"Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone - but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming."

~ William Hazlitt

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"What the hell does he mean by I am not worthy?" Alya asked Mukti as she kept pacing back and forth in anger while the other girl was sitting on the bench nearby.

"Let it be, Alya," Mukti told her in an attempt to skip the conversation she knew they were about to have.

"No, he needs to understand that I am not the wrong one, he is... I want him to..-" Alya would have continued if she wasn't interpreted by her phone which was running in a tone that by now Mukti knew was reserved for Dhruv only.

As she saw Alya picking up the phone, greet Dhruv a sweet manner, Mukti let out a sigh of relief. It was never a good place to be - stuck in between two friends - and as much as she wanted, she could not escape these fights but tried to avoid it as much as she could.

These fights between Cabir and Alya have started getting irrational and irritating and happened every time they met. While Cabir rarely ever met Dhruv, he had to meet Alya more often than he would want to, he was forced to because of her and Nandini.

Their friendship had died long back, she knew. Mukti was the only reason why the three of them were still somewhat in touch. She just couldn't let go of them, even though she was no longer overly depended on them, thankfully, that phase of her life had ended where they were necessary for her to keep her sanity intact.

That night had changed so many things, somehow along the way, Mukti has lost the count. Manik went missing, and with him so had the bearly alive friendship between Fab 5. Dhruv left had them, after some time, to start a band on his own. Alya had moved on to become the fashionista she was meant to be. And she, to escape the silence which once had been filled with their music, had willingly started to do something good for the people in an attempt to live life the way Abhimanyu would have wanted her to...

When she had lost Abhimanyu, Fab 5 and Manik, one after another, the realization of being alone had intensified and with that so had the need to escape it...

And that had been what made her run to the place where she had once found peace; the hospital. The one which Abhimanyu had been once admitted to. When she had first stepped into the hospital and had looked around her, she had understood what she couldn't back then when Abhimanyu had countless times told her to appreciate the life she had, to make it count, to not waste it. Only when she had been shaken up by the death of Manik, deprived of the family she once thought she had, she had understood what he had meant back then.

It had been the need to escape that made her start to volunteer, and spending time away from home and college had made her forgot her pain during those hours she had spent with people who were suffering pain greater than hers. She had done it for a purely selfish reason at first, but slowly and gradually, she had started to like it. As if finally she has become a part of something greater, something she has been seeking and had searched for since forever...

When she looked back, to the time which now seemed like another life to her altogether, Fab 5 had been able to give her that feeling for a little while by making her a part of their chosen family; a bond that Manik had claimed was unbreakable. But when she had lost them, she hadn't stop craving that feeling. She had searched for it and had fortunately found it by becoming someone who healed themselves by helping others.

But that didn't mean she had let go of her friends, she had returned back to them once she was healed. But she had found that nothing was left of their friendship, of Fab 5. It had been her fault, she knew. She hadn't there when she was needed, neither for Cabir nor for Nandini. But with time, she had forgiven her self for it. She knew why she had escaped; the loss of Manik, and being around Nandini had done nothing but intensified the loss of Abhimanyu. So much that it had become something she had to escape from...

She had accepted her weakness as during those initial days after Manik's disappearance, whenever Mukti had looked at Nandini or had been around her, the girl had only reminded her of the loss of both Manik and Abhimanyu. So she had to escape from everything who had anything to do with Nandini, even though in the process, she had avoided Cabir when he needed a friend the most. Her biggest regret now...

When Mukti had understood that she had neglected her best friend, it was too late to mend things. She had tried again, only to find out that during the time she had been missing, Nandini had been by Cabir's side and the two of them had bonded over their loss. And now in Cabir's life, Nandini somehow has taken the place of the friend that she had left empty.

After finding that, Nandini Murthy has become the girl she envied the most, for she has become the friend Cabir needed, for loving Manik even now yet still finding a way to live without him, for smiling so easily...

She envied her despite knowing that Nandini's smile was filled with pain, despite knowing that no amount of time would be enough to heal her. And that scared Mukti, her resentment towards the girl, but she tried to overlook it by forcing herself to find ways to make Nandini move on in her life...

The reason why she had been on Alya's side whenever she had come up with plans to make Nandini move on yet she also backed off whenever Cabir told them they were going overbored. She had been clueless to right and wrong since forever, and with everything that was happening in the lives of her friends, she was clueless. She only tried to stay connected to them as much as her work life let her...

"Are you even listening to me?" Mukti heard Alya ask her,  and when she raised her head, she found Alya standing in front of her.

"There is nothing new to this, Alya. You both fight whenever you meet," Mukti reminded her friend in an attempt to escape the conversation.

"We have to do something, Mukti. We can't just let her be." Alya told her what she always did.

Mukti could do nothing but let out a sigh and zone out on Alya's rant as she knew nothing new was being said. Alya was adamant, as she has already chosen her 'side': Nandini had to move on. Fixing her blind dates, giving her random information about some 'hot' guy, giving her makeovers out of nowhere, talking ill about Manik was what she thought was necessary to make Nandini move on.

While Cabir couldn't do anything but yell at Alya and anyone involved whenever he got to know of something he believed shouldn't have happened. He didn't believe fixing a blind date with some 'hot' guy was what Nandini could ever need to move on. He didn't believe that makeovers could make Nandini forget about her loss, even for a second.

And Cabir was right, Mukti knew. But Alya was somewhat right too in her attempt to help Nandini move on. The reason why she was stuck in between the two was that they both were right yet wrong at the same time. That's why she let Nandini choose for herself. After all, she was the one who had to move on.

What she has never understood was why Nandini let Alya do whatever she wanted? Was it to keep others happy or was it because a part of her wanted to move on? Was it for her family who was pressurizing her to move on or was it for the sake of moving on? 

So complicated...

"Alya, there is no point to talk about this, Nandini will do what she thinks is right for her. We should just let her be," Mukti interpreted Alya somewhere in her rant.

Without looking up at her, she knew she had angered her friend, she shook her head and looked down at the watch warped around her wrist. There was an hour left to the meeting she had with her team to brief them about the project they were working on.

Standing up from the bench, she looked at Alya who was now standing close to her.

"So you are on Cabir's side?" Alya asked her with an accusing tone, with both of her hand on her waist.

"No, I am just saying to not do anything. Let it be, don't think about it," she told her by putting her both hands on Alya's shoulder to convince her to drop the idea.

"No, we have to stop Cabir, He can't keep encouraging her to waste her life on once upon a fairytale!" Alya told her, sticking on her belief.

To avoid an argument between her and Alya or Cabir and Alya, she knew she had to change the topic, so she did;

"Hey, did I tell you, Anamika, my friend, is getting married. I told her that you will help her out with her wardrobe, can you?" Mukti asked Alya, to divert her attention.

"I know what are you doing, Mukti. Don't try to-" Alya accused but stopped in the middle, just to scream in the next second.

"Oh, shit! Marriage! I forgot that I need to tell Natasha to collect Mrs.Mehta's dress from my workshop. I have to talk to her." Alya was then yelling and panicking as started to punch some numbers on her phone in a hurried manner.

Seeing her walk away, Mukti sigh in relief, at least this time she could escape the situation she knew was getting out her hand.

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Cabir closed the main door of Murthy's home and hoped to not come across Alya or worse, Dhruv, anytime soon.

No matter what Alya thought, what he knew Nandini better than they did...

Nandini had let him in only because Cabir had understood what no one else had tried to; her need to search for Manik and not just overlook the suspicious circumstances in which he had disappeared. By standing by her side, he had done what he thought was needed during the times when everyone else had tried to stop Nandini from talking about Manik, from searching him...

Not only Cabir had been by her side on their search for Manik, but he had also heard her out whenever she wanted to talk about Manik, knowing no one else did, knowing that he would have never gotten to know anything about them from Manik, if not for that night. Bittersweet, those nights were when Nandini had opened up and talked about Manik, about them. In those moments sharing their memories, with a lively light in her eyes, Nandini always had sounded so happy...

Manik had been possessive and protective over every second he had spent with Nandini and never believed in sharing it with anyone, not even with him, Cabir, the self-proclaimed president of MaNan fan club. While Nandini too had been possessive, she had shared openly, the happiness and the pain. He suspected that during those times, talking about Manik with someone had become a need so overwhelming that she had opened up to him and Rishab, but no else...

So Cabir had heard her whenever Nandini wanted to talk, had let her be whenever she just wanted to sit under the sky, lost in the world of stars. He had never forced her to go out with him and Navya if she didn't want to. He hadn't mocked her belief, her hope for Manik being alive nor he had ever let anyone else do it in her presence...

In the end, if asked, Cabir would have told that what he had been doing was what a friend should have, what others, who claimed to be her friends, should have...

And what Alya and Dhruv had been doing was the contrary. While Dhruv had lost his say in Nandini's life the day she got to know what he had told Manik the day Fab 5 broke apart, Alya still was considered a friend by her. Dhruv had become someone Nandini had cut all ties with yet Alya somehow still remained in the list of the people Nandini cared about.

'Alya - maybe the way she thought about Manik, this matter was given. She stayed with Dhruv, after all, that says it all,' Cabir thought, shaking his head.

Cabir was glad that at least Dhruv wasn't tolerated by Nandini whenever he told Nandini that she has been wasting her time and life on Manik, Nandini's distaste for Dhruv gave Cabir unbelievable pleasure. He knew, for Nandini, Dhurv had become someone who lost the ability to redeem himself when he hadn't stopped talking ill about Manik even when after he had gone missing. It was a sight, especially to see someone like Nandini, kind and forgiving, give Dhruv a cold shoulder. Not only, but also insult him if he ever dared to take Manik's name in her presence.

'A sight worthy of million bucks.' Cabir thought, amused as he walked into the living room.

There never had been a time when Cabir had thought that he will think Dhruv as a villain, or even a bad person. To him, Dhruv always had been an innocent kid who lived with Manik's protected shadow over him, untouchable, untainted. But the day when he had seen Dhruv's real face, he had been shocked. The disgust Cabir had felt - even now, each time he remembered the words he had heard Dhurv say to and about Manik - was immense.

Was Dhruv Manik's friend?

Was he Nandini's friend as he claimed to be?

Was he really worried about her?

Cabir knew the answers, apart from Mukti, he could trust no one. Even though the bond between him and Mukti has weakened, he knew by heart she wasn't disloyal to Manik nor to Nandini.

The problem Alya and Dhruv represented to him was in the fact that they wouldn't leave Nandini alone. They had made Nandini's life a part of their business. It would have been a good thing, letting Nandini become a part of their lives, but only if it hadn't happened for the reason why it had...

Cabir knew how much Manik had wanted them to understand Nandini, to let her in, to realize that she was an amazing person. But then they had been too busy with stating that Nandini was taking over their place in Manik's life, or breaking Fab 5. And now, Manik himself was looked down upon by the very same people...

The indifference and the disgust they had shown, in the past, whenever Manik used to give his attention to Nandini, was something that had annoyed Cabir. But now that they got to know Nandini, their callousness behavior whenever Manik was mentioned, shocked Cabir to the core.

How come as soon as they got to know her, they started to not only forget about Manik but also resent him? Hate him? How could that even happen?

When Cabir had figured out the answers, he had realized, somewhat in awe at the replacement that was happening: they were replacing Manik with Nandini. It amused him to no end. At the start, he had overlooked it, as he had understood their need to have someone else to protect and look out for them, but now he couldn't. It wasn't the replacement that worried him - as he knew when it came to Manik and Nandini, there wasn't any place for a replacement - it was their careless attitude...

The replacement didn't matter because Manik has always been present in Nandini's words and action now as she had been in Manik's back then.

'MaNan, names united as souls are,' Nandini's voice rang in his mind. The words she had said to him when Cabir had asked her about the bracelet she always wore.

Cabir found it strange how people around them haven't realized that Manik and Nandini were two individuals weirdly and beautifully united by something much deeper than love and understanding of each other. There were no sides between them, for them, because they were on each other's side.

'And if you were on one's side, you naturally was also on the other's.' That's what Cabir believed in.

So how come others always tend to choose sides and justify it in a way or other? The need to pick one between Manik and Nandini to him was absurd, alien even...

Others have chosen Nandini over Manik as if they could get one without the other. They hadn't understood, even now, that Nandini and Manik came with the tagline 'buy one get one free'. Even though Manik had been missing since that night, four years ago, he has always been a part of her during these years, always present in her words and in her actions.

The very same Manik, they now wanted Nandini to move on from, not only, but also to forget him. How come they could not understand what they were asking for was impossible?

'If they don't even comprehend the reason of her pain, how can one ever expect them to understand her pain,' Cabir thought, with a sigh.

Standing in the living room, he looked up at the stairs and found Navya descending but when he moved to reach her, he was ignored by her who simply moved passed him.

'Strange,' he thought as he looked at his friend moving towards the Murthy family who was sitting on the sofas, looking worried.

When he saw Navya sitting down with Nandini's family, he could guess the topic of the discussion: how to make Nandini come out of her room?

'Even after making several rounds to her room, they haven't given up.' Cabir thought, shaking his head.

With a sigh, he walked closer to the joint heads, busy in scheming the plans to make Nandini come out of her room.

"Fine. Okay. I will go to talk to her," Cabir told them in defeat, not stopping to see their reaction yet he knew that now Navya must have that stupid Madhu Bala smile on her face, after all her monh varth came handy, again.

'So much melodrama', thought Cabir, shaking his head at the girl who was looking back at him as he started to climb the stairs that lead to Nandini's room upstairs.

Taking two steps at a time, he moved fast to reach her room, but when he reached the door and raised his hand to knock the door, he stopped.

He found he had no strength to do so, knowing the conversation he was going to have with her would break her, again. And there was nothing he could do about it, he was helpless.

Shaking his head, he tried to get rid of the feeling that cost him his best friend and now could cost him the girl who has become his most precious friend.

'Not this time,' Cabir thought, with the determination. 

He wasn't going to let anything wrong happen to Nandini too.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door...

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A/N:- Here is the next chapter...I hope you like this chapter even though it was more about Fab 5, but I felt it was needed, especially for the characters which have been neglected and not executed well, for a reason or other. I hope you liked the update... :)

Please let me know your thoughts and leave a comment... :)

Thank you! :)

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