Khushi ran away from the main house as soon as she was out in the porch. She didn't want anyone to come & try to pacify her right now. She felt too distraught to appreciate anyone else's company. She ran without even seeing where she was going, & after running fast within the vast area of the property, taking every turns & bends which came in her path, she suddenly reached a shadowy small clearing surrounded by large Peepal & red & yellow Gulmohar trees. As the cool air of the shaded area hit her hot countenance, Khushi halted & looked around. As she noticed this area was well hidden from the view of the main house, which was just too far anyways, she relaxed & bent over forwards, clutching the sides of her head to hold her hair away from her face.
Suddenly, she felt a forceful tug at her left elbow & she was turned around in a while, & before she could even fathom what was happening, she was looking straight in Arnav's furious eyes, shooting daggers at her. & weirdly enough, the first thing she consciously noticed was the scar beneath his left eye-brow. In a flash, she remembered how it got to be there. She was 9. Rohan & Arnav were playing cricket in the front lawn of Nikunja. & although Rohan had promised her that she was playing with them too, all they let him do was fetch the ball when it went far. & Khushi had soon figured out she was being humored. Like always, all of her anger directed itself onto Arnav. If he wasn't there in the first place, Rohan would need someone, namely Khushi, to play along if he wanted to play cricket at all. She had marched over to Rohan, snatched the ball from Rohan's hand & threw it in full force towards Arnav's head. The ball had hit him over his eyes, & at the sight of profuse bleeding, a horrified Rohan & a terrified Khushi had run to him. Still he hadn't looked at Khushi, & ensured Rohan he wasn't in as much pain as the bleeding suggested & he'd be fine once he put a band aid on it.
It was weird for even someone as crazy as Khushi, that all she could think about, while Arnav was gripping her arms in a bruising clutch, was that, if he had gone to have stitches that day, he wouldn't probably have this scar today. Then she mentally admonished herself for feeling guilty about the scar, because he probably liked it that way as it only accentuated his sex appeal. & as Khushi's sane brain caught up with the thoughts her crazy brain had just had, she instantly gave a start & with that became aware of her sorroundings, & what had happened inside the house with Anjali. & as if sensing she had come back to earth from whatever crazy space she had gone away to, Arnav briefly shook her form violently, & rasped in an angry voice, "What the f**k is you f**kin' problem? No one.. & I repeat, no one gets away after speaking that way to my Di. Not even pesky little brats, who thinks the whole world revolvs around them, so they can do whatever the f**k they wanna do without thinking about consequences. How dare you put my sister down like that infront of everybody?" Khushi actually flinched from the impact of his booming voice.
Then, squirming violently, she freed herself from his deathly grip & as soon as she could put a bit of distance between their bodies, she spit out, "You wanna know what my f**king problem is? Not that I care enough about you to let you know, but, my problem is you! YOU! You had to go on & wish to gift a brand new house to your dear sister. & now, because, obviously, Anjali ji is gonna live in the house her Chhote had so nicely bought for her after their wedding, my home is getting sold. You must be pretty happy that now you are even getting me kicked out of my own home!" She heaved as she got that out, & she could see his eyes getting rounded on his face incredulously. & then he came a step forward & grabbing her left hand gave her a little jerk, "I am getting you kicked out of your house? That's a huge house in Delhi's most expensive residential area. The upkeep on that house takes every last coin that Uncle & Rohan can earn. Sooner or later, they would have been froced to sell Nikunja."
Khushi looked at him with a horrified expression on her face, "Wha-? But.. If things were that bad surely Bauji & Bhaiya would tell us." Arnav flung away her arm from his grip & gave a sarcatic laugh, "Yeah, judging by your current reaction, you should have been the first person they told about this." Khushi was so stung by his deragotory tone, that she took a threatening step towards him, "They should have told me before they told you, at least. Because that's my family, not yours. & that will never be your family, no matter how much you follow Bhaiya around with a lost & anguished expression on your face." She saw the vains of Arnav's jaws start to throb alarmingly as he almost bit out the words, "Who wants to be a part of the family that has you as a member? But unfortunately, Di is gonna be part of that family, as she & Rohan love each other. & so, you're now gonna go inside & apologize to her, amply, & you will remember never again to talk that way to Arnav Singh Raizada's sister!"
As Khushi felt waves of anger coming from his whole form directed towards her own, she shivered a little & put her hands over her own arms, hugging herself, & said in a hollow voice, "I was gonna go & apologize to her. Not because you said so, but because I regret talking to my future Bhabi that way & I know it was wrong." & with a form-shaking sigh, she looked up at him. & suddenly, Arnav felt hard-pressed for breaths. A slanting ray of sun had come through the gaps of some leaves of the Gulmohar tree standing behind him & they fell across her face, her hair, her neck. & maybe because she was angry or maybe because it simply was that way, her skin & her eyes both seemed to shine in two very different shades of gold. & to be so close to her that their bodies almost touched, Arnav felt he'd go blind any moment from looking at this dazzling girl.
Khushi watched him as he looked at her with an almost dazed expression on his face, & thinking that, he was wondering about how insensitive she was, she said defensively, "I know I shouldn't have said that & the Jalebi's weren't half bad, but, it's just that I can't help feeling this resentment towards her, thinking, that if only she wanted to live in Nikunja after marriage, then Bhaiya, Bauji & all of us would be forced make a way of coping.." She came to a halting stop as she suddenly felt warm fingers trailing over the skin of the column of her neck & as she looked down, she saw the knuckles of Arnav's left hand tracing the sunlit area of her neck. Then she looked up with a start at the sound of his low voice, "Your eyes look like liquid gold when the sun shines on them."
Khushi felt a curious quivery feeling down at the very pit of her stomach, & she jerked out of his reach. Then she looked at Arnav horrified, did he just do & say what she thinks he just did & said? & before she gave into her impulse to take flight for the second time that morning, the first thing she noticed was, Arnav was looking shockingly at his fingers, still suspended in mid-air, as if thinking, how did they get there in the first place?
As Arnav saw Khushi running away from him as if demons were after her, he put his hand down & squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to control the rage he could feel building inside, directed towards himself. But as he felt the anger subsiding a little as a result of his deep calming breathing exercise, he could feel the annoyance at his own stupidity only rise exponentially.