Daaru Badnaam

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Cabir wondered about the pot. "Yahi tho rakha hai maine, kahi aap ne...." Cabir looked at Manik suspiciously. "Cabir, I didn't drink" Manik said in his anticipation. "No, I didn't mean you drank it all I thought you disposed it off" Cabir said slowly. "No maine aisa kuch nahi kiya" said Manik. "Phir wo pot kaha gaayab hua?" Cabir wondered.

"Navya aur Nandini tum dono ki packing ho gayi tho meri bhi help kar dena please" Cabir requested them. "Acha hum tumhara help kyu kare?" Nandini asked him. "Kyunki har ek friend zaruri hota hai" Cabir said to Nandini. "Nandini, main Cabir ki packing mein help karungi tum jaake Manik sir ki help karona" Navya sent Nandini to Manik. "Wah Navya, kya jaadu kiya tumne, Nandini didn't say anything when you asked her to help Manik sir" Cabir patted Navya in appreciation. "Jaadu maine nahi isne kiya" Navya showed the pot to Cabir. He understood the whole story. "Do you mean to say that Nandini drank this?" Cabir asked her. "Ha, maine hi pilaya Nandini ko" Navya said. "But why are you also behaving so weird! Did you drink it too?" he asked her. "Ha Cabir, Nandini asked me to drink too, so maine ek hi sip liya" Navya stammered while she talked and she is about to fall when she turned around to Cabir.

"Ek sip! lagta hai tumne kuch zyada hi piya hoga" Cabir said preventing her from falling down. "I don't know Manik sir ka haalat kya hoga when he see Nandini in that condition" he wondered about Manik and Nandini. "Main help karu!" Nandini held Manik's hand while he is packing his bags. "Nandini! You here!" Manik asked her pleasantly. "Ha, main aapke help karne aayi hu" she said as cute as she could. Manik couldn't resist caressing her cheeks while she made cute faces. "I've almost finished my packing Nandini, but yeah thanks for the help" he said. Nandini took out the clothes from his bag. "I told you na that I will help you in packing, I will pack your things" she said unpacking his bag. "Nandini, ye tum kya kar rahi ho?" Manik tried to stop her but couldn't.

"Aap mujhe kyu humesha daant the ho! I feel so bad when you scold me" she said moving aside from his bag. "Agar aisa hi hai tho aap hi karlo apna packing, I'm not going to help you" she pouted. "Nandini, what happened? Tum aise kyu baat kar rahi ho?" he asked her but she didn't answer. He made her sit. "No Nandini, I don't want to hurt you too, and I'm sorry tum hi packing karlo" he said to her. She smiled and continued to pack his bag. She sees Nyonika's photo in Manik's bag. "Mumma ke photo ke bina aap kahi nahi jaoge kya!" she asked him. "Yeah, anyways you know na I'm a mumma's boy" he said. Nandini stumbled and Manik holds her. "I'm sorry, ye tho Navya ne kiya hai" Nandini said.

"Navya ne kya kiya?" Manik asked her and Nandini laughed without any reason. "Kya hua Nandini?" he asked. "Humko tum boys ka secret pata chal gaya hai, mujhe Navya ne bataya bhi" she said and he didn't understood. "Since we came here you and Cabir are always together and we knew it that something is cooking between both of you" she said and Manik remembered how Cabir is teasing him and kept saying that he loves Nandini. "Nahi Nandini, aisi baat nahi hai" he moved away from Nandini. "No, aisa hi hai, we knew that you both were planning to drink that juice villagers gave you" she said to him. "What! Did you drink that?" he asked her.

"Maine thoda sa pee liya Navya ne tho poora khatam kiya" she said laughing. "Thoda nahi lagta hai bahut zyada hi pee li ho tum" he said holding her. She turned around to look at him but Manik caught her from behind. "Kitna mazaa aa gaya ye juice peeke, I feel like I'm going round and round and round" she said looking around. "Nandini, wo juice nahi tha, it was white wine, maine Cabir ko mana kiya tum log kyu piya tha?" Manik asked her but she is not in a condition to pay attention to him. "Maine thoda sa hi pee liya, I'm sorry" she said and fell on him. "Nandini, stand up, get a grip on yourself" he said and made her stand straight.

All of a sudden, she hugged him tight and this startled him. "Listen, Manik, your heart beat, it's so magical" she said giggling like a baby and put her ear on his chest. "You must have heard many heart beats but yours is magical really, suno" she kept his hand on his chest and asked him to feel heartbeats. "Kaun hai isme rehne wali ladki" she points out to his heart. "Tum" he said and Nandini looked at him wide-eyed. "I mean tum hi find out karlo" Manik said. "I wish we had a diagnostic procedure for this too, kitna easy hoga na" she said and he nodded. "Why? What is the need to diagnose to know the person who is in your heart?" he asked her.

"Because we might not know who is there in our heart and we might not be always correct in guessing, I wish I could say you who is in my heart!" she said sadly moving away from him. He came closer to her and asked her, "What is stopping you then? Tell me". "How can I say that to you, tum tho sab ke liye bahut ache ho siwayi mere liye, mere liye tho tum monster Manik ho" she said. "Monster Manik!" he is confused. "Ha, monster Manik, you were really a monster. You were so mean to me initially, you made me do clinical work, you didn't believe me when I said I didn't harm Alya and you also..." she suddenly stopped talking. "Kya hua? I also...." he asked her to continue.

"You kissed me without my consent!" she said turning towards me. Manik tried to read her expressions but failed to do so. "I wanted to push you off, but maine aisa kuch nahi kiya tha, I don't know why, I still don't understand why did I kiss you back" a tear escaped from her eyes which she quickly wiped off. Manik wanted to apologize for his rude behavior. "Nandini, I'm sorry" he could not utter any words more than that. "Nandini, I don't know tum mere baare mein kya sochthe ho but I'm really sorry for my behavior, main aage se tumhe pareshan nahi karunga" Manik said with a heavy heart and was about to leave. "You asked me about the person in my heart and leaving before knowing my answer?" she asked and Manik tried to get away from her. "Aren't you going to ask me who's in my heart?" she asked him. "Maybe Siddharth" Manik said. "Yes, you were right, when I saw Siddharth and when I knew that he secretly admired me, I instantly liked him" Manik could not hear more than that. "But I have a strong intuition that Siddharth is not made for me, he is good and caring, whenever I think about him, it was you who always crossed my mind, somehow I couldn't take you off my brain" she said.

Manik is hell confused with her. "Why do you keep disturbing me? Why cant I stop thinking of you? Why do you always have to explain me about you and Alya? Why did you kiss me? Why are you being nice to me? At least I could have stopped thinking of you if you are the same old monster to me but no, you are no more behaving like that" she said. "I don't know who is in my heart, but you are the constant in my mind" she said. "And you know who is in my heart?" Manik asked holding Nandini. "Alya" she replied quick.

"Nahi, tum ho" he said. "You always made me think about you, and jo bhi sawaal tumne abhi mujhse poocha na, wo sab ki jawab ek hai, tum. You made me crazy about you, maine Pehle kabhi aisa nahi tha, I explained you about me and Alya because I don't want you to misunderstand us, I want to take care of you and I feel low when you ignore me" Manik said to explain her, "par ye sab tum nahi samjhogi" he said disappointed. "When I kissed you that day, I felt like there is no tomorrow, if I didn't kiss you that way, that feeling which I had never experienced earlier, shayad mere feelings tumhare liye confused hai but my intentions were never wrong" Manik said.

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Navya asked Cabir to play hide and seek with her. "Navya abhi ye khelne ka waqt nahi hai, and we are new to this place. You sleep now hum kal khelenge" he told her. "Nahi mujhe abhi khelna hai" she said stubbornly. "Ok but please idhar udhar mat jaana, issi test mein khelenge" he somehow made her agree with him. Cabir acted like he didn't see her and made her win many times and he is tired of playing now. "Navya, abhi bahut ho gaya, so jao" he asked her to sleep. "Thank you for playing with me Cabir, main bachpan main maa, papa ke saath aise hi khelti thi" she said with tears in her eyes.

"Aisi koi baat nahi hai Navya, we can play if you want to" he said consoling her. "You know, Harshad and me, we never played like this, he never behaved well with me, I realized Cabir ki main ek toxic relation se guzri thi" she said. "Navya, move on from your past, kab tak tum use yaad karti rahogi, let it go" he said. "I was a fool Cabir, uss Harshad ke liye, I left my mom and dad, and my mom died because of me and dad hates me now. I can't show my face to him ever again. Kyu ho raha hai ye sab mere life mein" she cried bitterly. Cabir hugged her and consoled her. She hugged him too. "Agar zindagi mein mere jaise dost ho tho sab kuch bula kar nayi zindagi ki shuruwat karna seekho" he said to her breaking the hug. Navya's eyes met his. Cabir looked at her and wiped off her tears. She came near him. Cabir did not move back and the next thing Navya did was unimaginable for Cabir. Navya softly placed his lips on his. Cabir is shocked and he couldn't react for a second. He never thought that something like this can happen between them.

Cabir broke the kiss and slapped Navya. "How dare you do this Navya?" he almost shouted on her while Navya fell down as he slapped her.

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