Aariz's pov:

"Don't you want to put on Mehendi?" Aryan startles me by coming up from behind.

"Seriously? I just can't wait to get out of here! And Mehendi? No way."

"It's your mehendi ceremony, Aryan is right. You should put on at least a bit." Azaan bhai sits beside me.

"Bhai! Aap bhi iske saath?" I say in an offending tone. (You're also on his side?)

"I'm not on anyone's side. I'm just stating facts. It's your Mehendi, you should put on some Mehendi."

"Mehendi ceremony is focused on the bride! Why should I put it on?"

"Yeah. Aariz bhai is too excited to see his name on Noor bhabi's mehendi design!" Aryan says when Ahaan bhai comes over to us.

"I am not! I don't even care. I just want to go back after all this ends. I have a big shooting!" I did just sign a very big contract right before the marriage was fixed. The shoot will start right after I go back from Paris.

"Now, now Aariz. Don't be like that. You're the model son. The first Raihan of our generation to get married. Keep up to your name." Ahaan bhai said. He was pissed since the start about all the wedding stuff.

Ma has been forcing him to marry for two years. He finally gave in and said if one of the others married first then he would get married by the end of the year. Which wasn't really a good idea as the year ends in less than two months.

Well, actually, it was. None of us had any interest in getting married. Well, Aryan kinda did but he only wanted one person since the start so he didn't really count.

But, I made a promise. That is why she let me be an actor. I had to promise. Now it was the time to carry out that promise. As the Raihans never break a promise.

"Why is everyone against me today?" I say in annoyance.

"Don't worry, after you get married, bhabi will be on your side." I give Aryan a glare when he says that.

"I'm going to see Bhabi's Mehendi. Anyone want to come with me?" Aryan gets up.

"No. You can go to your bhabi alone." Azaan starts shooing him away.

"He is not even going to see his bhabi. He is going to see his lover." I start teasing him. 

"Bhai! You're no fun." He starts leaving to see the bride's side.

"Did you find anyone?" I ask Ahaan when Aryan leaves. I didn't need to say more for him to understand.

"No. Didn't even start looking yet. Also, this is a secret between the three of us. Not telling Aryan or anyone else." He warns.

"I won't." I was very close to Aryan and I told him most things about my life and vice versa. But it didn't mean I was going to tell him things about others that he shouldn't know. They probably thought I would tell Ma as I'm very close to her but to be honest, I wasn't. She only knew the outer bits of my life. Not even Aryan knew everything about me. 

No one in my life has been patient or interested enough to get to know me in whole.

"What is this lover thing?" Azaan asks annoyed. Right. Him and Ahaan didn't have a clue about Karya.

"Ahaan Raihan. It's pleasure to meet you after a long time." one of our business partners comes up to us and holds his hand out to Ahaan bhai before I could tell them anything.

"Yes, it's lovely to meet you too." Ahaan shakes his hand.

"I was so happy to hear the news that one of the Raihans was getting married. Though I was surprised to see it was not you. Is there a specific reason?" He beams at Ahaan. 

The three of us already got the idea that he will ask Ahaan for a proposal.

"Ah, just not interested in anyone yet." Ahaan replies.

"I see, you haven't found the right person. Well, my daughter is single and she would be delighted to get to know you and-" he couldn't finish his sentence when Azaan shouted out.

"Ahaan bhai! I need you to come with me. There is an emergency." he pulls Ahaan away. It wasn't hard to tell that there wasn't actually an emergency. Azaan bhai was just helping Ahaan to get out.

"Well, Aariz. Congratulations again on everything. Enjoy." he left.

Now I was alone again. Everyone's attention is mostly on the bride. Even my brothers ran away because of stupid proposals.

Aren't I supposed to be enjoying this? This feels like the most boring and useless day of my life.

Karya's pov:

"Go now!" I start shooing him off. Aryan Raihan. This guy will seriously be the death of me. 

"No. I came here to see my bhabi's mehendi!" he debates again.

"It's okay Karya! Just let him see it. He can leave after." Noor permits. 

"See? My bhabi is so much better than you." he says and then looks at her hands. "Wow. It's so pretty. Is Aariz's name there?" 

"Yes. You're just too blind to see it." I reply instead of Noor.

"Areh. You're always so rude. I didn't do any harm thank you." He says looking offended.

"You finished looking at it right? Now go." I start pushing him off the stage.

"Are! I will fall down because of you."

"That will be better."

"Then how will I perform for my brother's team?"

"I don't know. That's up to you to work out. Now bye!" I shoo him a bit outside the stage and then go back to my friends.

Noor's Mehendi was already done. After her, her sisters Nadia and Nazia got theirs done. Nafisa's was finished as well. Aliyah's is almost finished and I was waiting. 

"It's your turn now." Aliyah gets up to let me sit in front of the henna artist.

--

All of our designs were looking so pretty. Me Aliyah and Nafisa got simple designs while Noor got a more complex one.

"The performances are starting soon. Come to the centre hall." Noor's mother informs us and leaves.

"Let's go. We are the second ones to perform." Nafisa gets up and starts rushing off before we even started moving.

"She is in such a hurry." Noor gets up.

"Yes! She is the one that has been the most excited." Aliyah helps Noor with her huge lehenga and we walk up to the centre hall.

The performances will take place in the centre hall. The bride's side was based in the inner hall and the groom's on the outer.

We got to the centre hall when Nazia and Nadia just started performing. 

They were dancing in 'Nagada sang dhol' as the bride's side had the concept of classical dance. They chose an upbeat classical song while we chose a softer one which was 'Ghar More Pardesiya'. Well, Nafisa chose it. Me and Aliyah just agreed.

We all took dance classes together back in high school when we had too much time to spare so learning a dance wasn't hard.

Their performance ended with a round of applause and it was our turn to go. There were so many audiences. 

It was a grand event as the Raihans and Dayyans were both very respected families in the country. Even reporters were here!

We go onto the stage and get into position. 

--

There was a louder applause at the end of our performance.

"We did it!" Nafisa hugs us in happiness.

I wasn't really paying attention to her. I was looking around for someone.

Aryan Raihan.

I know. He isn't here and I should be happy that he is not here to annoy the shit out of me. I am happy but it's his performance after the one that's starting now. Well, his and his cousins but they are all here. Where did he disappear to?

And why do I even care?

Ahaan's pov:

Her seat had to be beside mine. Just my sheer luck!

She didn't talk to me. I couldn't start arguing here as there are cameras all around. She looked kind of exhausted after the dance.

Dance. Classical dance. It was something I didn't know someone like Aliyah could actually do. She always looked more like a hip-hop dancer than a classical one. And I certainly did not think she would even attend the event after what happened yesterday.

The scene flashes back to my mind again.

Her crumbling down to the floor, buried with helplessness.

The words I said to her that I never thought I'd even think about saying to her.

 'Look at me. I'm here with you. You are going to be okay.'

She looked normal now. Like yesterday never happened. Which makes me wonder, how many times did it happen? And then she just put on a normal face.

It was possible that something similar happened to her before her duty in the hospital and then after she went to the hospital, we were arguing as I thought she was okay and in a normal state.

Guilt washes over me.

It was a new thing. I never felt guilty. Not towards anyone, ever. Why am I feeling guilty towards that Rahsin?

"You know if Aryan is not here in time, one of you has to dance in his place," Aariz says with a chuckle. He knew he was messing with us.

"There is no way I'm getting on that stage." I say.

"Me neither." Azaan chimes in.

"Where did he go anyway?" Aariz asks in confusion. Aryan met me and Azaan in the bathroom and told us he is going to see Farhan. Not see, follow. As he saw Farhan Rashid talk to someone on the phone and then leave. Apparently, it was suspicious.

"Just some work." Azaan gave me an eye when Arariz turned back to the front which basically said, 'Don't make him worry too much. It's his wedding.'  Which surprised me as Azaan didn't care much about this wedding. None of us did. Not even Aariz. Well, Aryan is having fun as apparently, he saw his first love. I never knew he had anyone he liked.

Aariz just told us before the Sangeet started. Apparently, it was the friend of Aliyah's who helped her to her room yesterday. Karya or whatever her name was.

Our female cousins' performance finishes and a round of applause was heard.

"Where is Aryan?" our cousin Zaiyan asks as he was needed to perform.

"Here! I'm here! Don't worry." Aryan runs up to us.

Azaan wanted to ask him something but Zaiyan pulls him to others on the stage as the music starts.

"Kala chashma? Really?" Azaan says in annoyance. (It's a song means 'sunglasses'.)

"Do you have any enemyhood with the song?" Aariz asks.

"No. But they should've found a better song than this."

"If you're so judgemental, you should've performed and picked one yourself." I say annoyed. Why be so judgemental when you're not even bothered? I'm not performing and I don't bother in making an opinion on what song they chose.

"Are bhai. Just saying."

Their performance ends and in no time, the last song starts playing with all our cousins and Noor's cousins and her friends on stage in a hurry.

You could tell the last performance wasn't even rehearsed as no one was in sync and some were doing a completely different dance. It looked like chaos but everyone was enjoying it.

The elders start clapping to the beats. The reporters were getting great clips to publish later. I wish they weren't here. I hate how we can't get any privacy as soon as we leave our house.

I spot Aliyah dancing with Karya on the side. She looked happy. She wasn't smiling. But her expressions still showed happiness. I guess that's all you could expect from someone who had a panic attack the day before. Not like I've ever seen her smile.

I wonder how that would look.

No. I don't. 

Why would I wonder about her smile?

Nafisa's pov:

The last performance finished with a round of applause and more flashes from the reporters' cameras.

It was honestly hard to dance as some of our mehendi weren't fully dry in the first few performances. We had to keep our distance so we don't get our mehendi ruined.

By the end of the Sangeet, all of our mehendi were dry. 

We took many more photos with everyone who came up to us. It annoyed me after some point.

I loved taking photos. It was one of my favourite things to do. But most of these people were strangers. At least I didn't need to take photos with as many people as Noor. Literally everyone ran up to her for a picture.

"Nafisa isn't it?" I turn around and spot Farhan Rashid. "A photo?" He gets his phone out.

"No sorry." There was no way I'm taking a photo with a Rashid.

"Come on. I need to take a photo with the prettiest girl here." He starts coming closer. 

"She said 'no' already didn't she? So leave." Relief rushed through me as I heard Mr Raihan's voice behind me.

"Azaan Raihan. Lovely to see you again. Nafisa was just agreeing before you interrupted. Weren't you, Nafisa?" he looks at me with a scary look that sent a shiver through my spine.

"I'm pretty sure I said the word 'leave' clear enough." Mr Raihan says in a cold voice. Farhan doesn't argue more and leaves without another word.

"Thank you so much." I say in a grateful voice.

He nods and leaves.

"Let's go!" Karya comes behind me. "I'm so tired and a certain Raihan keeps on annoying me." I looked behind to who she was glaring at. 

Not surprisingly, it was Aryan.

"Something going on between you two na? I need to inform Noor that she is going to get a sister-in-law very soon!" she smacks me.

"Are what the hell? No way! Let's go now!" she pushes me towards the lift and in when the door opens.

The event took place on the bottom floor of the hotel we're staying at which was very effective.

We go back to our room and she starts yapping about how annoying Aryan is.

"You two would be so good together!" I say excitedly. I shipped them from the bottom of my heart.

"Oh God. Why focus so much on me? Stop wasting your pretty delusions one me yar! Find someone for you to be delusional about."

Her words remind me of Azaan Raihan. The supposedly cold CEO who has been everything but cold to me.

My silence gave Karya a hint. "Oh! There is a someone isn't there? Who is it? Who is it?" She jumps in excitement.

"Areh. I'd obviously tell you if there is someone! It's no one."

Or so I hoped. I didn't even know at this point.

--

Thank you for reading <3