Third Person's POV

Lying on her bed, Naina stares up at the ceiling. Her heart feeling too heavy, and her eyes red-rimmed due to the continuous crying.

She has been through so much in her life. She has suffered the pain of loss, the pain of humiliation, and the pain of injustice done to her brother and her family. So much so that she, at one point, had given up on happiness. She had even accepted that pain and the sadness would forever remain a part of her life.

Yes, she had the mission of proving Naveen's innocence. She had the mission of getting back her family's honor and reputation. Other than that, she had nothing else to look forward to.

But that outlook of hers had changed when she met Rajveer.

After meeting him, she changed bit by bit.

She started trusting again, she started smiling again, and she started being happy again.

She had fallen head over heels in love with Rajveer. Even trusted him blindly. She believed that, no matter what, he would never let her down.

Their closeness, their intimacies provided her the peace, the warmth, the happiness, everything.

With all that happening between them, she turned optimistic.

She begun to feel the happiness would again return in her life.

She genuinely believed that once they proved Naveen's innocence, they could finally be fully happy in their life with each other.

She had even started dreaming of their life together.

But he crushed all those dreams by betraying her.

He snatched all her happiness by lying to her.

He brutally smashed all her optimism by hiding the most significant truth of her life.

He pushed her back to that abyss of sadness and loneliness by breaking her trust.

She takes deep breaths to lessen the overwhelming pain that courses her whole being.

She is feeling as if one half of her heart has been ripped off from her chest, leaving her other half to bleed and hurt.

"Why did you do it, Rajveer? Why?" She closes her eyes to let the tears fall.

She loved him from all her heart. She still loves him.

How can she ever un-love him?

She knows she cannot. And she will not deny too.

She loves Rajveer Singh Shekhawat, but she also hates him.

'Is it possible to love and hate the same person simultaneously?' She wonders with tears pouring out of her eyes.

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The next day, Rajveer is going to the academy ground to conduct the cadets' drill when he sees Abhimanyu walking toward him.

"Did you find the address where you had mailed that package, Abhi?" He asks Abhimanyu after making sure there is no one around to overhear their conversation.

"I called my informers this morning, Raj. They told me they are still checking all the records of that post office.

"Since that package was mailed four years back, they told me they would need some more time to find its details. After all, they will have to go through many records registers of that post office," Abhimanyu replies.

"Ok, then, Abhi. I will see you later. I am going to the ground to conduct the drill."

Rajveer is about to leave from there when Abhimanyu stops him.

"Raj, you have not asked me about Malini ever since I came here. Are you not curious about how she is doing?" Abhimanyu asks.

Rajveer sighs, shaking his head.

He had purposefully not asked about Malini because he did not want to add more bitterness between him and Abhi and make their friendship more strained than it already is.

"How is your wife, Abhi? I hope you two are happy in your married life."

"She is happy, Raj. Far happier than she would have been with you. You see, after marrying me, she is living the life of a princess. And we are welcoming our little prince into our life soon. Malini is pregnant," Abhimanyu says, feeling smug about his richness and impending fatherhood.

Rajveer ignores Abhimanyu's jabs and focuses on the good news instead.

"Congratulations, Abhi. I am sure you will be a wonderful father. And please, give my congratulations to Malini too," Rajveer tells Abhimanyu, feeling genuine happiness for him.

Seeing Rajveer smile, Abhimanyu feels confused.

He, to this date, has been thinking that Rajveer, too, had some feelings for Malini as she used to have for him.

But seeing the unfazed happiness for him and Malini on Rajveer's face, he wonders if he had been wrong about this.

He wonders if Rajveer had been telling the truth all along about him never liking Malini in that way.

"Thank you, Raj. I am glad to see you happy for us. No other man would be happy hearing that the woman who he used to like is now pregnant with another man's child." Abhimanyu throws another shade at Rajveer, curious to see how he will react.

Rajveer takes a deep breath to control the annoyance rising within him due to Abhimanyu's taunts.

He has been telling since day one that he never considered Malini anyone more than his batchmate. She was not even his friend.

But no matter how many times he says it, Abhi does not believe it.

"What is your problem, Abhi? I have told you that I never saw Malini in that light. I never even interacted properly with her in the academy.

"You are now happily married to her, Abhi. Why can't you let go of the past?" Rajveer asks, exasperated with the way Abhimanyu is still stuck in the bitterness of their past.

"I am holding on to it because I have gone through it, Raj. You do not know how it feels to be the second choice of a girl you love.

"You do not know how it feels to think that your wife might be comparing you with someone she used to like in her past. You do not know how it feels to be insecure when all these thoughts begin to cloud your mind," Abhimanyu says, his eyes reflecting the anguish he has been feeling for the past few years.

"What do you want me to do then, Abhi? What can I do to convince you that there is no need to be insecure or feel inferior about anything?"

"Let us have a match of sword fighting then. You always used to beat me when we were cadets all those years back. Let's see if you are still better at it."

Abhimanyu smirks at Rajveer, knowing he will win the match.

After all, he has been training in swordsmanship ever since he graduated.

He used to burn in jealousy every time Rajveer beat him in a sword fight when they were cadets.

Since then, he had a goal of outmatching Rajveer in everything he is good at, and sword fighting can be a good start.

If he beats Rajveer at this and many other things too, maybe then he will start to come out of this inferiority complex that he has due to Rajveer. Perhaps then he will begin to let go of his past. Maybe then he will stop feeling insecure about Rajveer being Malini's first choice.

"We both are adults now, Abhi. I am sure we can resolve our issues with our maturity and not by sword fighting." Rajveer tries to reason with his friend.

He feels like nothing good will come out of this match of sword fighting.

He does not know if he will win or lose. It will not matter to him if Abhimanyu beats him. But if Abhimanyu lost this time too, his resentment and bitterness would only increase.

"Why, Raj? There can only be two reasons for you not agreeing to the match. Either you are scared that I will beat you, or you think that you are so better than me that you would beat me, and that would make things only worse between us," Abhimanyu said to Rajveer.

Sighing hearing Abhimanyu's words, Rajveer finally relents. "Ok, Abhi. Let's have a match, then."

He has now realized that Abhimanyu will not believe him no matter what he says or does.

Still, he hopes that a day will come when Abhimanyu will realize he is his friend, not his competitor.

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All the faculty members and cadets are gathered around the academy hall, excited to see the sword-fighting match between Abhimanyu and Rajveer.

Naina is also in the crowd along with her friends.

"Oi Yudi, do you want to place a bet? Rajveer Sir will win this match," Huda says.

"Of course, Rajveer Sir will win. I too am rooting for him. So, I am definitely not going to bet against Rajveer Sir," Yudi replies.

"I am sure all the cadets here are rooting for Rajveer Sir. He is the best, after all," Ali adds.

"Correct. Rajveer Sir is the best model phone with the best features. No one can beat him," Pooja says, and all the boys nod.

Aalekh, however, was observing Naina.

He has been noticing her changed behavior ever since they returned after their last exercise of transferring the nuclear trigger.

He has a feeling that something happened between Rajveer Sir and Naina that day.

"Rajveer Sir is indeed the best. Right, Naina?" He asks her, wanting to see what her reply to that question would be.

"No one in this world is the best, Aalekh. Not even Captain Rajveer," Naina amswers, and he frowns, hearing the subtle anger in her voice.

'What happened between them that day?' Aalekh wonders, looking at Naina thoughtfully, intending to find out about it soon.