"Khushi promise me you will never do this again." Arnav pulled back slightly to look right into Khushi's eyes. "Waada karo Khushi. Waada karo ki chahe kuch bhi ho jaye, tum aise phir kabhi mujhe chodke nahi chale jaogi. Hum kitna bhi roote, hum kitna bhi lade, tum mujhe kabhi chodke nahi jaogi. Wada karo Khushi. (Promise me Khushi. Promise me that no matter what happens, you will never leave me like this again. No matter how much we're angry with each other, no matter how much we fight, you will never leave me. Promise me Khushi.)"

"Hum waada karte hain Arnavji. (I promise Arnavji.) I'm not going anywhere. I will always stay with you. I won't do something so stupid ever again. Promise."

And with that she laid her head on his chest, while he tightened his arms around her, finally feeling relieved.

And that day, they both crossed an unknown boundary in their relationship.

Later, Arnav dressed Khushi's wounds and applied medicine on the marks on her arms. Sheetal made lunch for all of them, which they all had together. Even though Khushi had insisted that she would help make lunch, Arnav strictly told her to just rest.

During lunch Sheetal was being extra-caring with Arnav, trying to make use of all the opportunities to touch him. However, it's another story that Arnav didn't give her many chances as he was busy attending to Khushi, making sure she was eating well. He was so engrossed in looking after Khushi that he didn't even take notice of Sheetal.

All this didn't go unnoticed by another person, who started to feel a little upset seeing the turn of events. Khushi could see the way Sheetal was trying her best to get close to Arnav, and she felt really upset by it. A strange feeling of possessiveness took over Khushi. She didn't know why, but she felt angry seeing Sheetal trying to get close to Arnav. Seeing Sheetal's moves, Khushi made sure that she held all of Arnav's attention and that she took care of Arnav's needs by serving the food whenever possible.

Khushi herself was confused by these feelings... Who was she to Arnav to feel so possessive of him? She was just his friend right? And friends don't usually feel so possessive of their friends - well at least not in the way Khushi was feeling right now. Khushi couldn't make sense of her feelings, but she knew one thing for sure. She couldn't let Arnav go. Ever.

After lunch, the three of them just sat down talking about nothing and everything to pass time.

By evening, Aman came back and informed Arnav that the goons had all been caught they were being interrogated still.

"Have any of them opened their mouths yet?" Arnav inquired.

"We tried to find out who their boss was, but all they kept saying was 'L75.'" Aman replied, frowning.

"What?" Arnav asked, not sure whether he's heard right.

"Yh. They said that they worked for L75. We tried to get out more information but that's all they said. So now they're interrogating the goons one by one. They must know something more..." Aman said.

"L75... Hmmm..." said Arnav, to no one in particular.

After listening to Arnav and Aman's conversation, Khushi remembered that deadly phone call again. Just the memory of that man's voice sent chills downs Khushi's spine.

Seeing Khushi's sudden shiver, Arnav diverted his attention to her. "Khushi are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

Even though Khushi nodded, he put his arms around her, rubbing her arms up and down, trying to soothe her, as he could somewhere understand what she might be going through.

Having Arnav's warmth around her, Khushi felt a lot more secure but she still had a nagging feeling deep down. But she couldn't understand what it exactly it was... She felt like there was something she should know about this whole thing but she couldn't put her finger on it...

Khushi's thoughts soon got diverted as everyone changed topics to more mundane things.

Arnav took Khushi back to his house around 2 am the next day, thanking Sheetal and Aman for their help on the way. Sheetal could only burn in jealousy seeing leave together while leaving her behind.

Dadi was waiting for Arnav to return home as he had left in the morning without a word, and he hadn't called back at all to inform her of his whereabouts.

As soon as Arshi entered the house, she started, "Arnav how can you be so irresponsible?! Why didn't you call me to tell me where you were?! You left without a word in the morning and you didn't even bother to call me once to tell me where you were! Do you know how worried I was? Is this the way to behave?" Dadi was extremely unhappy with what Arnav had done - or I should say, not done.

"I'm fine Dadi. You've never cared about all this before so I don't see the problem now. I know why you're doing this and I just want to say this. Stop. Acting." replied Arnav, feeling his anger build up seeing Dadi faking her concern. And more than that, seeing her now reminded him of how she'd spoken to Khushi in the morning.

"Khushi go upstairs. I have some unfinished business with Dadi," said Arnav while glaring at Dadi.

When he felt no movement from Khushi's side, he turned to look at Khushi and said in a sterner tone, "Go Khushi."

Khushi didn't want him to fight with Dadi, but she knew that arguing with him at the moment would be deadly, so she reluctantly went up the stairs.

Arnav was going to wait for Khushi to go into the room so that he could give Dadi a piece of his mind. But as Khushi was going up the stairs he saw her sway from side to side, almost losing her balance.

Without waiting Arnav darted up the stairs, just in time to catch a falling Khushi.

"Khushi!" he called, patting her cheeks with one hand while holding her by the waist with the other. He kept on calling her name to get her back to consciousness, but to no avail.

Meanwhile Dadi stood there rolling her eyes at the events unfolding before her eyes. "Attention seeker," she muttered, glaring her at an unconscious Khushi so much that if her eyes were lasers, they would have drilled holes through Khushi's body with their intensity.

Arnav bent down and put his free arm underneath Khushi's knees to swiftly carry her and hurry up the stairs and into their' room.

Arnav was sick with worry. She had fainted twice in one day. The first time was acceptable because of all the shocks she had been through. But this time, nothing much had happened for her to be emotionally drained. So it had to be some kind of weakness health-wise. Unless... unless she was worrying about this new L75 ...

As soon as he lay her down on the bed, he took out his mobile from his pocket to phone the family doctor, but then a hand clasped onto his wrist, stopping him from dialing the number.

Arnav looked up to see a fully conscious Khushi looking back nervously at him.

For a moment, Arnav felt unadulterated happiness seeing Khushi fit and fine. And Khushi could see that too, which made her feel even guiltier.

Only a second later did it hit Arnav. She was fit and fine. Too fine to have fainted moments ago.

"Toh yeh sab ek naatak tha? (So all this was a drama?)" Arnav asked, gritting his teeth in anger at being fooled. "Yeh sab ek mazaak hai tumhaare liye?! (All this is a joke for you?!)" he asked raising his voice. "Do yo-"

He was about to continue when Khushi got up on her knees on the bed to reach up to his height and covered his mouth with her hand "Do you know what I went through these few moments? Do you know how worried I was? Why don't you understand damn it?!" Khushi mimicked Arnav. "Yehi kehna chahthe the na aap? (This is what you wanted to say right?)" questioned Khushi.

Arnav could only watch in awe.

"I know Arnavji, I'm really sorry but... I didn't have any other choice. If I hadn't done that you would have argued with Dadi for me and... that's the last thing I want to happen. I know you said you don't like Dadi much as it is and even though I can't really patch you up, I can still make sure it doesn't get worse right?" Khushi tried to make Arnav understand her point of view.

"You already have enough problems to face and... I don't want you to have another problem because of me... But what I did was still wrong. I know that and... I'm sorry I had to do that. Please forgive me," she requested, taking her hand off his mouth to hold her ears with both hands.

Even though Arnav's heart melted, he didn't want to show it on his face so he kept his expression stone-like.

Seeing no change in Arnav's expression, Khushi got off the bed to stand in front of Arnav. She caught his hands and pleaded again, "Please Arnavji forgive me na! I won't do it again - pleeeaaase" she pleaded. When she again didn't see any change, she pouted. "Fine, I'll do anything you say to earn you forgiveness. Tell me what I have to do."

As he watched her pout, Arnav felt his heart melt. His heart began to race. He couldn't understand his feelings. He felt like doing something mischievous... something playful... something that he hadn't done in years. Feelings which he thought were dead to him were starting to come alive again. They felt so foreign... but strangely pleasant.

"You will do anything?" he asked with a smirk.

"Of course," Khushi said with a confident smile on her face.

"ANYTHING?" Arnav asked, taking a step closer to Khushi.

"Y-yes," replied Khushi, slightly unsure now.

"You sure?" Arnav asked in a husky voice, his breath washing over Khushi's face.

"H-h-haa-an," replied an uncertain Khushi.

Arnav's smirk grew wider as he saw Khushi getting nervous. He stepped even closer, making Khushi take a step back - or at least try to. She tried to step back, only to have her legs hit the bed, making her fall back due to the unexpected impact. Arnav tried to catch her, but he was too late. Instead he himself got pulled and fell on Khushi, his lips landing on hers by accident.

Time froze.

They froze.

Both of their minds went blank.