03 | Mutual Chilling

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"No, I really don't see." Diya said sharply.

"Well, guys, meet Aakash. Aakash, meet guys— I mean, sorry, Ashwin and Diya." Chandni gestured to each other respectively.

"We still don't see it." Diya prompted and Ashwin nodded in agreement.

"Just tell them, Chandni." Aakash drawled and smirked but for some reason—probably because this was the first time she was hearing him say her name casually—she felt something weird.

A good kind of weird.

And then she smirked back, "As you wish."

"Aakash was the guy whose parents came to mine with a marriage proposal, but then he said he was uninterested, so I helped him escape and since he owed me and has a stupid can't-owe-for-a-long-time policy," Her smirk widened and so did Aakash's eyes, in realization, "He thought you were bothering me too much so decided to foolishly take things into his own hands. After realizing his mistake, he wanted me to help him apologize, properly."

"That last part wasn't how you told me earlier." He whispered.

"So I basically became a fucking scapegoat just because you owed her?" Ashwin asked, anger clearly written on his face, his tone and his tensed form.

"That wasn't my intention but, when you put it like that..." Aakash trailed away, pursing his lips.

After releasing a long breath he continued, "Look man, I know I messed up, big. But I swear it was neither of our intention for something like this to happen."

"In fact, to be honest," His eyes searched Chandni's before facing a fuming Ashwin again, "It's all on me."

Wow.

Wow.

Chandni thought he was a total narcissistic bastard, but hey! Who knew, right?

"Well, my work is done here so I'm gonna go..." Chandni backed away but Diya grabbed her arm with a stern look, stopping her at her place.

"And you, young lady, are not escaping anywhere." Ashwin smiled mockingly and she heard a laugh which then turned into coughs in a lame attempt at hiding them.

Chandni glared at the culprit, ignoring his eyes so she doesn't get distracted by them then turned to her good friend.

"Aww, Ash, I'm not escaping anywhere, buddy. I'm just gonna give you two boys some space to cool off!" She tried to reason.

"We've already cooled off. We're totally cool. Righ—" A smack cut Aakash off.

"I don't like owing people things either, so, there, we're even. And look, we even match!" Ashwin said sarcastically after punching Aakash, while Chandni winced, even though this was one of the fourteen million—and counting—possibilities she had tried to predict.

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