Kaira's PoV

Waiting for the mehendi to dry was one of the most boring tasks I have done in a very long time, and especially when I was hungry... putting mehendi was the worst decision I could take.

I had thoughts on washing out the half dried mehendi from my hands and eat my food, but the fact that it was half-dried, and I'd have to stay with an orange mehendi.

"Are you hungry?" I heard a voice behind me and I looked up to see my father.

"How'd you know?" I asked my Dad as he slouched on the couch beside me. Both my bride bestfriend's were up on the stage. Ruhaana was enjoying the special treatment, while Myra was bored out of her senses.

If it was her choice, she'd choose a simple court marriage. She was just like Nandini Maa I'm her thoughts, simple– nothing out of the box that would draw attention.

Ruhaana, on the other hand, loved Manik Uncle's idea of a big fat wedding. According to her, you do it once– so you gotta do it right.

"I can see it on your face– that pout and frown and knitted eyebrows, ah. My baby is hungry, hmm?" He smiled. I nodded, whining like a little baby.

"Wait! Let me get the boys," he said. My eyes widened. Aarav, Abeer And Krishh got caught some time ago. Nandini Maa knew this would happen. Manik Uncle had supposedly sneaked in the same way during their wedding, and so had my father. They expected this.

So after a little apologies, they were allowed to stay, although the grooms had to be away from their brides. This meant, all three of them would nag me... and I was trying to get my distance from Krishh, so I'd ran into the mehendi, knowing they wouldn't follow me where the old gossipy ladies were at.

"Dad, no–," I stopped them but I was cut off when Aarav bolted ahead as if he was flash and sat with us.

"Yes, Uncle?" He grinned. I shut my eyes in frustration, mumbling curses.

"Kaira is realllly hungry," Dad stressed in a teasing tone, "So while I go and help my Mukti to eat, please ask Krishh to come and help his lady love."

"Of course uncle," Aarav winked and then turned back. "Aarav, I'm not hungry, please don't–," I started but I was cut off when he shouted for Abeer and Krishh, who instantly walked here.

There we go.

"Hmm?" Krishh asked, his eyes fixed at Aarav. He wouldn't even look at me. I simply looked away, giving a small smile to Dad, who got up and went on his way, and Abeer sat near me.

With Abeer near and Aarav opposite me, Krishh simply stood. "Kaira's hungry, I was wondering if you would make her eat because of the mehendi, yaa mujhe kisi aur ko bulana padega."

"I'll get her food," Krishh nodded, and the guilt in my heart rose again, higher than ever. "Krishh no–," I said but he just walked away to where the food was, leaving me sighing.

Was no one able to hear me today or what?

"I'll go check if Ruhaana and Myra want something," Abeer said, grinning. He just wanted a reason to go there and be able to entertain Myra, saving her from getting bored the way she was.

This was the kind of love I had hoped to have one day.

And I did get it, maybe one even better than theirs.

And I threw it all away.

I was the villain of my own love story.

"Ab bata," Aarav nudged, shifting next to me. The smile from his face vanished and I let my smile slip away too, my shoulders slumping. For a moment, I let the facade I was wearing fall.

"What's wrong between you and Krishh?" He asked.

"I broke up with him." I simply replied, too tired to lie anymore.

"You what?" He almost shouted and then lowered his voice, making sure no one heard it. A few ladies did look back at us, and we immediately pulled the smiles right back to our face.

It was weird to think how not just me or him, everyone from our generation was used to this. Not one person had lived a life without lies or fake smiles, and that was just sad to think about. We were young but our hearts were old with cuts and bruises and ultimately, we all go back to finding happiness and love in places we lost them.

"I, broke up with him." I repeated, calmly, pausing after every word.

"Okay," he rolled his eyes to himself, taking a deep breath, "Now tell me, why?"

"Because it was necessary," I replied. It's difficult to remember how my best, best friends don't know that I was sexually harassed, that there was a court hearing and that Krishh was the one who made sure his own brother was in jail because of me. While I wasn't ashamed of the fact that I was harassed– because it wasn't my fault, it was the fault of the man who thought it was okay to force him on me–, I wasn't very proud of it either.

It wasn't something I wanted to go about telling people, however close to me, because believe it or not, it changes the way you look at someone when you get to know something tragic has happened with them. You look at them with a kinder, more sympathetic way, and I didn't want that. No matter how much that incident bruised and traumatised me, I was still me– the same old extrovert me, and I didn't want anyone to look at me differently, even my best friends.

Sometimes it's best for some secrets to be kept secret.

"Necessary?" He raised his eyebrows, "So like, you're serious. This isn't a joke?"

I nodded negatively, my eyes fixed to the ground.

"Oh my," He covered his mouth in disbelief, looking around, "When?"

"Today morning."

"No matter you're both down today," he says.

"He didn't tell you anything?" I ask.

"No," he says, gasping, "That's what's shocking me the most. Like we were there right, planning how to get in for Abeer and he was quiet and stuff, and we asked him a few times and he said it was just work stress. Damn."

I stayed silent.

He told neither of them, keeping it all inside him, and suffering alone.

"I feel so bad," Aarav said. Not as much as me. "You know, he's a part of us, right? I mean, not just because he's your boyfriend, but ever since Ishan left, he's completed our trio. It's– it's crazy, we're celebrating and you both– shit, I'm so sorry."

"It's been years since we're all together, Aarav. We've taken two whole trips to Australia and Turkey, you think I don't know that you care about him like you do for Abeer and Ishan?" I reply. He's crazy to think that way.

If there's one thing I have admired over the years is how close we all grew. We stayed across each other, had breakfast together everyday, have taken two trips together, keeping plopping into each other's offices and hang out together every second night– whether it is Netflix and Chill or clubbing. And it was crazy how nicely Krishh fit in, like he was the missing puzzle in our group all along. He was definitely close to Myra, which is why Abeer wasn't too fond of him earlier, but they soon enough became 'PS4-buddies', and I swear, that's what they named themselves.

Krishh and Aarav used to go Karaoke every weekend, and when Aarav's company held a medical camp, Krishh's hospital was the one they tied with. Aarav and Krishh became bestfriends and I loved that.

We did miss Ishan though, but none of us could point that. We don't talk about it a lot.

"Is Ishan coming?" I ask, diverting the topic.

"Yeah," Aarav sighed, "His flight's after an hour, he should be here before midnight."

I nod, silently.

"So now what?" He asks me.

"Now what?" I ask, confused.

"So you're going to stay away from Krishh? I mean, this is it for the two of you then? Like, one of you would shift out of your home and then that would be it, hmm?" He asks, and I feel the pain rising again.

I still remember the day we moved in together. Moving in together was something that I had only dreamt about, because in India, it was impossible. But then here we are, defying the norms. Convincing my parents was a little difficult job, but they were practical– they knew it was important for us to be compatible before we think about bigger steps in life.

When we moved in, we made every corner of the house together. Not just because I was an Interior Designer, but because we didn't want anyone else to make it for us– we didn't want a lavish house, we wanted a comfortable home. A place we could call ours.

I never thought there'll be day when we'd have the conversation of who moves out of it. We never spoke about it, but when we bought the house together, it was like a symbol of how serious we were– about each other, our love, our relationship, and probably one day even our family. We dreamed it, our home and our family.

And it took me one sentence to break all of it together.

"Food," We heard a voice, pulling me out of the trail of my depressing thoughts, but the moment Krishh settled across us, I couldn't stop staring at him, and neither could Aarav.

I saw the plate in his hand, filled with exactly only the things I liked and exactly how much I liked it. He knew things.

As he fed me the first bite, I didn't throw a fit like I wanted to earlier. I just wanted to take a moment, thinking of how this would be the last time he'd do this for me. I had told Aarav, and soon we'd tell everyone– maybe after the wedding. And then we wouldn't have to pretend anymore.

Aarav just stared at the two of us, a little dazed, and then finally interrupted.

"Uh," he cleared his throat, "Do you want me to make her eat?"

I get what he was doing. Trying to save us from the awkwardness.

"I mean, if you have work... 'cause I'm just free with my fiancé being too excited for her marriage to even eat." He chuckled. I passed a weak smile and Krishh gave a small sigh-smile. We all had fake expressions on our face. What a moment.

"Nah, it's okay," Krishh smiled, "I can do atleast that much for someone I love."

I knew how much it pained him to say that, to be here, to stay, to make me eat, to look at me like I did nothing wrong; I could feel how much I hurt him. And now I was hurting him more by forcing him to pretend being together.

We never spoke about how we'll pretend, but it was almost a given now. We wouldn't let our problems ruin their happy days.

"Krishh," I say, "I told Aarav we broke up. We don't need to pretend anymore in front of him."

I liberated him. I freed him from the pain of pretending.

The spoon, half way to my mouth, stopped. His fingers clenched as anger spread on his face and he dropped it back into the plate, almost throwing it. Anger was written all over him and he took no effort in hiding it.

"Alright then." He passed the plate to Aarav, "If that's what you want, I'd go."

He got up. My eyebrows squeezed. What did I do? It was hurting him to pretend this way, and I just helped him out.

"But remember," he looked at me, an anger I have never seen written on his features, "My love for you was never a pretence."

And then he started walking away.

"That's not what I meant," I called after him, "Krishh?"

He walked away.

I just stared at him dumbfounded.

Break up or not, I could never call his love for me a pretence. His love is the most real thing I have ever had, the thing I was just so proud of.

I looked at Aarav helplessly.

"Go," he sighed.

"Right," I said. My mehendi was dried if you could say so, as I got up and almost ran out behind him.

"Krishh?" I called, as I entered the garden area. There was no one there. He'd probably not be here.

As I turned around, I felt him walk towards me.

Sighing I turned behind, "Kri–?" My words faded as another face came into sight. My eyes widened as my body froze and I felt a rush or adrenaline spread through me. All the videos of self defence and imaginations of this day went into the garbage.

I just stood there, horror stricken, staring at the man in front of me.

Karan.

~~~