This dedication is very small in front of your greatest, heartful supports Di! 

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Playlist: 

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"Bhaiya, we have been calling you for the past hour, where were you busy?" Sakshi exasperated out in an angry and frustrated tone, irritated by her brother's lenient and careless way.

"Sakshi, I was in an interview, that's why I couldn't pick my phone, by the way, where are you now?" Dev was finally out of the interview room, where the interviewer was still dumbfounded by the audacity of this candidate, who had given such kind of reply that he had never gotten in his entire twenty-plus years' experience of his interviewing career. Such a thug life and replies Dev had in the truckload of his extraordinariness. 

"At your penthouse," Sakshi replied, sipping the mango shake that her mother had prepared for her. 

"You already reached?".

"Yeah, an hour ago, we landed on Delhi airport, and currently, I'm lying on your comfy bed, enjoying the delicious mango shake along with some banana chips, yum," Sakshi had the birthright to irritate the hell out of her brother, it was exclusively concluded now. 

"Sakshi, why do you always do like this? I am coming straight away, then for sure I'll teach you a lesson, why are you hell-bent to destroy the structure of my room and my bed?" Dev pulled his hair in irritation, he had turned twenty-one and his sister eighteen, for God's sake but still, her childishness had not left her, when would she grow up, only God knows!

"I love teasing you, that's why," she giggled loudly irritating her brother more and more. 

"Today, I am not going to leave you, girl," Dev had already unlocked his car's door and was just going to enter inside when his best friend called him from behind.

"Bye, for now, Rohan is calling me," Dev cut the call and turned towards his best friend who too had taken admission in this prestigious college with him three years back, with the difference of just their streams, as Dev was in Electronics and Communication engineering while Rohan was pursuing his Mechanical engineering. 

"You are looking dashing in this sky blue formal shirt and this black slacks, too handsome, my boy," after sharing a manly hug, Rohan whistled at his friend's outfit. 

"Thank you, Rohan," Dev smiled back at him in acknowledgment and folded the sleeves of his shirt, after putting his phone inside his pant pockets. The cufflinks were too irritating for him. 

"So, how was your interview?"  Rohan asked his best friend in an anticipated tone, after all, it was the first placement drive of 2020 session for which Dev had sat for.

"It went well, the interviewer seemed impressed of me," with a boyish grin playing on his lips, Dev replied, resting his back on his car.  

"Well, that was expected from you, Dev, my most intelligent friend. By the way, do you know, freshers have already started to come, I'm still in a hope that maybe I get a girlfriend, this time, man, being in Mechanical engineering has the most adverse effect on your love life, huh," the singleness of Rohan was always a thing to crack up at for Dev. He knew how bad the conditions were for his friend, with no girl classmate in his mechanical classroom, no girl juniors in his stream, sadly, other than his mother and sister, no girl was associated with him. And talking about the girls of other departments, most of them were already taken, leaving a few who had the attitude problem, as cited by the rational-minded Rohan.

"Bro, you're lucky you have not fallen for any girl, the agony of separation and rejection is too much to cope up with, come, mom has come along with Sakshi, let me treat you with some home-made delicacies," with a hoarse voice, Dev had managed to speak out, not wanting the thoughts of Arvika clouding his mind again. 

"You still love her?" with seriousness in his tone, Rohan asked his best friend who was lost in his own world. Rohan had to pinch his best friend to bring him back to earth from his "One-sided lovers' planet" after which he had gotten some of the very famous, sweet, and colorful words from Dev. 

"F**k you," Rohan too had retaliated back at him but the seriousness of the current situation got better of him.

"There are a hell lot of awesomely beautiful girls than her, Dev, open your eyes and look around you. Why are you still in love with that girl who had just misunderstood your true love for her, why? And five years had already passed, do you think that she'd even come across your path? She was a past, Dev, your one-sided love story had ended the day she had left for her boarding school. You'll only get pain in this process, and nothing more my friend. Move on, please," one thing which Rohan hated the most was his friend's agonizing and painful eyes that he had always tried to hide with his fake smile, how mastered his friend had become in disguising his real emotions, how matured he turned over the long period of these five years.

"You think I'd be able to forget her, Rohan? She's within me, she's around me like air, I cannot forget her, till my last breaths," at the mention of her, Dev had already turned a bit emotional. 

"You are very stubborn, come now, I don't want another serious argument with you," Rohan had already fought with Dev for millions of times about this, and all the time, Dev had the same reply ready for him. 

"Why do you start this discussion then?" with a glare, Dev sat inside his car which he had bought with the hard-earned money that he had got after doing internships at some of the esteemed and reputable institutes around the globe and also publishing a few of his well-documented research papers which had made him self-independent at a great level even at such a tender age. 

"Just to make you realize that you won't get this college life again, so make a new girlfriend as you've plenty of options out there, and forget that girl in whose memory you've turned yourself to an ascetic," Rohan answered back, after fastening his seat belt around his torso. 

"Can we change the topic, please?" Dev had already ignited his Toyota Innova, trying to dodge this statement of his friend. 

"Okay, umm, so why did you sit for this interview, I mean you can work in your father's company, why this?".

"Because I want to do everything with my caliber and capabilities. I may be the son of a big industrialist but I don't want to feed on his earnings, whole my life. Today, I sat for the interview as they were offering a good position where I can enhance my coding skills to a whole new level, that's why," Dev was smoothly driving the car with his motivating words leaving his mouth with a professional yet soothing tone. 

"Wow, you are such a self-made man, bro. I am proud of you, rula diya pagle ne (You made me cry)," Rohan mimicked, wiping off his imaginary tears and throwing them at Dev, chuckling in the end.

"By the way, how's Risha? Heard that she had gone to Dubai in this summer vacation," Rohan asked his best friend, sipping the cold drink that Dev had just offered to him. 

"Don't talk about her! Because of her, my interview dress got spoiled today! Stupid woman!" Dev sneered in anger at the mention of Risha, the unknown lady.

"What did she do this time?" Rohan was all excited, getting his ears all perked up to hear the spicy gossip of Risha, the fashion queen of their college.

"She dropped her foundation on my trousers, man, can you believe that? That lady is seriously a leech, always trying to get her hands on me," Dev was frustrated remembering morning incident when all this had happened but on his left side, Rohan was busy laughing out loud at the faces and slangs that Dev had made, describing her. 

"But she's hot," to irritate the already irked man, Rohan cracked up again. 

"Hot my a*s!" unaware about anything, Dev was getting too much angry today, even at the slightest of things. 

****

After a week of some more placement drives and more events, finally, the commencement of classes begun of the first year. 

Arvika and Kavya were excited yet nervous about the new start of their new journey in this college. Till now, they had already explored all the nooks and corners of their college, which was a guided tour offered by their hosteller seniors to them along with other freshers which they had wholeheartedly accepted.

You call it a stroke of luck or fate, but both Arvika and Kavya were in the same stream as they had scored almost the same numbers in their competitive exam through which they had gotten admission in this esteemed college. That was the thing for which they'd always be thankful to their God as they had seen a lot of news about ragging before they arrived at this college. They feared what if they'd be ragged in hostels or so, but fortunately, all the seniors were very helpful and amiable to them except for few, as exception exists everywhere. 

Today was the orientation day where they'd be lectured about all the achievements of this college, some more lectures on engineering & technology, then some cultural program and at the end, distribution of refreshments. 

But from the morning only, Arvika was getting jitters all on her body, the reason still unknown to her. She knew something drastic was going to happen but she didn't know what!

The orientation was yet to start in a few more hours, making the freshers communicate among themselves, discussing their JEE MAINS scores, JEE ADVANCE SCORE, and all those pieces of stuff that a newcomer engineering students ask his/her peer group.

The executive seniors were busy arranging for the necessary things for this event, while freshers were still sitting outside the auditorium on the velvety grass of the lush and vast garden, as the auditorium wasn't opened yet, making the freshers a bit frustrated and fatigued as an hour had already passed in wait of this orientation to commence. 

All their talks had already died as the sun too was on their heads, blaring its intense heat on them.

"When will this orientation start, man, I am already getting tired by sitting like this," Kavya mumbled to her friend, fanning herself with her hand.

"I don't know why they aren't even allowing us to sit inside the auditorium, this is getting ridiculous now," Arvika too huffed sitting next to Kavya with some of the other girls who too were freshers of their department whom they had met today only. 

"Guys, we are very sorry for your inconvenience as due to some technical problems inside the auditorium along with some disputes, we are running a bit late for our function to commence, till then, please maintain your calm or just get a tour of our beautiful college, we'll be allowing you all inside very soon," a voice announced in a guilty tone, grabbing the attention of the already-quashed freshers who were more frustrated now after hearing this announcement. 

"You should've checked about it, the previous day, only? Right?" a boy asked from the crowd, raising his voice at the senior who had announced this new update to them. 

"Accidents are unforeseen, my friend. Please have patience, we are doing our best to rectify this," the senior too was helpless at this moment, not knowing what to do to calm down these young-angry lads.

"What happened, sir?" another voice asked him out of the crowd.

"We'll tell you shortly, till then our team of seniors will give you all a tour to this college, everyone is requested to form groups for different-different departments they belong to, CSE, ECE, Mechanical, Civil, and all the other departments, please guys, maintain the decorum of our college and please form a queue of your respective department, it's my humble request," the senior pleaded helplessly, not wanting to get further scolding from his professors as well as other seniors for disclosing their confidential matter in front of all.

"Now what's all this, man," Kavya stood up from the velvety seat of the garden along with other students who too were equally vexed at this carelessness of such a highly esteemed institute. 

"What's this ruckus, man, did we pay for this disarray and disorganization of this institute where they cannot even handle the very first event in the honor of their newcomers!" one of the guys spoke out in a loud voice, irked by the turn of events and of course, their unproductive wait for this event which was still not anywhere near to commence anytime soon. 

"Kavya, let's go to some calm place, I am already annoyed by all this, moreover, I am hungry, and I don't want any tour, please," both the best friends duo moved towards the cafeteria as their tummy too had rumbled, indicating the emptiness of their poor tummy. 

"Excuse me, two grilled sandwiches, one white sauce pasta, and two cokes, please," Arvika immediately moved towards the counter of the cafeteria, after keeping her bag on one of the chairs, where Kavya too was sitting currently, waiting impatiently for the food as they had missed their breakfast in the morning. 

"Wait for another ten minutes," Arvika returned with a token and sat down in front of her friend who was busy watching the TikTok videos of some famous TikTokers. 

"Always on TikTok," Arvika sighed after looking at her friend who was wholly addicted to this app for God knows what pleasure she got out of these ridiculous, cringe-worthy videos.

"Ma'am, hello ma'am, huh, this girl, I tell you," Arvika huffed in annoyance as Kavya was not paying any heed to Arvika whatever she was saying to her, her words were falling on deaf ears, Arvika concluded, shooting a glare at her best friend who had suddenly gotten a humongous craze for this app which Arvika so wanted to ban from the whole world. 

"Go to hell, I'll have all the sandwiches, the white sauce pasta too which you oh-so-dearly love," her last statement still didn't bring her friend's attention to her, as she was fully devoted in watching the videos of famous Tiktokers. 

Kavya, an innocent, bubbly girl, unfortunately, already had fallen prey to the toxic TikTok, like millions of other youngesters, no offense. 

"Our order is ready, I am going to bring them," Arvika declared to no one in particular after the manager signaled for her order and she moved towards the counter with the token in her right palm. 

After bringing the platter full of food, Arvika settled herself on the chair and moaned at the sight of the delicacies that were looking so mouthwatering and delicious. 

"Now, I will not give you a single bite, watch all your Mr. Faisu or Mr. Khattu," Arvika mumbled to herself, smirking at her best friend but before she could've eaten a morsel of the white sauce pasta, it was already snatched away by Kavya, due to which the glass of iced-coke fell on Arvika's baby pink, chicken-embroidery kurta, spoiling her most favorite outfit. Could this day get any worse? 

"S**t, I am sorry, I am extremely sorry, Arvika," Kavya immediately got near her friend who had a scowl on her face, looking terribly sad at her spoiled kurta. 

"It's okay, I'll just go to the washroom," although Arvika was boiling from inside she maintained her calm, knowing very well about Kavya who would tear up in an instant if she'd say a word to her.

"Wait, I will also come," Kavya too wanted to accompany her friend but with just a look of Arvika she stopped herself, not wanting to anger her anymore. 

"Please sit here only, till I come," Arvika whispered out and took out a few napkins from her bag, along with her phone, while Kavya could only stare at her friend in guilt and sadness. 

Today, in the morning only, Arvika was telling her how much she adored this particular kurta, which she had bought from Dehradun when they had gone on their school trip. 

"I am uninstalling this TikTok, all this happened because of this," Kavya huffed and deleted the particular app from her device, now busy in waiting for her friend, all her appetite too had vanished. 

Whereas, Arvika had already found the girls' washroom as she had wandered through this part, yesterday evening only with her seniors. 

"Kavya is so childish," Arvika mumbled to herself, busy in cleaning the stain which wasn't ready to get rid of her scrumptious piece of cloth. Although it wasn't cleaned properly still it was better than before, Arvika sighed and after using the loo, she eventually left the washroom, busy in wiping off the water on her hands.

Lost in her own disappointment and dismay of the ruined favorite cloth of her, she got abruptly wakened up from her trance, when she suddenly collided with someone, resulting in her fall on that particular person whose face she still hadn't noticed because of her reflexes, which had made her eyes tightly shut, fearing the fall. 

~**•°•**~

Important Note:

Silent readers, at least vote for the story, it takes a lot of hard work and time to write a chapter along with that, I'm currently working upon three stories, altogether. Show your love via your votes and comments, please.

I know it was a boring chapter! But hey, it's just the starting of their real journey!