Bikhre moti (Scattered pearls)

9. OS-Dil Dhundta hi raha (heart kept searching)

Happy belated 11th anniversary of IPKKND guys, the show that gave us Arnav and Khushi ❤

Dedicated to all my readers ❤

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June' 2009 Lakmé fashion week, Lucknow, India

Arnav's newly launched fashion house was participating for the first time in a prestigious fashion event of India, Lakmé fashion week and a 24 years-old Arnav was very nervous. After all his firm's future depended on their success in this event. He was the first one from his family to try his hands on a fashion business much to his parents' dislike. They wanted him to join their family business of real estates, where they now lived in Delhi. But due to his adamancy, his father agreed to give him some time! The event was hosted in a palatial house in Lucknow, Sheesh Mahal!

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Khushi was home for 2 weeks from her hostel, just to attend her sister's wedding. But her jiji had demanded a gift from her which was particular variety of roses that grew only in the gardens of Sheesh Mahal. Her sister wanted those red roses as a part of her garland to be used in the Varmala ceremony in the wedding.

Decked from head to toe for the wedding, she gatecrashed in Sheesh Mahal but to her surprise no one stopped her. Later she would know that everyone mistook her for a model who participated in a fashion show going on inside!

Reaching near the rose bushes, as she was about to pluck flowers, something caught her vision! The spotlights coming from inside, she automatically moved in that direction. Khushi loved fashion, posing and everything about it. If only, her parents were not strictly against her pursuing anything related to that fashion world she would have been a model one day...

Maybe I should also ask for permission to get these flowers, she thought and moved towards the first man she spotted.

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Arnav's manager, Aman was worried as their showstopper Lavanya ditched them on the last minute. And that was when a girl decked like a bride herself walked to him. He got an idea. this girl was beauty personified, looked nothing less than a model and needed a favor too!

"You can get those flowers, but in return you will have to help us save our show." Aman told Khushi, without even bothering to ask her name etc. He can ask that later, after the show, he decided.

"Fine, I will do it. You didn't have to blackmail me, I would have helped anyway." Khushi said and agreed to be the showstopper for the evening! Maybe this was her one chance to fulfil her dream to be a part of fashion world, she thought and smiled.

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But when she completed the ramp walk looking like a dream, and she was about to turn, her dupatta got stuck in her sandals and she tripped. And directly fell in arms of... Arnav Singh Raizada!

Tumse jo dekhate hi pyaar hua, Zindagi mein pehali baar hua,
Tum itane din thi kaha, main dhundhta hi raha
(I fell in love with you at first sight, first time in my life
Where were you until now, I kept searching for you)

It was a no-camera event, but everyone watched with awe as a beautiful girl in the arms of a handsome young man, it was like a movie pose! Everyone in audience assumed this was some innovative way of their event and started clapping. And Aman instantly knew, their show was now a hit!

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Arnav slowly put her down, both having their eyes still locked with each other's. To Khushi, he was like the prince in those fairytale stories she read. However, as her feet touched the ground, their trance was broken due to a tug on her pearl necklace. It had got entangled with his coat button. She pulled at it slightly, only to have his face pulled near her in turn, and his hot breath fanning her face. She got flustered and tried to pull the necklace more to free it as well as herself.