It was already late night when the two cousins reached the door of Vrishabhanu Dulari's bhavan which was closed.

"Are you not going to come inside, Madhav?" Arjun asked when his cousin stopped midway. "No Parth." Madhav shook his head. "But why, Madhav?" Arjun questioned.

"I shall only enter when my Yashaswini welcomes me in herself leading me by holding my hand." Arjun shook his head hearing his cousin. "Just come already." he pulled his Madhav by his hand and the two were busy playing pull back and forth like little kids.

"Yashodhara! Yashodhara!" Arjuna called while pulling his cousin. "Shh! Shh! Parth!" Krishna resisted and pulled him back once again.

Upon hearing her name being called Vishnupriya who was busy in her room holding the locket close to her quickly stood up and rushed towards the door. "How did it slip from my mind that Rajkumar Arjun hadn't returned yet." she facepalmed herself as she rushed towards the door.

As Nar and Narayan outside heard the door being unlocked both their eyes widened. "Yashodhara look-" just before Arjun could finish his sentence he was pushed infront nearly falling face first on the ground if it wasn't for Yashodhara who caught him.

"Hmm?" she was surprised as she caught him. She noticed how his hand was rough opposite to that of her Shyam but felt familiar as she noticed some faint red alta stains on his hand. 

She looked up to face the rajkumar who looked back behind him annoyed. "Rajkumar? Are you okay?" she asked and Arjuna faced her nodding. "I have a friend who is very dear to my heart. She too used to slip and stumble wherever she went." Vishnupriya spoke fondly about her sakhi Brihannala as she let go of his hands., "Whenever I meet you, you are always falling and stumbling. Is it a habit now?" she laughed.

"N-no. It's nothing like that. It's just that....." Arjuna trailed of thinking of an excuse when their attention was caught by a monkey hanging by his tail on the tree laughing.

"Dadhilobha!" Vishnupriya rested her hands on her hips. "That monkey was bothering me." Arjuna quickly said, it wasn't exactly a lie since Dadhilobha had nearly pulled his wig along with his real hair off during his time as Brihannala.

Dadhilobha's smile instantly fell and looked at Vishnupriya shaking his head. "Don't mind him. He has always been like that. Troublesome. Not getting food for the whole day tomorrow will fix his brain." Vishnupriya shook her head. "Please come in. It's getting cold now." Vishnupriya said leading Arjuna inside.

Arjuna looked behind him once more finding the troublesome monkey Dadhilobha making some crazy hand movements to the Keshava standing underneath the tree as if expressing it's distress and complaining.

Arjuna squinted his eyes at his cousin who had once again escaped using him as a scape goat. Arjuna moved inside to his own pavilion to get some rest shaking his head as he sighed.

After a while Vishnupriya returned back to the door to close it. As she looked outside she stood there unmoving, staring off into the distance. She leaned against the door frame as she got lost in her thoughts. Sighing she slid down and sat on the door threshold leaning her head on the frame of the door.

The air had grown colder and her feet had gone numb resting on the cold marble tilted floor. Yet she stayed there. "Will he come?" the hope once again rose. "But..... I haven't done my shringar.... What will he think when he comes and sees me like this." the list of her concerns were endless. "No..... no, stop it Yashodhara. It's fruitless, you doing shringar is of no worth. He won't come." she shook her head as she stood up from her place.

She headed back inside as she closed the door and back to her room. She rubbed in face in exhaustion as she entered her room. Her eyes immediately fell on the dressing table where she used to sit and get ready for her Shyam everyday.

She went towards it and pulled out all the jewelries she owned going through each of them. But at the end she chose only the ones her Shyam adored and kept them aside. She pulled out one of her lilac colored clothing and stood up to go to bed. But to her surprise when she looked outside the balcony, the sun was to be up any moment.

She quickly grabbed her clothes and all the necessities as she rushed outside to meet her sakhis so they could go and take bath in the Yamuna like usual. In hurry she left her room in a mess with doors left opened ajar. With clothes everywhere, the favorite dark blue dress of hers slipped away from the balcony.

She was greeted with the giggles and laughter of her friends who took great pleasure in seeing her panting after sprinting all the way from her bhavan to their group.

She playfully nudged Vishakha who was laughing along with the rest. "Let's go now." she shook her head as they headed towards the Yamuna for a bath.

.

..

...

The beautiful gopis of Braj laughing and giggled as they chatted while splashing water at each other once in a while.

"And remember when Krishna stole the gopika's clothes? Thankfully our group didn't experience that." Tungavidhya said as the ladies laughed unknown to the white garment of hers which she had placed in her usual spot slowly slid behind the bushes.

"I would've died to the embarrassment that I would've never shown my face to Krishn ever again." Rangadevi said. "But your temper would betray you and lead you back to Krishn with an angry red face." her younger twin, Sudevi jested about her sister's temper making the other gopikas laugh.

The group continued to chat and laugh oblivious to the fact that their garments had disappeared from their usual spots. 

"Let's go now. I have to prepare for the breakfast for the Hastinapur Rajmata and the Kuru Rajkumars." Vishnupriya said and the gopikas agreed. As they moved closer to the land they noticed that their clothes were gone.

"Areyy! I remember keeping them right here." Rangadevi said. "Mine isn't here either, sister." Sudevi said unable to find her clothes as well. And soon all the gopis complained among themselves when they all realized that their clothes had disappeared.

"Who did this huh? This is right! Come out you coward! Give us gopikas our clothes back." Rangadevi shouted but got nothing but silence in response.

"Just a minute ago we were laughing at the gopikas who got their clothes stolen by Krishn. Maybe this is our karma, we shouldn't have laughed." one of the gopikas said. 

"Who could possibly pull such a stunt? There is nobody so shameless in the whole land of Braj to enter this premise while it's the gopikas' bathing time and steal their clothes." Vishakha said. 

"Exactly! Nobody. Nobody except for Krishn Kanhaiya." Rangadevi said making everybody's head turn. "Krishn! Give back our clothes right now! Do you hear me? Come out! And give them back." Rangadevi said.

"I fear that in her temper she has lost it." Sudevi shook her head. "Sister, how can Krishn be here? He is in Dwarka." Sudevi said placing her hand on Rangadevi's shoulder.

"I don't care if he is in Dwarka, Mathura, Hastinapur, Ayodhya or even in Ksheersagar. I know for the fact that it is him as for he knows that we will let him go easily once he appears infront of us. Tell me who else other than him can pull this stunt?" Rangadevi said and went back to calling for Krishna and demanding they have their clothes back. 

Soon the gopikas too join her, all of them except for Vishnupriya. "Why are you silent, sakhi? Say something!" Tungavidhya nudged Vishnupriya noticing she was silent. "Exactly! Speak Yashaswini. If not ours then he will surely hear your words." Sudevi said. "There is no use of it sakhi. There is no way that Krishna has returned." Vishnupriya said.

"Just say na sakhi. He will hear you even if he is stuck in the Himachals. Or just say 'Hey Narayan! Hey Vishnu!' he will surely show you the way." Rangadevi said. "Why don't you try that then?" Vishnupriya said. "Which one of us here is named Vishnupriya?" Rangadevi replied.

Vishnupriya just sighed and went along with the flow. "Hey Narayan! Show us the way." she looked up raising her hands asking for help. And just then her eyes widened "Look there!" she pointed up and everybody followed her direction.

They all looked up to see all of their clothes lined up neatly hanging on the tree branch. "It must have been Dadhilobha! That troublesome monkey! I will make sure to not give him even one grain of food this day." Vishakha said as the gopis wondered how to get their clothes back down from the high branches.

"Sakhi. Go and stand here abit far." Vishnupriya suddenly said to one of her sakhis who nodded and did as Vishnupriya said. Vishnupriya picked up a fairly big rock and hit the branch, upon the impact the thin branch shook and broke hanging by the tree trunk only by a little.

As the branch tilted down further on the verge of fully breaking down due to the heavy weight of the clothes of the gopikas. The clothes slid off and the gopikas who stood below them caught them careful not to wet them. Vishnupriya did the same with the other branch and all the gopikas got their clothes and left the cold water shivering after staying to long.

"Arey!? Sakhi? Why are you still there?" Tungavidhya asked upon noticing everybody had gotten out except for Vishnupriya. "My clothes..... they aren't here sakhi." Vishnupriya said since she was the only one who hadn't gotten her clothes back.

The gopikas quickly got on the mission to search for the lilac clothing that Vishnupriya wore so frequently. 

Vishnupriya watched as her friends searched for her lilac garment. Suddenly she heard Vishakha gasp. "What is it sakhi Vishakha? Is everything alright?" she asked but got no response. She asked for one of the gopis to go and check on Vishakha but it soon resulted to all the gopikas suddenly disappearing into the forest leaving her all alone in the Yamuna.

"Did they really just leave me here?" Vishnupriya questioned herself in disbelief. She waited for several minutes but none of her friends came back leaving her there all alone and helpless which made her upset.

"I can't believe they just left me here like this." she mumbled angry and upset. "What am I supposed to do now? Haree Ram." she sighed. "At such times even Krishn would be helpful to me. At least Shyam wouldn't just leave me here like this like them." she added.

"Shyama just come back....." she muttered. And just then something fell over her head covering her vision. It was a cloth and when she lifted it up and checked it, it was her favorite dark blue dress. Her eyes widened as she quickly lifted the cloth up making sure it wouldn't get wet further and was still acceptable to wear.

She didn't think much of where the cloth suddenly came from but quickly left the river to get changed and rush back to the bhavan to prepare the breakfast for her guests.

"Thank you, Narayan! Thank you!" she thanked the lord on her way as she rushed back to her bhavan. "Your welcome, Yashaswini. Though it would be more appreciable if you took my name, but still. Welcome." Krishna said raising his hand resulting the gopikas sitting below the tree to giggle.