Hello Fam :)

A/N - I am not getting time during the weekdays. I am having work from 9-9pm and then I am sleeping after talking to my parents. It's really hectic. I will try to update once a week during the weekends. I don't know if this schedule is permanent but I hope you will understand. And thanks for all the love during the last note and chapter.

Also any Derek Hale plans? Or Tyler Hoechlin in general? 😋😜

Note - The chapter starts from 'Manik returning home after college and studying' and ends when 'Nandini leaves the canteen after Harshad's conversation'.
Just let me know if the order is fine or if the paragraphs are jumbled up?

Happy Reading...

Manik, after returning from his 'college', took a nap and started studying feeling refreshed. He had put some light music so that his mind doesn't wander in any wary direction. Two hours into the study, he was disturbed by a knock on his door. It was his head butler, an elderly man in his late 60s. He has been associated with the Malhotras even before the birth of Manik and his brother and is almost like a family.

"Manik baba, it's time for your dinner. Shall I arrange the table for you?", he asked, politely. 

Manik glanced at his watch. It was 7 in the evening. He didn't even notice the time and stretched his limbs before facing his butler. "Uncle, I am not hungry yet. I will have my dinner later. You people go ahead, don't wait for me", he said. He hated it when they all waited for him or his family to finish their dinner before having theirs. A person should eat whenever he was hungry instead of waiting for someone else, even if they were working for them. When Manik told this to his mom, once, she explained to him that they do out of respect and there wasn't any rule or order by the Malhotras. Even when both his parents have always asked the staff not to wait for them, they did and Nyonika had given up after a while.

The butler nodded. "Baba, Alya has called to the home number. She said she will be coming here in an hour."

"What?", he all but screamed. "Didn't you inform her that mom is out of town?" If his tone was sharper than normal, he wasn't worried. Nothing he does would ever make anyone in Malhotra house judge him. 

The butler gave him a sympathetic smile. "I told her but she wanted to meet you." 

Manik groaned and rubbed his forehead for some quick thinking. He glanced at his books. He was almost done the studying part for the day. He already had enough adventure for the day, first at college with Harshad followed by the incident at the pub. So, he grabbed his car keys and mobile. "I am going for a drive", he said. "Can you not tell mom about this, please?" When the butler sealed his lips animatedly, Manik grinned and rushed out of his room. 

His mom wanted to maintain a polite relationship with every business associates of theirs and Saxena's were family friends. While the elders were sweet it was just their daughter who behaved like a clingy leech. The other Saxena, too, prompted some part of his brain about Harshad. He drove on random streets following the map on his phone and halted when he saw a beach. He got down the car and leaned on it, admiring the sea waves. 

He never went to a beach during his stay in England. All his beach visits were from a distance and he never got an opportunity to go in. If he went while he was in Mumbai when he was a child, he didn't remember much. Sometimes he missed playing with his brother like any normal siblings. Even though they had video calls, their personal interactions were limited to the time when his brother had holidays and he visited England with their mom. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the presence of a person beside him. 

"How can you judge someone's nature by just their outer appearance?”

He turned around to find Abhimanyu and said a small hello. "What are you doing here?", he asked Abhimanyu.

"I was on a walk. Actually a call with Mukti. I live nearby", he said grinning, "and I bet you don't know where you are."

Manik chuckled. "Yeah, I drove on random roads." 

"Shall we go in then? The beach is more beautiful when you step in than here", he said with a smile. 

They walked in and settled down in front of the waves. The cold breeze was tickling Manik's skin as the waves touched his feet. The reflection of the moon was beautiful and the stars just shone like diamonds on the ocean water. 

"Isn't it amazing", said Abhimanyu, conversationally. "The sea stays calm even when there's raging trouble inside it, say, a cyclone." He glanced sideways at Manik and said, "just like you."

"I was thinking about Nandini", blurted out Manik.

Abhimanyu seemed surprised and smiled at Manik. "Though I expected the reason of you roaming on the streets in the middle of the night, this information is equally surprising. What's with Nandu?"

Manik rested his chin on his knees, hugging them close to his chest. "I have misunderstood her. I thought she was just a careless girl who doesn't value anyone's feelings. I believed the boy who told me she does whatever she wants to and gets away throwing her father's money." There was guilt and he regretted more than ever for judging her based on others' opinions, especially when he takes a lot of time to understand people. It felt as if Manik was too eager to run away from Nandini and latched on to the first excuse he got without properly checking the facts.

Abhimanyu stayed silent letting Manik talk. He wasn't too surprised by what Manik told which only confirmed Manik's doubts that people do talk about Nandini behind her back and she wasn't unaware of it. Yet she ignores them and he respected her even more than after knowing what she did in the morning. "When Principal sir has asked her if Harshad was ragging me, even when she knew he was trying to get her into trouble, she was saving him just because she didn't want to spoil his career. She isn't the girl she is portraying herself to be for everyone to believe."

Abhimanyu laughed out. "You are smart. Manik, Nandu is the best human I have met. She’s difficult, she is feisty, arrogant but she has a pure heart. She has seen a lot in life. Half of which even we don't know. She hides all these things behind her craziness and anger."

Manik looked at him in disbelief. "I have only seen her anger."

Abhimanyu nodded. "That's what I am telling you. There's so much more to the Nandini you have seen. Bottom line is, she is a good person if you are good to her and worse if you try to harm her or any of her closed ones."

Manik chose to stay silent. He was more confused than before about the head girl but somehow he isn't as scared as he was prior to his conversation with Abhimanyu. 

"Now tell me, what are you doing here at this hour?", asked Abhimanyu.

"Escaping", Manik said sheepishly. When Abhimanyu raised an eyebrow, he explained further. "Mom isn't at home and still Alya’s visiting my place. She is so clingy."

Abhi burst out laughing. "What's with you and Alya?"

"Family friends and some unwanted visits", Manik mutters. 

They talk for a while before leaving for their respective homes. 

XXX

When Abhimanyu and Mukti reached the college the next day, they were surprised to find Manik absent. Nandini, who had another meeting with the principal, skipped the first class. When she came to class after that, she just had enough time to wave at her friends. At the end of the first half, an assistant of their English professor informed them about the joint classes of the Science and Arts students, just like in their first year. In the canteen, as soon as Nandini found a table for herself along with her friends, she ranted on how she has to tolerate the Saxena siblings for more than necessary. Exhausting herself, she sipped her cold coffee. 

"How did our dear textbook decide to bunk college?", asked Nandini, casually. 

Abhimanyu shrugged. "Maybe, he is sick. Otherwise, it would be impossible to make him miss his classes." 

Mukti frowned. "Or maybe, he is frightened after yesterday?", she said, hinting about their little prank at the pub, "It was too much for him."

Abhimanyu instantly felt guilty but his conversation with Manik yesterday kept him grounded. Manik didn't show any uneasiness last night. Abhimanyu was about to point that to the girls but stopped himself to protect his life. The conversation between Abhimanyu and Manik, last night, was all about Nandini and Nandini hated when anyone talked about her behind her back. Manik was the first one she was trusting other than her friends and he didn't want to take that away from her. 

He didn't want to do that to Manik too. Whatever little he has known about the boy, Manik hardly had any friends. Now that he started seeing the trio as his friends, it would be unfair to take that privilege away from him even before he could experience what real friendship actually means. He blamed all the complex analysis in his brain on the Quantum Mechanics book that he read last night.

He glanced at Nandini and found her typing something on her mobile and the same guilty expression on her face. The silence was disturbed by the unwanted presence of their head boy, who took their inactivity as an invitation and sat on the empty chair. 

"Are you guys talking about me?", asked Harshad with a grin. 

While Nandini ignored him as if he was invisible, Abhimanyu passed a death glare in his direction. "That would be the last thing we would do", he spat. 

Harshad smirked. "Ahan. You are talking about the new lover boy of Nandini Murthy. By the way, where is he? Did he not come to college today?"

"That's none of your business", said Mukti, glaring at him. 

"Mukti", Nandini called her still ignoring the head boy, "let's leave. It's time for the class already." 

She took her bag and left the canteen followed by her friends. During the next class, Abhimanyu found her taking down the notes seriously. He couldn't decipher if it was for ignoring Harshad, who was sniggering at the backbench, or to lessen her guilt about Manik. When she continued to do the same in the following classes too, he confirmed the second reason. While it was always Abhimanyu who took down the notes in class for the three of them to study during the exams, today when he followed Nandini's action to lessen his guilt, he found himself unable to concentrate on the lectures.