In the heart of Mumbai, where luxury high-rises stood like glass giants and chauffeurs waited patiently by polished black sedans, lived two families — the Malhotras and the Singhanias. Their names echoed through boardrooms and charity galas alike, synonymous with legacy, power, and wealth. But beyond business partnerships and empire-building, there was something even more intertwined — their friendship.
Mr. Dev Malhotra and Mr. Rajeev Singhania had built their empires side by side, brick by brick, handshake by handshake. Childhood friends turned billion-dollar allies, they had shared everything from hostel bunks to boardroom tables. Their children —Radhika Dev Malhotra and Reyansh Rajeev Singhania — were no different. Except… they didn’t share friendship. Not at first.
Reyansh and Radhika were born in the same month, just twelve days apart. Their cradles once stood side by side at hospital nurseries. Their baby pictures lined the same drawing room walls. But while their fathers celebrated their bond with laughter and aged whiskey, Reyansh and Radhika celebrated theirs with epic battles of stubbornness, sharp tongues, and thrown crayons.
They were childhood rivals of the finest breed — the kind whose rivalry bloomed from proximity, pride, and an unwillingness to ever back down.
"Stop copying my answers!"
"I'm not copying! You're just writing too slow!"
"That was my seat, Radhika!"
"It has my name on it now. Deal with it, Reyansh."
Teachers sighed when both their names showed up in the same class. Every school year began with a new round of bets among classmates: who would win this year’s war ?
But underneath the sarcasm and endless teasing was something neither of the admitted nor understood — a strange thread that kept pulling them back to each other. When Reyansh fell from the monkey bars in second grade, it was Radhika who ran to fetch help. When Radhika’s pet parrot died in fourth, Reyansh sat quietly beside her, saying nothing but offering his favorite comic book. They fought for the front seat, for the higher grade, for their fathers’ attention. They competed in debates, song competitions, math quizzes, sports, and even spelling bees. But they also grew together — in summer vacations spent in the same hill station, in combined birthday parties where cakes were split down the middle, and in quiet evenings where their mothers forced them to study together. Their families watched it all with knowing smiles.
"They’re perfect for each other" Mrs. Singhania would say fondly.
"They just don’t know it yet" Mrs. Malhotra would laugh.
But children rarely understood the stories adults tried to write for them.
By the time they reached high school, something subtle had begun to change.
Their fights were still legendary — Reyansh's sharp wit versus Radhika’s razor-like comebacks. But sometimes, the arguments lingered longer than they needed to. Sometimes, one of them would pause after saying something too harsh. Sometimes, Radhika would glance at Reyansh during a school dance and wonder why her heartbeat felt… loud. And sometimes, Reyansh would look for her in the crowd before realizing he was doing it.
But if something was blooming, it was buried deep beneath layers of denial and teenage pride.
Radhika, ever the quieter one in private, found herself writing in journals she never intended to show — pages filled with half-sketched hearts, little moments he would never remember, and one confession she could never voice.
"I think I’m falling for him," she once wrote. And then scribbled it out. Twice.
In their final year of school, Reyansh’s grandfather and Radhika’s grandfather sat together under the stars during a family holiday. Wrinkled hands held glasses of single malt as they looked at the two teens bickering over a game of charades.
"One day, they’ll thank us for dreaming this."
"They better," the other chuckled.
"The empire we built… they’ll inherit it together."
But destiny — cruel, ironic, poetic — had its own plans.
Beneath the golden threads of old friendship, a storm was brewing. One secret decision, one act of betrayal, one devastating misunderstanding — and the thread that had held Reyansh and Radhika together, even in conflict, was about to unravel.
But for now, in that memory — that long-lost childhood full of rivalry, laughter, and beginnings — they were just two kids. Raised together. Fighting the world… and each other.
And somewhere, quietly, falling in love without even knowing it.
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