A/N: Guys, I was planning to update a bit long, double or triple of the length of this chapter but some people weren't allowing me to do the same!😛 Haha, Smriti it's you who else! 😆 Dedicating the chapter to her 😉 Sorry for mistakes, haven't proofread. AND PLEASE PRAY FOR ME ITS SCIENCE TOMORROW AND I LITERALLY DON'T KNOW A WORD. I mean it, not even a single word. Going to study from now till morning! Wish me luck and enjoy the chapter.😉
And one more thing, I won't be able to update the next chapter tomorrow or day after tomorrow. I may try writing one on Monday. I am going out for some important work, please bear with me.😛
Now go enjoyyy and suggestion with criticism and gajar muli are always welcome. 🤣
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Chapter 3 - This has to be a dream!
MUKTI
The beepers were beeping in the adjacent ward which was, I suppose, the staff room. It was 5 am in the morning and I couldn't see anyone around. I... wait... I met Manik? He was here?No it must be a dream. It has to be a dream.
I tried to get up to get my cell when someone held my hand and helped me sit. I couldn't see his face, he had worn hood jacket, just like... Dhruv. Is he Dhruv? I tried to see his face when another known voice called me from the other side of the room. I still couldn't see who it was. I was feeling dizzy. Those voices were calming me unknowingly and due to those killing sedatives, I again fell asleep.
I woke up again and I knew it was 2 pm because of the digital clock just in front of my bed. My head was paining but I still tried to get up and then something hit me. Hard. NANDINI! Where's she? FCK! GOD NO! I couldn't even talk to her! Shit, shit, shit! I just hope she is fine!
I started shouting her name and then tried to get off those drips which weren't allowing me to get up. Someone held my hand and I looked above. Dhruv? He is really Dhruv? What is he doing here? And now? After all these years...?
I looked at him with questioning eyes and he just turned his face. This guy can never change. I jerked my hand and started doing my work i.e. getting those drips off my body.
"Mukti no!" He again held my hand and forced me to get into bed. I tried to make him leave my hand but he was adamant. Oh, so you are challenging me? Mukti? Mukti Vardhan? Oh Dhruv did you forget who I am! I clenched my fist and punched him in the gut. Yeah, that's for taking panga with me! C'mon get aside now!
"Mukti why are you being so obstinate? You shouldn't be out; it's not good for you! Just get in the bed! You are not well!" He shouted at me. How dare he?
"Excuse me?!?!" I shouted. "You are no one to tell me what's good and what's bad for me. Get that in that sick head of yours!" This guy was a pain in the ass.
"Mukti you are on sedatives! I cannot allow you to go anywhere!" He again held my hand and before I could reply I saw Aryamann marching in. He had a bandage on his head.
I immediately jerked my hand and asked Aryamann, "What happened Aryamann? You are fine right? And where's Nandu?"
"Mukti... I am fine... I am fine. Nandini's gone for recording." He told me and I sighed in relief, so yeah she was fine, for now. "How are you?" He asked cupping my face.
"Better." I smiled at him and he too smiled. I saw Dhruv's guilt stricken face from the corner of my eyes and smiled inwardly.
I suddenly remembered about Nandini, "Aryamann Aryamann we... we can't leave Nandini alone... we need to be with her right now... I'll tell you everything later, just take me to her... please please Aryamann." I was pleading to him and he sighed.
"Mukti, I can't take you. You need to rest." He was speaking politely to me because he knew that I'd get hyper when I started to protest he spoke, "okay, if you insist, I'll go to her hmm?"He said and I nodded.
"I need to tell you both something once you come back." I whispered lightly while hugging her and he replied with an okay.
"Take care." He wished me and nodded at Dhruv to look after me, before leaving. I gave a dirty look to Dhruv before lying back on bed. "Sister!" I shouted.
"What do you need?" He came forward. "You can ask me, Mukti." He offered to help.Someone tell him please, I don't need stranger's help. I ignored and kept calling for a nurse.
A nurse, in middle twenties, came inside huffing-puffing. "Yes? What do you need?" I heard her voice as a hoarse whisper. She was running I guess.
"I need him out." I said gesturing at Dhruv, "and my phone too."
She looked at me in confusion and handed me the phone kept on the side table, "here's your phone."
"Thanks." I smiled at her, "now get him out."
"Sir... I think...you should just leave her alone...for some time?" She hesitantly asked him to get out.
"I am not going anywhere," he spoke and made himself comfortable on the sofa kept beside my bed.
"GET OUT OF HERE!"
"Nandini asked me to stay with you till she comes back. So I am just fulfilling my promise. Now sleep," he ordered me and started reading a magazine.
I looked at him in disbelief, "how could she?" I muttered before opening my cell. Wait, it's my cell... where's Harshad's? OH! So it was him!
I am so tensed. I hope Nandini's fine.
NANDINI
I was trying to sip my coffee and waiting outside the recording room. Is he really back? After all these years, he is finally in my life again... I am happy but not contented.
He lost his memory. He forgot me. He forgot us. He is with Soha... This has to be a dream!
"Miss Nandini Murthy?" I heard someone calling my name which drifted me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"You are being called inside," he said and handed me my files.
Finally I am going to sing, again.
I stepped inside and an uneasy feeling engulfed me. I looked around guzzling the aroma of the studio and my breath hitched when I found his eyes directly staring at me from a distance.
He was there.
He was sitting there with the manager of the studio with a coffee cup in his hand. And I saw it.
He still wears it?!
I saw the band with the name MaNan' carved on it in his hand. I smile left my lips and I closed my eyes, trying to slow down my breaths, trying to register that he was there; he still had our symbol of love. There's hope.
I was walking towards the corner where they both were sitting when a thought came into my mind...
"Miss Murthy, you are going to sing a duet. We will let you meet your partner on the day of the recording itself."
NO PLEASE! I shouted inside my mind. I couldn't do that song with him... I just couldn't...
"Are you alright?" The manager came towards me and that's when I realized that I had stopped in tracks and made a fool out of myself. My first meets with Manik were always this weird.
"Come Murthy; let me introduce you to him. He is Manik Malhotra the going-to-be new singing sensation of India. He's a gem and you being a professional singer are going to record your very first song with him," he spoke and took the file from my hand and kept it beside some other file, which I assumed, was Manik's,"You both are the perfect match."
I blushed and saw that Manik was looking at me intently which was making me lose it. Oh God how much I want to grab his face and kiss him to death!
He looked so hot in his white shirt and blue jeans with that black studded blazer.
The clicking of fingers caught my attention and I saw the manager looking at me with a smirk. Shit, I once again managed to look so dumb in front of him. I was literally checking him out in front of the manager.
"So ready Miss Murthy?" He said and winked at me.
Manik was not saying a word but was just staring at me without blinking. Had it been before all the fiasco I'd have blushed profusely but everything's change now! The equations have changed. We are no longer together and he has a girlfriend now.
He is with Soha. He is not mine anymore.
"I am not doing the song with him." I said sternly leaving him shocked.
"You have to; you have already signed the contracts miss." He spoke with his all time favorite attitude after overcoming the shock which I just gave him.
"Why ain't you understanding damn it?! I just can't!" I shouted at him with anger and rage but most importantly with the pain, I had inside me because of him.
"I don't know anything. You have to pay the compensation which I know you aren't capable of, or do the song. You both have 10 minutes." He spoke and stormed off leaving me and Manik alone in the huge room.
"Uh...hey?" Manik tried to start the conversation. We were standing so close yet so far. And this one thought brought tears into my eyes, "hey why are you crying? It's okay if you are not willing to sing with me... It's just that it was my first song and I was a bit nervous so wanted to perform a duet.. and I am sure that we'd make a great pair," My eyes darted towards him and he said, "uh, I mean in singing."
I sighed and said, "See look Manik I cannot sing with you. It's personal and-"
"I want to sing with you."
He said those words with such intensity that even after a lot of scolding from my mind I looked towards him. I had to look towards him.
He took two huge steps towards me to cover the mere amount of distance between us and held out his right hand and touched my left cheek.
The feeling was so heavenly.
Feeling his touch on me after all these years was so divine, so beautifully. I was craving, dying for his one touch.
"I want to sing with you Nandini," He spoke huskily and I kept looking into his eyes, "your voice. It's so beautiful," with this he started covering the negligible distance between our faces, or to be more precise, our lips.
I knew he was going to kiss me.
I knew that he was in a trance.
I knew he'd soon come back to his senses and I'd again look like a fool for I knew he'd forgotten me... forever... hamesha...
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