Manik's POV

I had to put my thoughts into perspective. She was driving me insane and my friends wouldn't stop talking. I quietly slipped away knowing they were used to it and walked to my place. I call it my place because I think I am the only one who knows of this amazing passageway in the whole college, except for one peon. I had discovered it during one of those many days when I needed some alone time and instantly took to it. The grilled gate wasn't locked then and I bought a lock and key to keep intruders at bay

Speaking of intruders, here was one gorgeous one. Staring so cutely at me, trying to find a good enough reason for her being here. I was so surprised to find her here and that too on her first day! How on earth did she even find this place? Wait, was she following me? I was going to ask her that when she asked

"Excuse me, forget me. What are you doing here?"

What? Did she just ask me that..I don't need to tell her. But I think my tongue had developed a mind of its own and it just blurted out the truth. She seemed taken aback with my honest answer and I loved the effect I was having on her. But still needed to know how she got here

Finally she spoke up "I was just walking around and came across this place. Didn't mean to intrude. Sorry. But what is this place? Its so nice and peaceful here. I simply love it"

"Its my spot", my tongue continued to betray me "And I am not ready to share it with anyone, so please I want you to leave. I found it a long time ago, way before you came so technically it belongs to me" my tone rose.

Ok. Manik! Calm down. You are fiercely protective of this place and understandably but why are you being rude to her. But no, I just couldn't stop "Just leave and I don't want you to come back here ever again"

I saw her eyes widen in shock and she just said

"This is college property, Manik. It doesn't belong to you and if you want me to leave, you could have just asked politely. You don't have to be rude"

With that she just turned and left. And I kept staring at the place she stood, long after she was gone

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Nandini's POV

"Who the hell does he think he is?" I huffed and puffed as I walked down. "Who gave him the right to be so rude to me?"

Clearly I was a horrible judge of people. When I was staring at him earlier, I somehow thought of him to be a sensible fellow so this outburst was clearly unexpected. Well, good, it will help me in getting over him. I stormed my way to the canteen and spotting Abhimanyu and his gang of friends went over to them.

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Manik's POV

What just happened!? Did I just scream at her? AT HER? I shooed away the reason I had come to this passageway in the first place! And she is never going to speak to me again. Great going, Manik!

But then I needed her to understand the importance of this place in my life; the need for me to be alone; why it was so very critical in my life. Now, how was I going to ever explain that to her?