Arnav and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

From The Beginning

Arnav often wonders if he is the only sane person in his f̶r̶a̶n̶k̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶b̶s̶u̶r̶d̶  family. No, that sort of thinking denies Akash's existence. His very calm, very steady and very sane brother. 

Even calling himself sane in front of Akash is stretching the truth a bit too far.

Oh, he is well aware of his faults. One doesn't work their way up from nothing to building one of the most well known fashion brands in Asia without being brutally honest with themself. 

Arnav knows he is arrogant, quick tempered, a bit of a bastard and a bit of a control freak. A bit too much of a control freak.

But rather than character flaws, he chooses to view these as weapons he yields skillfully to overcome any challenges life may throw his way. 

For all his flaws, no one can deny that Arnav Singh Raizada loves his family. His maternal family. The paternal side can go hang for all he cares. 

It was shaping up to be a good day when he was indulging in some revenge against the Maliks.  Generic taunts and crushing of pride via ancestral property acquisition - same old same old.

Contrary to popular belief, he hadn't based his entire existence on the idea of revenge against his paternal family. 

No, Arnav sought more. Power enough so none could ever dream of harming him and his. Riches enough that he'd never go without even in the bleakest of times. 

So some called him power hungry. Upstart. New money. 

Did he give a damn? Not particularly. 

Anyone who's been thrown out on the streets with his disabled sister at the age of 14 and made to fend for themselves would agree with him. It was through sheer luck that their Nani had found them.

So. 

It was shaping up to be a rather good day. His latest fashion show had started with a bang. The who's who of the fashion, textile and entertainment industries were all here at the show, his VIPs had been attended to, and now, he just needed to stand back and allow success to rush at him.

Naturally, this is the moment a s̶o̶f̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶u̶r̶v̶y̶ ̶s̶u̶c̶c̶e̶s̶s̶  girl fell on him. 

On an unrelated note, Arnav would like to point out that slender girls stop being attractive when they use you to break their fall.

His entire back was numb; the chit's elbows were digging painfully into his ribs and her knee dangerously close to where knees weren't meant to go. 

Arnav opened his eyes and looked into a pair of red rimmed brown eyes set in a heart shaped face. He had gotten a little lost in those mesmerizing browns until he heard a cacophony of incredulous voices and cameras furiously clicking away. 

Right. No matter how mesmerizing he thought her eyes were, this seemed to be the work of one of his sore rivals. And they sent this girl to ruin his event.

Arnav shoved the girl off him and launched a verbal set down harsh enough to tear her hide. If there's a small part of him that felt guilty for treating the girl like so, he quashed it swiftly. 

She wouldn't be getting humiliated like this i̶f̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶e̶t̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶s̶p̶y̶  if she hadn't spectacularly crashed his show. 

He had an inkling that this girl was an amateur at best and an idiot at worst. Nevertheless, he would have to interrogate her after he's done wrapping up this disaster. 

Media personnel were absolute cretins and he'll swear by this till death. 

A simple crisis management interview had turned into probing questions about his personal life and how he knew the girl. It had put him in a beast of a mood and any thoughts of going easy in interrogating the chit had gone up in smoke. 

In hindsight, he was an ass to her. Pulling the laces of her blouse? Had he regressed to kindergarten years and replaced pigtails with blouse laces?

The next few days passed by in a blur of interviews, meetings and just tying up loose ends. The entire thing was a headache and a half. 

He once again cursed that silly chit for ruining the show - only he and his team knew how much work they had put in for this launch. 

Designing the clothes, getting the textiles, finding artisans, building the set, promotions -  so much effort, planning and money. All wasted. 

He cursed the absurd institution of marriage as well as the people practicing dowry in this day and age, for good measure.

Amidst all this mess, his sister had talked him into visiting a shrine to complete her mannat. Subtle, Anjali di was not.  

At the shrine, he meets h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶u̶c̶c̶e̶s̶s̶  the silly chit again. And she proceeds to monologue at him. He wonders just how this slip of a girl, who knows nothing about him, could push all his buttons. 

And push, she did. Until he was left seething at her audacity and lost his cool. 

Again. 

This time, instead of just menacing her, he's also shot himself in the foot just to teach that girl a lesson. 

He called Aman and had him release footages of the fashion show. 

It was one moment of thoughtless petty revenge.

And that's how Khushi Kumari Gupta crashed into his life.