Last two updates mein maine aapko bohot rula diya kya? :(

Thank you for the love and bombarding comments about Manik's dhakkan mind :P I love reading, replying and vibing with them!

I could not stop myself from writing this part ASAP, I think you'll find out why soon enough :")

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He drew small circles on her cheek, edging forward and leaning in against his rationale to connect with them. Once, just once, he promised to himself. Then, when her eyes angrily stared down at his hand on her cheek, a fuse blew out within. Manik gulped down his nervousness, anticipating another whiplash of a punch gracing the other side of his jaw.

Instead she cried, that she could not do it anymore. His nose bled a drop for the tear she could not hold back.

Antsy at both the cry and the confession, Manik sniffled and carefully ran his hand along the perimeter of her face, in the same way he soothed Adira when she was deeply upset about something and had chosen him to complain about it to, "Kya nahi hoga, Nandini?"

"That change... it's not enough to make you want to leave this life behind you... hai na?" She felt compelled to voice her hope. Because his touch was so gentle, so deeply comforting that Nandini could have sworn if the circumstances were even slightly different, she would not even think twice about picking a side. By his, that would be the most obvious one... to follow the senseless organ in her chest.

For several moments after the question had left her, both of them remained quiet. Nandini had not wanted to interrupt his train of thought, or downplay the significance of her concern, by rephrasing or elaborating on what she meant. On purpose, she had left the interpretation of it open to his judgment. He could say whatever was on his mind surrounding the topic.

But he didn't. It was clear to him from the get-go what Nandini wanted from a partner; from their first date seven months ago, she was woman of virtue, the kind that strongly followed a moral compass, not one who dealt with or consumed hard substances with a potential to kill.

She desired fulfilling relationships, not flings like every other woman he had been with.

Smoking and drinking were frowned-upon behaviours in her world; in his, they were an essential distraction from the imminent danger they were surrounded with on the regular.

If anything, on paper, he and she were the most incompatible pair to ever exist... in the history of all criminals and civilians... of all time.

His silence echoed with it a meaning louder than any words that could escape his lips, and so Nandini felt utterly ashamed of herself. After all that time, she still hoped, even if it was only an empty reassurance like every other white-faced lie he had told her. For the first time, his lie could have hurt her less, she realised. "Forget that I even asked."

How... how could he stop those tears of hers?

"I can't," He blurted, but her mute stare as she waited for more had him rethinking his choices of words. Because I have to be there with my friends. For my friends. To protect them, he wanted to say but in doing so, he would have to succumb her to more pain. The pain of refusing unconditional care like hers. He lacked the courage to break her heart yet another time.

The very next moment, she peeled herself away, and her lower jaw wobbled.

It shattered him into a million pieces. He stumbled to his feet, watching her back as she walked away from him. The sight of her leaving on a note – or under the impression – that even her biggest sacrifices were not enough to win him over was unbearable, especially because he had decided one night seven months ago that she was going to be the end of him, and nothing had changed in his heart since.

Just like the reality of their relationship, and the several factors that both determined and tested it, remained constant. "I can't give you what you want." It made Nandini stop in her tracks.

He bridged the gap with a step. "Realistically, there is no world in which I can live with you, I know that, and I'm sure you do too," Nandini craned her neck, slowly swivelling to face him, "...by now that regardless of what I do, how I act, this world... it won't give me a chance."

Every job he looked for, every place he went to, would run multiple background checks on him. Any place or person wary of his trust would require people to vouch for his character. He could not just walk out of everything that sustained him for over half a decade without a second thought... without consequences.

A tear dropped on her cheek, acting as a wakeup call to finally realise everything she had done for him had indeed amounted to nothing. She gave it, and him, her everything... it was still not enough.

"Don't say anything more," she uttered, shielding herself from him by turning away from him.

That was the only time it mattered, what he had to say. He could not let the opportunity pass.

"Don't make me lie to you and say I can go back to a life without you."

Nandini turned, "Why not, Manik?"

"Because I... I can't live without you, Nandini. I can breathe, I can survive but I can't live... and I know I can't be selfish and ask you to choose me when I..." have given you so many reasons not to, he wanted to say.

"Nandini!" came Navya's voice as a gate creaked open in the distance.

Startled, Nandini and Manik looked each other in the eyes, horrified by their series of intimate conversations that until then seemed dream-like to both of them. Never in a million years did they think they would ever get into a position where either of them would be discussing their future with one another, but there they were... laying it all out in the open for a reality that could never be theirs.

Their return to normalcy followed a series of emotions that over poured and crucial decisions that were made in haste.

She quickly wiped her cheeks and enforced a reasonable gap between herself and the man before her, who was irritably shoving his arms into the sleeves of his blazer... as if he had been cockblocked in an extremely private moment with his lover and hence had to separate and pretend nothing ever happened while channeling his frustration someplace else.

The door busted open, and in the light that shone through the doorway, two females appeared.

"Nandu!" Navya alarmed, and as Soha entered the scene, all three friends were stunned to see each other. Navya rushed to Nandini's side, and dabbed her dupatta on her friend's puffy cheeks. "Hey Matarani! Tumhe kuch hua toh nahi?" She quickly scanned her friend, dressed in a suspicious red buttoned-up shirt that was unnaturally at least a couple sizes bigger than her, but pulled her into a tight, slightly uncomfortable hug.

Red. Soha could not help but remember an incident from seven months ago, on Nandini's first date with the first man she ever developed an interest for, insisting that she wear something red. She shrugged the thought.

When those two parted, Soha came over and ran a hand behind Nandini's head protectively. "Thank God! We all lied to your Chacha-Chachi, and if something happened to you, that guilt..." It was like she was an older sister, who had to take the blame for... or cover for... a younger sibling who had done something mischievous against strict orders.

Soha shook at the mere idea of all the terrible things that could have happened with her, or with them if Cabir and Alia had not returned.

Those two had left the girls at an unfamiliar petrol station to use the bathroom and had disappeared in thin air upon their return. Panic-stricken, the girls fearfully thought of alternative measures to get either back home, or to their best friend whom they had come out to look for in the first place.

Her phone carrier was not even pinging. Either she was in an area with low connectivity or her cell was actually switched off.

Feeling a naturally greater sense of responsibility for both her friends, Soha quickly suggested that she and Navya remain at all times within camera range of the petrol station's CCTV system. No matter what they did, they needed to be seen if they wanted to be alive and get to Nandini.

They walked around in circles from one pump to the other, and then the linked convenience while thinking of a way to get in touch with their friend.

Just then, the expensive car that dropped them screeched to a halt outside the range they had planned to remain in. That made them second-guess those people in the vehicle.

"Hurry up and get in, we don't have all night for you two!" Cabir rushed.

Navya urgently moved in the direction while Soha clasped one of her wrists. She tugged her back. "No, we're not coming with you. If you left us once, you most likely will leave us again."

Alia, who was filing her nails with a mini metal slate she carried in her purse, blew on them and looked at them from a distance. What colour could she get them painted? Maybe red... to contrast their usual black-themed clothing.

After taking the important life decision, she bitterly said to Soha, "If you think I'm going to be so stupid and linger around, playing reverse psychology tricks with the cops, you're highly mistaken."

Not wanting to start trouble with the only sane girl amongst them all, Cabir explained, "Soha, ab behas karne ka time nahi hai, didn't you see the cop? Hume jaana hoga abhi!"

"Not until we know where, and why."

"That's our house." He snapped, "We used to live there."

"So?"

"So... we need to get there before the cops loot it, are you really so dense or what?" Alia snapped.

Soha twinged her eyebrows in confusion, neither their justifications nor Cabir's agitation making any sense to her. Why would the cops do something as sinister as that without a reason, and why were those guys evading the cops?

It made sense for the middle-class Mangalorean girls to have a one-sided opinion on the city police. They lacked the money to buy their way in or out of crimes. Why did Cabir, driving a Mercedes that all the cars at the petrol bunk combined could not outperform in value, have to worry about any of that?

Regardless, they hopped in on Navya's insistence and they were glad they did so. Because that car ride led them directly to this dingy mansion, and their best friend... who was safe.

One of the light switches in the hall were triggered, revealing another muscular male's presence in the room. Eyes popped out of Soha's sockets.

So did Cabir's, who was by the light switch, finding Manik raising an arm to block the light rays.

Navya, on the other hand, was incensed by him. "TUM?" She protectively pulled her friend behind her, and barricaded Nandini, who was also squinting at the sudden illumination, from the raakshas. "Keede padenge tumhe, keede, samajh rahe ho?! Iss duniya ki saari bimaariyan –"

His arm lowered from his face, exposing the deep cut along the edge of his lip.

"Navya... rehne do," Nandini urgently injected, rubbing the tip of her inflamed nose with an enclosed fist that was completely swallowed by Manik's red sleeve cuff. As she distracted herself with that action, she mildly recognised his amusement as Nandini abruptly cut the scoldings he was receiving... as if protecting him from her friend's verbal onslaught. "Usne haath nahi lagaaya," she completed.

After the moment they had just shared, kisike itne kareeb hokar bhi she could not wholeheartedly trust him, but she had begun to understand him: dheere dheere hi sahi. He had not harmed her, or anyone undeserving of such pain. He was still a criminal, no doubt about it, but she was no longer taking it at face value.

Being a criminal could mean a variety of things, depending on the degrees of pain they inflicted or crimes they partook in. He was a criminal who also did drugs, her mind reminded, that usually meant they also dealt.

That part of her, that had seen a vulnerable shade to him as he resorted to some substances earlier, deduced that he needed a break from the constant reminders of his terrible actions and their consequences.

She was sure she could make him understand how wrong he truly was, and the responsibility to incite such a realisation, she willingly bore on her shoulders.

Another woman who lived her life like a fashion influencer came through the door with her high heels, breaking the joy of the newly united friend group. Nandini frowned, leaning into Soha who moved to on the other side of Nandini. "What's Alia Saxena doing here?"

"She's this goofy guy's friend," She replied, pointing her thumb sideways at the obnoxious man who somehow grew tolerable over the last hour of being in a car with him. That was a story for later, she had more pressing things to address. "But forget about her, are you sure you're okay?" Turning Nandini towards herself, she sunk her friend's defeated appearance as she was wearing a shirt that was supposed to be a man's.

Analysing the woody cologne as a rather recent trace of it being used by someone else, Soha put her money on the theory that not long ago, the garment had probably been on the blazered man's body. A protective instinct within her scrutinised for any visible sign of something inappropriate having happened between them, but the way Nandini was hugging herself in the shirt seemed to suggest otherwise.

So if Nandini willingly had taken it from him, what could have possibly been the reason for that?

She hoped it was nothing sinister; both her friends had been through enough already because of their wrong choices in men. As she further studied his avoidant gaze from Nandini's frame dressed in his shirt, she silently approved that was a respectable man at least in that context.

"Dekho, it's fine if you're not, haan? Don't just say something for our sake." She uttered gently, tapping Nandini's chin.

The traces of swollen eyes and dried cheeks really bothered Soha.

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I'm beyond excited for my girls to finally be together and also... everyone coming together!

I don't know, my heart is just a simp for anything to do with Fab 5 or NH3 rivalry, or even them all keeping their differences aside and coming together ;")

It's here! It's happening! NOW, everything you have wished for to read in this story, drop them down! I already have some notes planned on what cute scenes to include but your input is appreciated!

As always, keep loving and keep smiling! Please share your feedback in the form of votes and comments wherever possible, it helps this story reach a wider audience <3

Thank you for everything!