Chapter 1: Ace Rank, New CPs, and Desi Drama

It felt like we’d accidentally wandered into a Bollywood script—two girls, two mysterious top players, and enough late-night drama to make even the family WhatsApp group jealous. Every night, our DMs overflowed with memes, Bollywood song lyrics, and secret emojis. Even our families started to notice; Priya’s younger brother peeked in, eyebrows raised, while the smell of her mother’s tadka drifted from the kitchen as we giggled over headsets and dropped weird gamer slang during dinner.

She bagged a top-tier Arjun, and I ended up with a top-tier Kabir.

The names alone made us blush, so naturally, we teased each other with the most dramatic filmy lines. "Arjun, tumse na ho payega!" Priya would declare, to which I’d reply, "Kabir Singh ke baad, ab toh bas gaming hi pyaar hai, yaar!"

But soon, Priya caught Arjun secretly boosting another girl behind her back.

She messaged me, "I’m planning to break up. What about you?"

I replied, "No big deal. Just in time to switch to a new hero and practice."

We exchanged a look, the kind only best friends understand, and did the deed together—unbinding, deleting, then high-fiving like we’d just won the World Cup. We both touched our foreheads, like Amma does after a big puja, and laughed—no more jadoo-tona, no more notifications ruining chai time.

Suddenly, we felt light as air, as if some old family astrologer had finally removed our online nazar with a single mantra. No more drama, no more pings disturbing our afternoon chai.

But before we could even enjoy our newfound freedom, Indian server Kabir brought Arjun to meet us in real life—after our whirlwind online romance.

He grabbed Arjun by the collar, anxious as a boiling pressure cooker about to whistle. Kabir’s fist clenched tighter, his knuckles pale. “Bhai, tu sach mein kuch nahi bolne wala?” Arjun looked away, jaw working. Even the chaiwala’s radio went silent for a second.

The whole scene was so perfectly desi—two boys on the verge of blows, tension thick as the smell of fresh aloo parathas in the morning. The local chaiwala paused, ladle in mid-air, soaking in the drama.

Kabir barked, “Hurry up and say you have nothing to do with that green tea—otherwise, you and I aren’t bros!”

“You have a mouth, so explain yourself!”

“Or else you’ll lose your girlfriend, and mine’s about to dump me too—wuwuwu…”

My heart thudded as their voices echoed—something’s happened. I had no idea if this was the start of another gaming disaster, or the biggest plot twist of our lives.