Song-Piya Tora kaysa abhiman (male)

Draupadi

I scurried through the silent hall with rage thrumming through me. Arjun was making it hard, way too hard for me to give him the cold shoulder that I wanted. He was acting out of his character, so much so that I had no other choice but to confront him.

Halting in front of his chamber I swithered before knocking on it. For some weird reason Arjun's mansion had the fewest number of guards and none in front his personal chamber so I had no one to ask whether Subhadra was there or not.

But I had no choice so praying in my heart that Subhadra wasn't in there with him, I knocked and as soon as I did the door parted open and I stepped in only to found it vacant while magnetic faint strain of Veena mingling with a familiar rich voice welcomed me.

I walked in and watched the room was completely changed as I had ordered. I could feel my heart twisting but I tried to ignore it. Arjun's chamber was now Subhadra's sanctuary and I myself had made it that way. I had no right to feel dejected.

As I ambled toward his private garden the music grew stronger. I abruptly halted in my track when my eyes landed on Kaunteya Arjun in his infamous artistic form. His long fingers were playing with the Veena string as skilfully as they release arrows.

And his voice.

I couldn't help but closed my eyes, recognising the raaga as he sang the Vandish. It was Maru Bihag and I knew he was spontaneously creating the lyrics which held nothing but pain. The kind of pain that you feel in your gut, the kind of pain that even saddens the nature.

A lone tear streamed down my face as I leaned against the pillar watching him turn his inner mayhem into something insanely empyrean.

Why you had to ruin everything Arjun? Why you had to be so ruthless towards me? Why did you have to strangle our love before even it gets any chance to bloom?

An inarticulate whimper left my mouth and I immediately covered my mouth and turned away. Breathing heavily I wiped my face and realised Arjun was doing the tehai, soon his sublime performance came to an end.

"Did you like it?"

I was taken aback by Arjun's question, his eyes were still closed indicating he had not came out of the trance yet. Covering my embarrassment of being caught I stepped in the garden, the soggy grass were still wet from the rain that occurred in the morning.

"What did you want to prove by sending Subhadra like that?" I asked straightaway.

My question took him out of his stupor as he placed his Veena down and joined his palm before rising on his feet. His curls were all over his forehead before the cold dusty wind slowly caressed them away as he came close with his enticing ambers gazing through my soul.

"Answer me Arjun" My voice pierced through the halcyon silence "Did you want to prove I am the exact same egoistic Queen who has the five Pandavas dance on the tip of her finger, that the world thinks me to be and to satisfy my ego you had to sent your innocent wife as a cowherdess to me?"

There, I lost it.

My all intention and plan of ignoring him the rest of my life and make him taste his own medicine of indifference just got ruined as I took another step closer to him who still had not spoken a word

"Did you not humiliate me enough? From the day you won me all I got from you is ignorance, humiliation and rejection but still..." My lips quivered as I tried to swallow the knot before continuing "But still I kept on hoping one day you would change and come out of your inhibitions, that one day you would acknowledge my presence, my feelings and me as your wife"

I closed my eyes letting the silent tears flow "You knew–know that Yajnaseni was born to love you, she has no other choice but to love the man who caused her birth yet you left me"

This time my eyes shot up to look into his eyes which shone with unshaded tears "You left me for twelve years. Do you have any idea how I spent every single minute of those twelve years Arjun?" I shook my head "You don't because if you had you could have never..."My voice choked as I felt out of breath but unable to stop myself I continued "You could have never done what you did" My voice raised not caring about the surrounding "You could—"

This time I was stopped not by my tears or breathlessness but two muscular arms which enveloped my whole body in them. On of them went on the back of my head pressing it against something hard while another encircled my back

"Breathe in. Breath out"

Following the instruction I managed to feel the air inside my body as I breathed heavily closing my eyes. Feeling comfortable in that warm embrace my body left its weight as I slowly stopped panting for breath.

After what I felt like an eternity, when the cold drops of water touched my body, I came in my senses realising I was wrapped in his arms and immediately pushed myself off of him "Don't touch me"

The drizzle suddenly turned into severe downpour along with thunderstorm but nothing seemed to bother us.

"Krishnaa" He appeared lost as I watched him fighting his tears "I know I've wronged you and you've every right to not accept me but trust me when I say your pain of separation is no less than mine. I didn't abandon you, I can never. It was a rather stupid attempt to forget you and I was desperate to do that so much so that I did everything in my power to achieve it"

Forget me?

Before I could question he continued with a small scoff "But how could I? When you were there in my thoughts, reverie and consciousness all the time. When everything in the world reminded me of you? But still I tried, I accepted Ulupi, proposed Chitra and married Subhadra yet you were always there in my consciousness. Your hauntingly beautiful eyes, ringing laugh that even my Veena can't match up to, the maddening fragrance of blue lotus were always there, teasing me, blaming me and loving me"

He took a step close "The intention to send Subhadra in that attire was just to prove the political significance of the wedding, and what your place is in Arjun's life is, absolutely not what you said"

I gasped when he fell on his knees and before I could do anything, wrapped his arms around my waist tightly, placing his head on my stomach "The world is against us, but please don't let them win"

I couldn't stop the sobs from escaping as he tightened his hold around my waist before murmuring "Please don't treat your Arjun like the world does"

Hope you guys liked this chapter. You probably be thinking "Ye angst kahe khatam nhi hota be" 😂

But it is what it is, the greater the pain, the more intense would be the love

(God, please don't apply this theory in my love life 🫠)

To my fellow bongs, Happy new year in advance, now please don't mock me for wishing Bengali new year in English. 🫠

Anyways, Please please suggest

I had planned on ending this book with union of ArDi and start the sequel but now I'm getting second thought of continuing the story in this book only, one of the reason being I don't have a good cover for the 2nd book, I really like the cover of VA but the person who made it is no longer on Wattpad 🥹

and another reason is I might loose whatever few readers I have of this book 🥲

So yeah, what do you guys suggest me to do?

Jay Shri Krishnarjun
Arjunaradhika