Dhruv's POV

All the preparations were done. I feel happy for both of them. They are finally getting married. It's all thanks to us, or with Aarav's peanut-sized brain, this might never be possible.

I was inviting the guests. I saw Aakriti entering, adjusting her dupatta. She bumped into someone and stumbled on the flower decoration. She tried to balance it like a flustered kid. I rushed towards her, but someone nearby helped her.

"Are you ok?" I asked, worried about her.

"Yes, yes."

"I have been having bad luck since morning. First my lehenga was ruined by the dry cleaners then my hair became like a bird's nest. I don't know whose face I saw when I woke up." She said in frustration.

"You should think about me early in the morning. I am very lucky. Maybe your stars would shine because of me." I joked, and she gave me a dead look.

"Dhruv, has anyone ever told you that you are a narcissistic prick?"

"No, you can be the first one."

"What should I do with you?" She said to the white rose that was in her hand. She tried to put it back but failed. I just watched her with amusement.

"You keep it." She said to me.

"What will I do with it? You keep it."

"Where will I keep it?"

"Then throw it. I am going."

I went towards the mandap as I needed to check if anything was missing. There should be no problem at the last moment.

"Bhai, See, even the mandap is ready. Why don't you and Bhabhi get married today only? Similar guests are only going to come to your wedding. Let's get it done."

"Why are you so desperate to get us married now?"

"Bhai, arranging an entire wedding is too tiring. So much hard work. Thinking that I need to work again for your wedding makes me crazy."

"As if all the work is done by you. Karan and his team did most of the work. Why are you so worried?"

"Bhai, Dadu said your wedding is going to be ten times more grand than today. I am already tired just thinking about it."

"Convince your bhabhi; I will marry her today."

"Bhai, I can see you going to gala land. Come back. Bhai, you are moving so fast—date, then kiss. I will come to you to get lessons in the future. Are you really planning to make me chachu before marrying bhabhi? Not bad."

"Even if I plan it, your bhabhi might not agree." I am prohibited from even touching her without her permission.

I saw Aakriti talking with a guy. She started correcting his hair, raising up on her toes. The memory of her doing the same with me flashed in my mind, and I felt annoyed. I thought only I received her special treatment. Why is she...? I feel like..... He patted her hair, making me irked to the point of wanting to beat him. She pouted and behaved spoiled in front of him. Who is he for her to behave so carefree? My eyes followed them till they sat, and he had the audacity to rest his head on her shoulder. It's different; she allows people to behave like spoiled brats in front of her. But for her to behave like that! Who is he?

"Bhai, he might be Bhabhi's friend." Kabir reminded me. I might look ready to kill someone as I was raging in anger.

"I know. But shouldn't there be some space between them?" I said in annoyance.

"When intentions are pure, there is no need to be cautious. People behave freely. Bhai, you rushed like a bull last time. Don't do it again. You will spoil the bond that you formed with Bhabhi. I never thought that in my life I would ever find Kabir's advice useful.

"Even if you wish to cage people, you need to lure them into the cage, not force them. Their desire to be caged also matters, or else they might just break it and run away." He talked nonsense.

"Don't talk like a pervert." I said, pushing him away.

Aakriti's POV

"Vi, look at your getup. You look like a sleep-deprived zombie." I said softly to Vihaan (my childhood friend). I raised my toe to correct his hair.

"Vi, take care of yourself. Are you going to exhaust yourself to death?" I said in frustration.

"Looks like Aaku has grown up." He said, teasing me.

"Seriously, Vi." I said and sighed. He patted my hair.

"What the hell are you doing? Do you know how much time it took to style my hair?" She said, moving away from him, earning a chuckle from Vihaan.

"Oh, oh, the tomboy finally started behaving like a girl." He said, teasing me.

"Very funny. But seriously, you came here in such a messed-up way." I asked him.

"Do you think I had a choice? As soon as I finished attending to my patient, Ansh dragged me and handed me a sherwani and told me to change. This sherwani is also so tight. Not giving me a chance to change or even make myself presentable." Vihaan said, pulling his sherwani as it was stuck to his body and irritating him.

They sat and looked at the wedding ceremony. He rested his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes. How much are you going to strain yourself because of your past? When will you let it go? Forget about her and move on. But I can't say that to him.

"I read the news of you getting married soon." He said to me.

"Yes." I said nonchalantly. Everyone will know sooner or later.

"You just have yes to say, nothing else. You are marrying a prince. Nothing about how you met or why you agreed?"

"No, I will take you to meet him. He is Sachi's brother. He is present here today. Look, he is my future husband." I said and pointed towards Dhruv.

"Future husband and all, not bad. I didn't think you would be getting married before me. But I am happy to know that you changed your opinion regarding marriage. Are you happy? Are you getting married willingly?" He asked me.

"Yes, of course. Can anybody force Aakriti Nanda? Is that even possible?" Don't worry about me. Just take care of yourself.

"How is he?" He asked me.

"Dhruv is..... Dhruv." I didn't know what to say.

"That's a very weird way of describing a person." He said with a chuckle.

"Only in one case will someone describe the other as such. When one is in love." He continued.

"No, I am not in love with him." I said firmly.

"Are you sure?" He teased me.

"Yes." I said, and he raised his head from my head and then looked at me.

"Look at him and that girl; they both look good together. Look at the way that girl is blushing."

"Look at yourself like an angry bird ready to launch at them and poke your beak at her, and still you want to say that you don't love him." He mocked me.

"Stop confusing me," I said in frustration.

"Am I?" He said and gave me a teasing smile.

"Bhai and Di, what are you both talking and giggling about?" Ruhi came and sat beside me. Ansh also came and sat beside Vi.

"Nothing." I said. If they knew, they would join Vihaan in teasing me.

We stood up abruptly as we saw Pooja Aunty coming towards us.

"Let's run before we become brain-dead." Ruhi said and tried to drag me away. But Aunty rushed towards us.

"Hi, beta." She said to me.

"Hello, Aunty." I said, trying to force a smile.

"Oh, I heard you are getting married to a prince. I wanted you to marry my kid, but you trapped a prince. Not bad. How did you do it?" I could see all of them get agitated, and Ruhi was ready to reply, but I held her hand and stopped her. I can give her a befitting reply, but I didn't want to indulge her.

"Nowadays girls don't have any manners only. Look at her, who comes at their ex-fiancé." She said, pointing at Riddhima. Aunty, you ignited the firecracker. Riddhima is Ruhi's friend. Riddhima came because Sachi wanted her to come as her friend.

"Aunty, you came. I thought you wouldn't be coming." Ruhi said playfully.

"Why wouldn't I come?" She asked in confusion. Ruhi was ready to drop the bomb.

"I thought you would be busy. Helping Uncle to take care of the teen that Uncle is sponsoring. But I think you should shift her to your house because staying in a hotel is so expensive nowadays." She said, and we all understood the underlying meaning behind her words. We were all so shocked and covered our mouths. Ansh was watching Ruhi with eager anticipation, fully ready to be engaged in gossip. After all, he is a gossip king.

"Somebody is calling me." She said and left hastily. This is the first time I have seen her so flustered. Ansh moved towards Ruhi and placed his hand around her neck.

"Ruhi, spill the beans."

"Bhai, I don't know anything, and it is a bad habit to gossip." I twisted her ear.

"Yes, it is a bad habit to gossip, but what you did right now was a very good deed, right?"

"You are again behaving recklessly." Vi said in a serious tone.

"Bhai, she commented about Di and Rids in such a manner that I got angry." She said with puppy eyes. Those eyes work on everyone.

"Those eyes are not going to work this time, little monkey. Pooja aunty is not going to forget this matter. Make sure not to show any of your flaws in front of her." He said in a serious tone.

"That is true. Just because I rejected her son, she hates me. You directly countered her. She is not going to spare you."

"It's ok. We will deal with her later. Anyway, you all are there to protect me."

"Look at Aarav. He is lost in her. If it would have been in his hand, he would just kidnap her and get rid of everyone." Ansh said.

"Bhai, how will you understand that feeling? For that, you need to be in love. Has anyone ever loved you?"

"Ruhi, baby, you wounded my heart. How can you say that about the most eligible bachelor of Delhi?"

"Find someone soon, or you might get wrinkles on your face. Trust me, no matter how much girls say that they like older guys. Nobody likes an old, greasy guy full of wrinkles."

"Ruhi, don't you think you are talking too much nonsense?"

"Ok, ok. Enough of your bickering for now. The wedding is about to start." I said to them.

"Ruhi, tell me, what exactly do you know? Who is Pooja Aunty's husband sponsoring"? Ansh asked again. This man will not be quiet unless he gets to know.

"Your friend is getting married, and all you care about is Pooja Aunty's gossip." Ruhi said.

"It is nothing interesting; it is not as if he is getting married for the first time. He is marrying the same girl for the second time. Ruhi, you continue."

They both got lost in their gossiping. But after a few minutes, even Vi and I got interested in it. What the hell are we doing right now? Gossiping about someone's extramarital affair at our friend's wedding. One after the other, topics changed.

All the rituals were over, and the bride and groom got busy clicking pictures.

"Hey." Rajveer came behind us and scared all of us. We screamed, and everyone looked at us. We looked like a cat who got caught stealing milk. We apologized. It is so embarrassing. Rajveer was looking at us with doubt.

"Why are you all behaving so secretively?" He asked.

"Nothing, we were just gossiping."

"You got scared because you were gossiping. It is too difficult to believe." He gave us a doubtful look.

"Forbidden gossip." Ansh said dramatically. And we all tried to control our laughter.

"I should have guessed it. Ansh and Ruhi are together; how could they not gossip?" Rajveer teased them, and they both pouted. He left as Naina called him.

"It's been a long time since we've had this chaos like before. Everyone grew up and got busy."

"Or heartbroken," Vihaan muttered, not meeting anyone's eyes. Everyone got silent and lost in thought. Ansh gestures to me to look at Ruhi. She looked gloomy and on the verge of crying.

"Ruhi, what happened?" I asked softly.

"Nothing, Di. I will go check on Abheer." Ruhi said and left. Vi looked guilty.

"Raghav got engaged to someone else. I thought she had moved on... seeing her so carefree," Vi said quietly.

"The inevitable finally happened," Ansh added, letting out a sigh. "You can't wait forever for someone who doesn't see you the same way. Sooner or later, either they move on... or you have to."

Moving on is probably the most difficult phase. Pretending you don't care, when every breath still aches with what was never yours. Ruhi, are you really alright? Don't do anything reckless. Love can make one feel so hopeless when not reciprocated. Will I also be like this?

I glanced at Dhruv.

Our eyes met.

His usually stern expression softened into the kind of smile that warms you without asking for anything in return.

No... I don't think I will ever be hopeless. 

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