BATTLE OF LOVE (completed)

CHAPTER 31

Day 4:

Dharani's POV:

Three more days and everything will be back to normal. The past few days made me wonder how could something so pleasant as living a simple life with caring neighbors without any huge responsibilities be a punishment. I mean sure we had some unwanted restrictions like not being able to argue about anything, having to sleep in the same room, less privacy and having to do household and other chores on our own but to be very honest none of them were harsh, they were just slightly uncomfortable but we eventually got used to it. 

Thinking about it the second time, however, gave rise to a dangerous theory. What if the actual difficulty was not about living a normal life but about facing the people around us once our reality is exposed. Wouldn't their looks make us feel guilty? I never lied in my entire life and now everything including my identity is a lie and what about Arjun? He never did anything that's wrong. We were literally forced to do things that we would never otherwise do and things we would regret doing for the rest of our lives. Why was Acharya this mean to us? Or am I just overthinking? Acharya is my godfather, he would never do anything like this to me.

"Rani, I am feeling hungry. Can I have something to eat?" Chutki asked me interrupting me from my thoughts.

"Of course, sweetheart. Arun and amma are doing something special I guess. I'll go get them for you," I said as I walked out of the bedroom we were sitting in.  I walked towards the kitchen as I saw Arjun making some gulabjamuns. He was alone.

"Chutki will love this," he said as he noticed me walking towards him, "Dev loves these as well. I will cook for him once we are in the palace."

"You like Dev a lot I see," I said as I lend him a helping hand. I did notice that Arjun is nice to kids but somehow he has this extra love towards Dev.

"Of course he reminds me of my brother. His name is Dev as well and would have been as old as Dev," Arjun said as he continued cooking.

"Wait, you have a brother?" I asked surprised. I never knew about it. Neither did anyone tell me about it.

"had," Arjun corrected. That explains why Arjun's mom is always lost and that also explains why Arjun's family as a whole likes Dev so much. They are trying to find their lost son in Dev.

"I am sorry," I said feeling guilty for raising a topic that is so sensitive.

"It's okay," Arjun said as he closed his eyes and shook his head to stop any tears that might find their way out. "I wanted to ask you something," he continued, "Do you know how to dance?"

"Of course I do," I replied in the most excited voice I've ever heard from myself.  I quickly controlled my excitement and closed my mouth with my palm. Why I did that? I don't know.

"So you love dancing," Arjun said as he looked at me and smiled as if I am a child.

"Did Acharya teach you to dance?" he asked again.

"No no," I replied, "I learned it by myself by watching the performances in the royal courtroom. Even Acharya didn't know that."

"Oh," Arjun said as he thought for a while, "So if given an opportunity would take part in the dance performance for Janmashtami."

"I'd love to," I said a bit confused at the sudden question, "but why would..."

"Actually, Arjun interrupted, "Amma is organizing a dance performance for Janmashtami, some couple dandiya if I am not wrong, and is short of a couple. She asked if we could join. Since I couldn't dance I thought of saying no but...."

"Say yes. Say yes. Say yes," I pleaded like a child. 

"Relax Dharani relax," Arjun said smiling and holding my hands as I jumped in excitement, "Of course I'll say yes."

"Thank you so much," I said as I happily hugged him. Wait, I hugged him? I retreated immediately and looked at him while he slightly blushed. So did I. We need to get out of this awkward moment. Thankfully Arjun always has a way to break the awkwardness.

"We need to be careful though," he said as if nothing had ever happened, "Janmashtami will be the last day we would be here as Rani and Arun and amma says Sonu might come a day before Janmashtami. So we better make sure that we would be the ones to reveal our identity and not Sonu."

"Yeah," I nodded as I suddenly remembered why I am here. "Chutki," I said, "She said she was hungry."

"Oh god," Arjun said as he quickly put three rasgullas in a bowl, "Let's go and serve the little princess before she gets angry." I took some rasgullas in two other bowls for both of us and we went to face little Chutki.

"Where were you?" she asked in an innocent voice at the verge of an outburst.

"I made some rasgullas, Chutki," Arjun said in an equally innocent voice and that was all it took for Chutki to forget everything and run towards us with joy.

(Hey guys, thank you for making it till here. Please vote and comment. Also, the next chapter will be published on 18 December 2018. So stay tuned. Thank you and love you all.)