"Stop Khushi. Why are you making me burn my lungs?" Roshni shouted as she sprinted after Khushi.

"Leave me alone," Khushi shouted over her shoulders.

"Stop!"

Khushi stopped and turned around.

"I know it has been a tough evening, but please listen to me. I need to know what has got you so riled up."

"I don't know. It meant so much to me this evening. But with all the disruptions and awful incidents. Makess me think, this is not good start to my career in that company."

"Silly woman. I know this has been stressful and it means so much to you. And for that reason you wanted everything to be perfect. But real life is not perfect. You of all people know this," Roshni said placing a hand on Khushi's shoulder.

Khushi covered her face to hide her tears.

"When you wake up tomorrow, what do you think would have changed? Nothing. You will still be my dear friend. You parents' favourite daughter and your sisters pet. And the newly promoted darling of our excellent media company," Roshni said.

"And a bad memory for Arnav."

"Does that mean so much to you? You just met him today for the first time."

"I mean, he owns our company. He…"

"It's something else," Roshni raised an eyebrow.

"This feeling of some great destiny. It's weird. I can't explain it."

"Oho…" Roshni said with a big smile.

The girls were so caught up in their own world that they didn't realise they had gone down a dimly lit street.

They were both snapped out of their conversation by the sound of motorbikes.

Two black bikes came to a stop on the other side of the street. Four young men dressed in t-shirt and jeans and filthy sneakers were glaring at them.

"Let's go back to our office," Khushi said grabbing onto Roshni's hand.

"I don't like this one bit," Roshni agreed.

The men began revving their bikes.

"We can give you a ride. The ride of your life, if you want," one of them said.

Roshni showed them a middle finger.

Khushi moved her on and they started walking back to the office.

The guys started following them.

A thick blanket of fear dawned on both women.

The men started whistling as they followed them on their bikes.

Be brave, Khushi said to herself. She started dialing the number for the Police Control Room.

Just then a sliver Mercedes stopped in front of them. Khushi couldn't see the occupant in the driver seat because of its bright headlights.

Suddenly, Arnav's handsome face popped out of the window.

"I will give you three options. You can either bugger off or get beaten by these ladies while I watch on or deal with me and my car. What do you prefer?"

The men studied his masculine and intense face for what seemed like an eternity. Then they turned around their bikes and rode off.

Arnav looked at Khushi and Roshni.

"We could have handled that ourselves," Khushi said.

"I have no doubt," Arnav said with a genuine smile. "Good night."

Khushi was about to thank him, but he had already placed the car into gear and sped off.

Thank God Arnav came to our rescue," Roshni said.

"What, you don't believe I could have handled the situation?" Khushi said.

"No…but…he. Did you see the way he looked at you?"

Khushi didn't have a response, she was remembering the way their eyes met for an instant as he drove off.

"Why did you come down this street anyways?" Roshni said.

"I don't know."

Khushi remembered the early dawn that greeted her in the morning. The colours of destiny in the saffron sky. Arnav's eyes. His voice. At this moment she didn't have an answer to anything.

"Let's go home," she said, knowing fully well that sleep wouldn't come easily to her tonight. So much had happened today.