It should have been you

4. Maafinama (apologies)

About this scene: During the "era" of Arnav using denial as a defense, he bumps into khushi, and his important work documents get scattered. He finds Khushi's engagement ring, unaware of what that ring signifies. He then demands an apology from her in return of the ring. She resists at first and then relents on Buaji's persistence. However, as she starts saying a teary apology, the great wall of China-err-ASR feels tremors! (S4 episode 7 on Hulu/Hotstar, epi 124 otherwise)

I've added a present day/CSD scene at the end of this chapter. Those of you who just want to savor the angst, please skip the end.

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Sorry was a word that held only one-sided meaning for Arnav Singh Raizada. Only to receive it from the other person. With his impeccable sense in business and his shrewd ways, he always made his opponents drop to their knees and apologize to him, no matter who was at fault - well -ASR never made mistakes!

However, never had anyone's apology gave him so much thrill, so much pride as that being extracted from this one person. Khushi.

Getting her to say sorry to him was winning a thing unattainable. A prize to boast about!

Getting her to say sorry to him was earning a part of her that solely belonged to him!

Getting her to say sorry to him was getting a place in her heart important enough to make her bend to him and beg to him for a forgiveness that already was bestowed upon her...his every damn thought was centered around her. But she was in oblivion, and he was in denial...

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It all began with him colliding with her, lost in his thoughts(which were about her only) and then his "important" work documents getting scattered (documents which could have been shredded for all he cared, he had a soft copy of those anyway). And then he blamed her for causing that accident. She, of course, refused with clear words, "I will apologize to anyone, except YOU!" The mighty (and stupid!) Khushi Kumari Gupta, Arnav thought in his mind and sneered at her.

And then, as if his strong will worked in favor of him and he found her ring. He didn't pay much attention to what that ring could be, he only knew he could use it as bait to demand her to say sorry to him.

And when she appeared in his room as he expected, Arnav smirked at his imminent win.

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Khushi had gone through a period of so many turbulent acceptances and denials of her feelings for this one man- Arnav the laad governor! - that she now had decided to being indifferent to him. Neither hate, nor love, not even being neutral, she just wanted to ignore him. He needed to be just another person for her like 7 billion others on the Earth. And she knew he too wanted the same for her.

However, she sometimes felt as if he was messed up in his head, as if he couldn't decide what exactly he wanted to do with her and more importantly with himself. Devi maiyya alone knows how he ran such a huge business. Maybe it was all a sham, maybe his staff and his assistant Amanji did it for him and he only sat at the CEO chair like those politicians did. She mused and had a faint smile at that thought.

Anyhow. That wasn't the current issue. Right now, she needed to get her ring back which he had seized. It was funny how he boasted of being rich, yet he had been greedy to get her ring. However, she also knew he was doing this mostly to provoke her...

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"Give me my ring back." she demanded with a straight face.