Excuse me, Veera?" a voice spoke from behind her. She turned to see muscularly built young man smiling at her.
"Oh, hi Suraj," she greeted.
"Um, I was wondering if you would like to dance," he offered nervously.
"I would---" but before Veera could finish her sentence her friend pulled her off to the side. Suraj just stood there confused by the whole situation. "Celine, what?" she replied in surprise.
"Why would you dance with him?" she asked.
"Well, he's nice and sort of cute. Besides his family, the Mahiyavanshi's are in the diamond business," Veera answered.
"That's nice and all. But thank about it for once. He's the youngest son. He's not going to get that big of the share. If anything you should be dancing with Hiten," Celine advised.
"Hiten, huh?" Veera pondered.
"He's over there," Celine said directing her gaze to a tall handsome man standing diagonally from them.
Veera bit her lower lip thinking about what to do. Having made up her mind she walked over to Hiten and smiled. "Hiten would you like to dance?"
The eldest Mahiyavanshi smiled politely. "I'm sorry Veera, but Toral's already asked me to dance with her," he answered as he walked off with a short petite girl.
Veera glanced to see where Suraj was and found him already on the dance floor with one of her friends dancing. She stood there feeling completely embarrassed. Celine came up from behind, "It's his lost really." Veera just smiled with a grimace berating herself for having listened to a stupid idea.
Prem chuckled as he titled his head back against the wall. "You really did that?"
"What you never played Holi?" she asked.
"No, we do but not to that extent. Dumping the colors into the water trough and dunking people in them?" he said.
"Yea, but it wasn't fair to Meher or me cause Nihaal was so much stronger than us that he would drop us in there three or four times," she explained.
Prem just shook his head, "Don't give Preet any ideas. He'll run with it like mad."
Heer giggled and then sighed. "It's been a while hasn't it? Shouldn't someone notice we are missing by now?"
"Yeah, I know," Prem replied. He glanced around the room again and then slowly started staring at one of the walls. "Heer, is it just me but do you see something flickering over there?"
Heer narrowed her eyes, "Like a light?"
Prem got up and walked over to the metal shelving structure. "I think there's a window back here. The light has to be coming from the lamp post outside." He started to remove the boxes and things stacked on the shelf. Heer worked alongside doing the same thing. After a few minutes they had cleared everything out of the shelves and to their delight they saw a window. Prem grabbed the side of the metal shelving structure, "On the count of three okay?" Heer nodded and pulled with all her might to move the heavy structure. It screeched loudly as it skirted across the floor. "Phew, this thing is heavier than it looks."
"Just tell me when," Heer replied. They repeated the process two more times before they were able to get enough space to walk behind the metal structure and get to the window. Heer inspected the window worriedly, "Are we going to be able to open this? It looks pretty old. It's not rusted is it?"
Prem tugged at the window sill, "I think it should be fine. I might need something to leverage it though just to get a crack and then after that it should open." He turned around and began flipping through boxes looking for something. "Oh, I can't believe I forgot," he muttered hitting his forehead. Prem walked to the other side of the room and located the tool box. He took out a paint scrapper and flat head screw driver. "Hopefully this will work," he said as he began working on the window.
Heer shimmied the screw driver where Prem indicated as he pulled with his fingers on the window sill. They heard the frame squeak from the force as a tiny crack appeared underneath the window sill. They both excitedly smiled at each other. It wasn't long before the window was fully opened. Prem placed an old work bench underneath the window so he could get enough height to kick the screen out. He wrapped his maroon stole around his neck and climbed out of the window. He looked up at Heer and motioned for her to come out. She cautiously and carefully climbed out trying not to rip her outfit. Prem caught her hand and pulled her towards him as she dropped from the window. Heer felt herself being embraced by Prem's arms as her head landed on his chest. "You okay?" his voice huskily echoed in her ear. She titled her head up and saw his deep brown eyes staring down. Heer quickly pulled away feeling suddenly shy. Prem stared at her back wondering what she was thinking. He cleared his throat, "We can just walk back through the garden," and started walking ahead of her.
Heer quicken her steps so that she was walking side by side with Prem. They could hear the bass of the speakers thumping loudly as they got closer to the garden. Heer looked around her amazed at the autumn flowers in bloom. The foxtail orchids with their white and fuchsia lined petals where illuminating underneath the pale moonlight. She bent down and breathed in the scent of the roses smiling happily as they intoxicated her senses. Prem just silently watched in wonder a small grin plastered across his face. There was a lightness in the air around him that he couldn't quite comprehend but it felt good and he hoped that it would never leave him. Heer was too busy inspecting the flowers around her that she didn't see the stump on the ground. She braced herself for a fall but it didn't come instead she felt the strange sensation of floating in the air. She opened her eyes to see a pair of eyes staring back at her. Heer examined the flecks of hazel sparkling in Prem's eyes and the way his thick eyebrows puckered in concern over her. She felt the intimate embrace of his arm around her waist and his other arm supporting her upper back and neck. Heer could hear her heart racing in her ears as a flutter of emotions rose to the surface; nervousness, anticipation, and excitement. She felt safe in Prem's arms and the thought of leaving them scared her. It was this fleeting thought that frightened her the most; who was he to her that he held so much control over her now. She couldn't understand why she was feeling these things and she argued with her mind to stop.
Prem just stared at Heer wondering what she was thinking. Was she feeling uncomfortable or was she feeling the same sense of belonging he felt? He slowly raised her back to her feet his face inches away from hers. They stood there for what seemed like ages neither one of them speaking as if afraid of what the other one would say. Their intimate moment was soon interrupted by the voices of the catering crew bringing in more tables to the party. Heer turned away and touched her face feeling the warmness on her cheeks while Prem just dazedly looked up at the sky.
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Pati Patni Aur Panga
