ArSha OS: I Love You

ArSha OS - I Love You

She was sitting in the front row, enjoying the burst of talent to the fullest. These were the rare times, when she sat in the audience. These times always felt unusual. For her, the stage was where she belonged. Every song which played next, made her feet itch. She wanted to dance, it was almost a reflex. But then, the performers were marvelous as well.. Of course, no less could be expected from the DID finalists.

She checked her Iphone for the thousandth time. Nopes, nothing...

She Sighed.. He was just so busy nowadays, even messaging seemed to be a herculean task for him.

She remembered when she used to be that busy. One never really realizes how hectic schedules are in serials. It's as if you get cut off from the outer world and form a family of sorts with the cast. The bonding comes quite easily, given the time one spends on sets. But she had been lucky, she had sort of cheated. Coz when she had entered in that world, she already had special connection join her with him. It was a relief, given the time it took for her to ease in with new people. And he was always a big help there, warm and bright as the sun.

They had been the best of friends for quite a while now, seemed like forever to her. But lately, she had been thinking otherwise. She wasn't that naive, to not realize what she felt. What she hadn't accounted for was that he was that naive.

She checked her Iphone again. Nopes, nothing...

They were going to announce the winner soon. And she saw all the mentors climb on to the stage with the participants. Old memories flashed in front of her, remembering her own golden clothes, remembering the judgment to be announced. That had been the best day of her life, without a doubt. And she remembered how elated everyone had been for her, him included.

She looked at the nervous faces again. They looked so afraid, holding on to their breaths. What a relief now it was, to not be there. She had had her share of nerve-wracking, she was too old for competitions now, she thought dryly. It wasn't that she was turning into a coward by the time passing. No, if anything she only had gained much more strength to face hardships. To struggle some more. But it was just that she was beginning to realize what she wanted. And how to work towards it. That had been her main reason to leave D3 of course. She could not depend on it to shape her career, she had never wanted to be an actress. She was a dancer and would remain a dancer at her soul. If that wasn't the case, she would never have left D3. Would never have left him. It was a hard decision, and given the recent realization, much harder than it should have been.

Just then her phone beeped, and she smiled.. Finally..

'Hua announce??'

She found her smile vanishing a little. It was his first message of the day, and this was what he was asking?

Well, they had been rooting for different contestants this year, but the least he could do was ask her first how her day went!

'Nahi.. Hone wala hai!'

God, why did you have to make him such a slow person? And even if you had to make him slow, why did you have to make her fall for him? She asked sarcastically...

Her phone beeped again. Hmmm.. So he was free from shoot now.

'Kya hua? Itna ganda chota sa reply?'

Finally, he was catching up a little on reading her.

'Din ka pehla msg, aur woh bhi itna faaltu! tujhe shart ki zyaada padhi hai! Meri nahi!'

'Arre!!! Shart tujhse lagaayi hai naa! Toh teri hi padhi hui naa!'

'Isse accha bahaana nahi mila dene ko?'

'Tujhe bahaane kyun dunga mai ab? Tu meri mummy hai kya?'

'Yaaay!! Announce ho gaya! Mai jeeti Kunwar! Iss baar bhi a girl won!'

'Damn!!!!'

'Chal ttyl.. M gonna go congratulate..'

:'(

'Uff.. wait naa.. Won't take long.. Promise!'

'kk..'

Ohh.. how she hated those two word messages in the end. But she had duties to fulfill. She was the previous season's winner, and she should be now on stage, congratulating Geeta Ma and Rajsmita.

It was hours after she finally reached home. Though she had promised, it was impossible to escape everyone for even a moment. She had not been able to message him, and was very well aware what followed. She reached her bedroom, changed and finally took the phone in her hands, expecting the usual threats.

Weird. No new messages.

That was the first time he hadn't threatened to kill her for taking so long. What had happened?

She called him. This was something new, he never NOT messaged her for so long. At least not when she had him waiting.

"Hello.." Muttered a really drowsy voice on the other end..

She instantly realized he had fallen asleep. And she had just woke him up. Poor guy sounded so drained.

"Kunwar, you were sleeping? M so sorry baby.. Go back to sleep.. Really Really Sorry.."

"Shaks? Yeh poochne ke liye phone kia tha?"

"Arre sorry bola naa.. Ab so jaa.."

"Ok.. Goodnight Shaks.. Love u.."

"Love u too.. Miss you Kunwar.."

"Hmm.. Mai bhi.."

"Bye"

And she cut the call. She let out a long cold sigh. When had it finally dawned on her? When would it finally dawn on him?

She remembered the first time she had said I Love You to him. It wasn't anything special. It didn't even mean anything to either one of them. It was just a heartfelt statement to a friend.

She had been practicing for hours now, and the damned stupid step just didn't want to be perfected. At times like these she wanted to say it out loud, "Screw HipHop!" but she never did. How could she let a stupid step win over her? And to top it, the idiot that was supposed to help her out with this, was late.

"Sorrryyy!!" He had come rushing in with that dumb as hell smile plastered on his face.

How she had wished she would punch that stupid face of his and vent out a little frustation. It always had been there unspoken pact. She always helped when it came to contemporary and he returned that when it came to hip-hop. There were many reasons they were such a perfect so-called JODI. They were symbiotic. And it only made them stronger.

She glared at him outright then. He was so late!

"Arre meri maa! Sorry bola naa!! Aankhen dikhaana band kar! Chal naa abhi.. Practice pe dhyaan de!"

They had practiced for hardly an hour or so, and he had made her marvel that step, so easily, that she had thought she was stupid to have fussed in the first place. Her anger had already vanished into thin air. And all she felt was ecstatic.

"Yasss!! Dekha, mere bina tera kya hoga!" He had declared, elated at finally synchronizing the sequence with her.

"Sahi bola tune.. Thank you soo much Kunwar! See.. That's why I love You! You are the best!"

And they had hugged each other and gotten back to rehearsing.

How many I Love You's had fallen after that, she had lost count.

There was always a 'Luv ya', 'Love u loads', or even the pathetic 'Louuv uuu!!' in almost every message..

When had those casual love you's started affecting her? When had she started wishing for them to be serious ones? When had she started wanting them to be freaking REAL?

She snapped out of her thoughts. As it is she got limited amount of sleep nowadays, What with him conquering over her dreams as well. Better dream with eyes shut. No point in staying awake..

The next few days had been really busy. She had an item song to shoot, and he had his usual D3 schedule to keep up to.

She had hardly met him, and somehow she felt the frequency of calls and messages had decreased as well. It had been a conscious effort on her part, thinking that by doing this, maybe she could get her old self back. That maybe she would stop feeling like that for Kunwar. But, it had had just the opposite effect on her, she had missed him terribly, had emotional swings nowadays, cursed out loud to nobody in particular when he didn't reply for hours, and no amount of chocolate consumption had eased the crankiness.

'Dekha??'

'Haan.. accha tha.. LOVED it!'

Okay, so he didn't like it one bit. Hmm.. but why? She thought to herself. It was the day of her item song video release. And she had told him the exact timings when it would be aired on what channel. And after such a long anticipation for his reaction, she just couldn't understand what he didn't like.

'Nahi accha laga toh bol sakta hai naa tu!'

'Maine kab kahaa ki nahi accha laga.. tu msg padhna bhi bhool gayi hai kya?'

'Naatak mat kar..'

'Nahi kar raha.. Accha tha bas.. Sach mei'

She still couldn't get why he was reacting like that. It took her hardly a mini-second to know how he was feeling. But why was he feeling like that. She went against her better judgment and decided not to push him further.

'Thanks'

'Agla bhi aisa hi hoga kya?'

What the hell? What a dumb question he was asking. He knew that there wasn't an answer to this one. She hadn't even started shooting for the next item song.

'Yeh kya sawaal hai?'

'Chodh... M too sleepy shaks.. Gud nyt..'

She stared at the last message of his. There was no I Love You to be seen.. Why? He never forgot to say that. No matter how tired he was. If he messaged her gudnyt, it would be accompanied by an I Love You. This pissed her. It was as if she was losing her importance in his life. But then, what could she do? Strangle an I Love you out of him? She chuckled darkly at that thought.. Wouldn't she love doing that!

But after that night, she felt him change permanently, or maybe she was getting more and more paranoid. There were fewer messages now and even fewer I Love You's.. What had gotten into the guy? She was the one who would always say it first, and he would just reply as a freaking weak formality.. Sometimes not even that..

She felt like throwing her phone away everytime she would receive those Love u too's.. Weak!! Freaking weak!!

Fine... It was not like she was dying here! She wouldn't say it either.. Let the big guy feel whatever he wants to! To hell with him!!

It had been seventeen days now... F*cking bullshit.. The guy hadn't said it even once.. And she hadn't either...

Alright she was kidding back then, she literally was dying here.. What she would not give for even a crappy 'Louuuv uuu'...

She moved restlessly into her bedroom. Pacing with her Iphone in hand. Contemplating whether to throw it away or call that inhuman monster.. When suddenly, her phone started ringing, shocked she almost slipped the phone from her hands.

One look at the caller id made her smile involuntarily. Finally!!!

"Hello"

"Kahaan hai tu? Phone uthaane mei itna time kyun laga?"

"Haath mei pakad ke nahi baithi thi phone ko.. Time toh lagega hi naa!"

"Jhoothi! Haath mei hi tha phone tere.. Ab bata kahaan hai?"

"Ghar pe hun Kunwar.. Kyun? Kya hua?"

"Kuch nahi hua.. Bye.."

What the F*ck just happened? Did he just hang up on her? Why call in the first place then?

Now she was sure.. Amarjeet Singh needed psychiatric help..

And she heard the doorbell ring. She was already frustated right now, she didn't need another salesman to add on to her mood. But slowly she dragged herself to the main door.

"Kunwar?? Yahaan kya kar raha hai?" He was standing on her doorstep.. Fidgeting.. Alternating his hands from his hair to his pockets.. What was up with this guy? He never behaved this weird...

"Umm Shaks.. Sun toh.." He stammered.

He looked so frightened right now at her doorstep, she couldn't help but smile.. He seriously was such a sight right now.. What was he so afraid of?

"Bol.."

"Woh.. woh.. I Love You"

She was taken aback for a second. She couldn't believe it. Had he really said it finally? She knew he had. And she knew very well that this I Love You was just exactly the one she wanted to hear. It felt so heavenly to finally hear those words from his mouth. Just the way she wanted. With the feelings she wanted. With all the love she wanted.

She plunged herself into his arms. And hugging him with all the force in the world, uttered "I love you too, Kunwar!!"

She felt him backing her away from her shoulders..

"Nahi.. Nahi Shaks.. Sach mei.. Sachhi mei I Love You!" He said, unleashing his molten chocolate brown eyes on her.

Awww, such an adorable soul he was.. Did he really think she would misunderstand this? Someday, she would finally tell him how long she had waited for this one I Love You from his mouth.. But right now, much more important things needed to be done..

She plunged her arms around his neck, and looked deep into his eyes..

"About time you idiot.. Sach mei!"

And kissed him breathless.