It felt like calm before the storm, it did not matter how long Annika stared at him, he did not vanish. She was scared if she looked away, he might really go away. But why did it matter to her if he did go away? No, she didn't care a bit about him, she couldn't. With a slight tilt of head, Annika looked at him and yet there he was, staring back her with those blue eyes of his, the eyes that haunted her now.

If Annika would undo one thing in her past life, it would be the where she started falling for him, maybe she did regretted loving him, after all her heart had been broken by the person whom she valued the most. "Annika Didi, are you alright?" Rudra asked, breaking her attention away from the blue eyed beast. That is when Rudra had looked at the direction where Annika was looking at.

"Shivaay Bhaiya?" It had been a surprise for Rudra, his emotions were mixed. It did not take Rhea long time to recognize that face, it was the multi-billionaire business man, Shivaay Singh Oberoi. Annika watched him advance towards them. No, she needed to go from here and so she did, leaving behind a confused Rhea and Rudra who had half knowledge about things.

She certainly did not miss the way the Shivaay looked at her, his face held emotions she wouldn't figure out. His blue eyes reminding her of all the times they had been together and the way he would usually stare at her. His face was no more the same, the face she had fallen in love with was different from this one. Shivaay had grown a beard now, his hair no longer messy and his face, it was more masculine now.

Annika walked down to the first level of the ship, chanting one thing in her head - it is all okay, you got this. But did she? "Chikoo, where are you going?" Ayaan who had been taking pictures of himself stopped to see Annika walking by so he caught her by the arm. "He- he, he is back Bhaiya" Annika's breaths were heaving with each passing second and sweat beads forming on her neck.

"Chikoo, breathe, who is back?" Annika had opened and closed her mouth several times by now but no words said. Ayaan had concern written all over his face as he stared at her sister who was on verge of having a panic attack. "Annika, relax, breathe in, breathe out. Count till ten with me" Ayaan kept both his hands on her shoulder making her look at him.

Ayaan started to count the numbers and Annika slowly uttered them under her breathe, taking a peak behind Ayaan every second to make sure he wasn't coming her way. Annika and Ayaan stopped counting and she felt much calmer than before but still her mind wasn't at ease.

"Tell me, what happened?" Ayaan asked calmly, his hands still firm on her shoulders. "He, Shivaay. He is back" Ayaan frowned, he was here? Where, Ayaan searched for him by looking back among the bunch of people. "Where Annika? Tell me exactly"

"On the second level, he is there with Rudra" Annika answered while keeping her voice low. Her mind was jumbled with thoughts, no, she wasn't afraid to face him. It was the fact that he brought back sorrowful memories she was trying to get rid off. Ayaan looked back at his sister to find her trembling. "Listen Chikoo, stay here, alright? Don't go anywhere. I will come back to you soon. I am sending Gauri here, wait" Ayaan dialed Gauri's number immediately.

Annika watched Ayaan move some centimeters away from her to talk to Gauri. She had always thought about this moment, meeting Shivaay while having a cold face with no emotions. She wasn't prepared for this - to see him out of nowhere. Annika was afraid that he had known how weak she was and how much effect he had on her. She could imagine him wearing a smug smile on his face while he would watch her tremble in front of her.

"Annika, hey" It was Gauri who had bow stood beside her. She was concernedly looking at Annika. "I'm  alright Gauri, don't stress" With a weak smile Annika told. She had to stay strong, for herself. "Are you sure, if you want I - "

"It's really fine Gauri. I- I'm really alright now"Gauri knew she was lying, how could she not know? She also knew deep down inside Annika was slowly crumbling. Her heart pained to see her best friend this way, so helpless, she wished to take it away, all of her pain.

Annika had silently stood near the railing with Gauri beside her as they both looked at the sea ahead. The ship had now started to sail which meant that there was no way now Shivaay could go back. "Tell me, why is that jerk here? He wasn't mentioned in the list then why did he come all the way from London to Mumbai, to this trip? Does he want to make my life more miserable? Isn't he satisfied with what he did four years back?"

Annika did not wanted to open her mouth and speak so loudly but she did and now she was regretting when she found some heads looking at her way. Gauri closed her eyes shut, the pain her voice was evident and she could not bear it when a drop of tear escaped Annika's eye.

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For next hour, Gauri had tried her best to take Annika's mind off but it was like a tape recorder stuck in the cassette deck. Nothing she could do was able to distract her, it felt like a disappointment to Gauri. There was no trace of Om, Rudra, Aryan and Ayaan while Rhea had gone down inside one of the room on the level zero to meet her cousin.

For some split of seconds, Annika wanted to stand in front of him and yell at him that she doesn't care about him anymore but then wouldn't that be a big lie? It was frustrating for Annika to even think about how she was she going to bear him during this entire trip. Wasn't this trip supposed to take her mind off and not make her life more stressful? "Hey, Aryan is here" Gauri said, eyes fixed on Aryan as he came towards the two of them.

"Chikoo, listen to me. Alright, just trust me, I won't let him come near you not now, never. Ayaan and I have talked to him and made it clear that he isn't supposed be in your three meter radius. We got our eyes on him, alright, so just relax" Aryan had tried his best to make her understand but knowing Annika, he knew she was just lost in her own thoughts.

Ayaan came from behind, is mood seemed awful. The anger evident on his face. "Don't you worry chikoo, we are all here for you. Let me see how Shivaay Singh Oberoi comes near you" Ayaan said in a high voice. Sighing, Annika nodded her head at him, if the two of them were here for her, maybe she had nothing to fear.

"Now come on, let's go explore the ship" Aryan grabbed Annika's wrist and lead her towards the opposite direction while Ayaan and Gauri followed from behind.

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Aryan had patted his own back when he was able to bring a smile on Annika's face, seeing her so lost and distant from past two hours was the hardest time for him. It took him everything to not go ahead and land a punch on Shivaay's face. Talking to him wasn't difficult, not when he himself admitted that he had no intention to get closer to her.

It was a relief for Aryan to hear that. Whilst Ayaan had grabbed his collar and raised his fist in the air to beat him up but Aryan stopped him. Omkara had stood there, his mind was a complete mess, he hadn't known that his brother was coming back and it was a shock for him. Rudra who never knew what exactly went down with Shivaay and Annika, was solemnly confused.

"No, I don't like this picture, click another" Annika complained while looking at her own self. Aryan nodded his head and directed her to stand some distance away so that he would click her picture.

"How's this?" Aryan handed over the camera to Annika to give her a peek of the picture. "This is good. Thankyou Aryan Bhaiya" Annika said with a smile. Aryan couldn't be more happier to see Annika smiling.

"Om, can you not just increase the brightness and click my picture properly? These all photos are so dark" Gauri whined like small child and Omkara frowned, to him, the photos looked very good, why was she complaining then? Girls, he thought.

Rudra sat down beside Annika who was busy putting up story on instagram. "Didi, let's take selfie" Said Rudra and Annika nodded at him. Opening the camera and raising her arm in the air to click picture of both of them when her eyes caught the sight of him. Gulping down, Annika adjusted the phone in her hand so as to remove him from the camera frame.

It did not take her much time to click a selfie with Rudra. "Hey guys, meet Sammer" Rhea had grabbed the attention of everyone by talking out a little loud. Heads turning at the direction of where Rhea was standing. Sammer waved his hand at everyone little awkwardly but what caught his attention was the pair of black eyes that stared at him intensely, so as he knew was of Ayaan.

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I know most of you have so many questions but I swear, all of your confusion will be cleared very soon. I am certainly not satisfied with how I wrote this chapter and the more time I read this chapter, the more I hate it.  :-\\