Note: You will see a slightly different Arnav here, so pls don't keep ASR-image in your mind :P
Genre: romcom
Belated happy birthday, eowynqueen! ❤ Hope you'll like it.
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It was the month of June, onset of rainy season in India and nearly the end of wedding seasons. June typically has some of the last muhurats (dates) for weddings in India until they reopen from Tulsi vivaah around November again.
Ideally, Khushi should have been happy to attend one more wedding, this one especially being her best friend Saisha's. Khushi loved everything about weddings, the desi music with dhol and band where she could dance freely without worrying about getting scolded from her Amma, the delicious food which she could eat with her hands unlike using spoon and fork like her Papa made her do, the colorful dresses and equally beautiful bangles which her other friends in Delhi hardly wore and marked off as 'gaudy', she loved it all!
But today she was not as pleased. Despite having gotten permission from her parents to travel to Jhansi- Saisha's hometown was a town near Jhansi- to attend this wedding, all the way from Delhi, that too by train! The reason was, she was sad at the thought of upcoming separation from her best friend!
They were still studying, in their final year of college, but Saisha's family had brought an alliance for her, and she willingly agreed to it. When Khushi tried to probe her more, she told Khushi that she originally hadn't planned to marry this soon. But once she met the guy, Viren, she changed her mind. Viren had assured her that he would always stand by her in every step she took and all her dreams, whether about studying further or anything else, would have his full support. In fact, he had already shown it by convincing his family to let Saisha go back to Delhi right after the wedding to finish her final year exams. Hearing that, Khushi felt happy, but still not fully convinced...
.
.
The announcement that they had arrived at Jhansi station made her sigh heavily and she along with her other friends who had traveled with her for this wedding, got up and took their luggage to step out. They were told that one of Viren's friends would be here to escort them to the wedding venue 30 miles from Jhansi. This was the first time Khushi had traveled by train, this was also the first time she would see a relatively small town, or in her friend's words 'rural side of the country'. As she kept one foot on the platform, she was welcomed with curious gazes from onlookers who looked at her from top to bottom. Her other 3 friends - Nand kumar aka NK, Lavanya and sheetal received almost similar scrutiny and they felt a little self-conscious.
Just then they heard a sound of high-pitch whistle directed at them. At first, they ignored it. But soon that source of the whistling sound seemed to come nearer and nearer, and the 3 girls fisted their hands ready to self-defend if needed. NK too got angry, ready to confront whoever it was.
And as they turned around to confront this hooligan, they came face to face with a young man around their age with one of the most innocent, charming smiles they had ever seen! He was dressed in jeans and a black shirt -the shirt's collar wasn't adjusted in symmetry making it a fashion faux pas for lavanya and the sunglasses he wore weren't branded, as sheetal noticed!
He sprinted towards them, "Arre kabse seeti laga ke bula rahe the hum aap ko, aap log sune hi nahi. Saisha bhabhi ke dost ho na aap sab? Hum aap ko hi lene aye hai (I have been calling you by whistling for so long, you didn't hear. You are Saisha bhabhi's friends, right? I am here to pick you up)." He spoke in Hindi but in a slightly different dialect than they were used to. It was clear that even though he was the one who whistled but he wasn't trying to trouble them. Still, Khushi's friends weren't quite impressed with him.
