Manan FF - Kaisi yeh Yaariyan season 3 - Chapter 123 & note - Page 8

They hadn't slept the whole night & yet there wasn't a hint of tiredness in her eyes. How could she let sleep steal away even the tiniest piece from her treasure box, that now comprised of a million old and new memories. Friday morning this time, they were still friends (according to Manik) but in the last 72 hours, so much had happened. These three days had returned her all the precious things she had lost over the last three years. But now that Manik was gone, she was missing him like hell.

And it wasn't just her, it seemed like her house too had fallen in love with this charming guest. Everywhere she looked, she could feel him.. The kitchen where he had shared his past, the couch in the living room where they had watched cartoon, her bed where they had kissed and made love, her dressing table, the washroom, the balcony and even the front lawn... Every single corner, every crevice was demanding to know, why had he left. How would she tell them that she too hated every single moment that he was away.

She had initiated the memory game only with the intention of winning the blank wish, that's why all three of her wishes had been so complex. But little she know that he could even do the impossible, that when it came to her, he could both create the rain and bring home the stars. How, even without his memory, he had picked every open thread from their past and woven them together into a beautiful picture. How innocently, he had brought together his stars and her fireflies and turned them into one. At times she couldn't help thinking that her Manik was special, different from all other men. There was something divine in him. His love was so pure, it could put legends to shame. Life broke him again and again and yet he stood like an impenetrable wall around her. All he ever thought about was how to heal her torn edges when his own life lay in tatters.

She had lost her parents as a child and sometimes she wondered whether God had specially created Manik to make up for their absence. Though she had never spoken about it to anyone, not even to her Aiyappa, she indeed felt that he loved her even more than what her parents would have, had they been alive. The way he always wanted to keep her safe, even at the cost of getting hurt himself...the way he noticed the minutest of details regarding her, the way he read the faintest of changes on her face, the way he understood her inside out, despite coming from different spaces made her believe that they had been eternal soulmates.

She moved the collar of his shirt(which she now claimed as her) a bit to take a closer look at her neck which was now strewn with his love bites. Even though there was no one, she had to hide them from, she blushed like a newly wedded girl. There were more, she knew, in intimate places where only she and now he had access to. How she cherished these remnants of his on her. Only he could do it... make her cry with happiness, hypnotize her with his moves and ransack all her sanity with his wild wayward ways. But if she had to pick the best moment from an ocean of surreal memories, it would be how he had cradled her the whole night.

She had never felt cold feet at the mention of school on a Monday morning . From the day she had joined the school, she had always looked forward to Mondays because they saved her from the suffocating & melancholic weekends. But today she wanted to linger on, like a teenager who refused to see logic. All she wished for was either Manik to return so that she could take a leave from the school feigning sickness or the next five days to disappear somewhere to make way for the next weekend.

And then she heard the door bell ring. Almost leaping off her feet, she ran to open the door. Oh God, Manik was back!

Only that, it wasn't him because when she opened the door with a wide grin, she saw NEEL standing instead!

For a brief moment she was paralyzed, for this was the first time since she had shifted here that he had paid her a visit, but then , when she saw him eyeing her bare legs that Manik's shirt barely covered, she ran inside to put on the first thing she could lay her hands on.

"Ahem ahem, seems someone had a happening weekend, hmm? a stay-at-home-vacation was it? Had I known you were at home only, I would have come earlier" She could hear him from her bedroom. Before Manik's return, she had had many a heated conversations with Neel alone, but now, she suddenly felt so weak and vulnerable that she just wanted to stay locked inside the bedroom. But that was not going to happen and she would have to face him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Emerging from her bedroom, she charged him right away.

"Aree... why are you being so aggressive, I just came along to see ki how is MY FIANCEE doing after spending some COSY-COSY time with ANOTHER MAN!" That bloody sarcastic tone of his was so disgusting.

"Ohhh, I am doing good Neel, actually better than you might have expected. But, hold on, wasn't that your plan, didn't you wanna set me up with him so that you could SUCK some favours out of Manik??" She wasn't going to back off today. She wasn't going to be meek like she always had been.

But to her surprise, he started laughing. "And you think I am so dumb that I would believe that whatever you are doing, you are doing for me?"

"I didn't mean that, I just said that you chose the wrong guy this time, because ab aise kisi ke saath set up karoge to aisa hi hoga na... I mean tumne Manik ko thik se dekha bhi hai? Mujhe nahi lagta tumhe ek bhi aisi larki milegi who wouldn't fall for him and I am to a pretty ordinary kinda girl, u see. I JUST COULDN'T KEEP MY HANDS OFF HIM. He is tooo...ummm... you understand it right?"

Neel was actually experiencing third degree burns in multiple areas on his body. The more she praised Manik , the bigger of a dud he felt. But he would not let the fire spread to his brain because that's what she was trying to do. Rather it was time for him to drop the bomb.

"I understand, I...Perfectly...understand...Nandini. And I also understand that tiny bit of detail which you have conveniently kept away from me. You didn't tell me that you know this hottie from before and that you have had numerous cosy cosy sessions with him..." The smirk on his face reflected that he knew he had given her a killer punch. He was just eager to see its impact on her.

Nandini felt the ground beneath her feet slipping away. Bloody hell, how did he know? How? Who could have told him. She started cursing herself. Why did she have to be so bold and send him that text? She could have just acted meek till she had told Manik everything. Should she accept? Or try denial?

"What do you mean? Which past are you talking about? Are you on drugs or what?" She just hoped that her face didn't give in her blatant lie.

He laughed again, this time a roaring laugh. Nandini could not tolerate the look of his face, for that matter, she couldn't tolerate his existence. "You know what? I would have preferred to keep my sources secret, like I always do, but I just don't want to miss the fun of watching your face when I tell you that your entire family is a bloody group of idiots. Your Amms, the so called renowned music teacher sent me to you place in Mumbai. Then it was your chacha who got involved in that case and literally paved the way for me to marry you. How did he become an accountant man, he doesn't have a pea sized brain...and this time its your loud mouthed chachi, who in her love for her ex jamai, told me in clear terms how I am no one compared to your ex, that I don't deserve to be your husband...A tiny bit of instigation and her floodgates of hatred just opened." It wasn't the entire truth though. Because of Nyonika, he already knew that there was some connection between her and Manik but it was indeed Nandini's chachi who had given him the real details.

The day Nandini texted him that rude message, he hatched a plan. Citing some pending work to his manager, he took a two weeks deputation to Mumbai.

The first thing he did after landing was to go to Nandini's house and cook up a story about how Nandini was ignoring him since their engagement because they had had an argument. He told her that he was at fault and he didn't intend to hurt her but there was something that Nandini kept to herself and this something was making things difficult between them. He added more spice by asking if she was two timing him with any other guy. Chachi, did what anyone else in her position would have done. She blasted Neel for hurting Nandini and asking such a demeaning question and in her anger she somehow mentioned that Neel was a complete contrast to Manik, who never hurt her except that one last time.

One thing led to another and he sucked out as much information as he could from her. He now knew that Manik had left Nandini three years ago and that noone in Nandini's family knew that he was back.

'How on earth could chachi fall in his trap?' Nandini was mad at her. But on second thoughts. She couldn't save herself from falling into Neel's trap then how was she expecting her simple chachi to outsmart him. He was way more shrewder than she had given him credits for. The ball was no more in her court now so it had to be now or never.

"Good that you know that I and Manik have a history. I was anyways getting tired of this hide n seek thing. Ab to I will tell him every single thing, you just wait and watch. Abhi to tum usko thik se jante bhi nahi ho, tum ko nahi pata ki agar kisine mujhe haath bhi lagaya to Manik uska kya haal bana sakta hai. Sorry yeh information to chachi ke paas nahi hoga na. So go Neel Dixit, go and try your bloody luck."