Nandini reels from the shock of seeing manik, of all people, standing in front of her. He cocks his head sideways, taunting her like the bully that he is.
Manik: "do you need help carrying your bags? Oh I forgot that you swore up and down never to receive any of my help. But if you want I can still help you"
All she can do is shake her head at him, and then privately freak out over this unfortunate series of events.
The family sits down, and starts talking. Nyonika and Sanjana talk about there memories and there closeness.
Nandini and manik enter inside with nandini carrying her bags. Sanjana looks at her in disbelief as she knows that no matter what happens nandini tries avoiding asking for help. Nandini comes in and sits next to sanjana. Manik comes behind and sit next to his dad.
Sanjana (whispers in nandini's ear): " nandini manik tumharay school mein study karta hai na? is he disliked at school, supposing that people don't like his prickly personality and the way he looks down on others."
Nandini can't disagree, so she smiles awkwardly.
Nyonika: "ow beta come I show you my mansion"
Nyonika takes nandini upstairs. She takes nandini to one of the rooms
Nyonika: "beta tum takhi takhi si lag rahi ho. Tum araam karo or you can freshen up." By saying this she leaves nandini alone. Nandini can't believe her eyes. The room was beautiful. The walls were painted white with floor being tiled with black. The floor was clear and polished. The furniture was white with the cupboard being black and the dressing table white. She was awestruck by the rooms beauty. She pushed aside her thoughts and decided to freshen up. She came back and sat down on the bed. She starts thinking about maniks behaviour towards her.
That sends her into a fantasy tirade Matrix-style, where she accosts manik with two pink pillows, dressed in black patent leather from head to toe. She pillow-attacks him till he bleeds and cowers in fear, all the while taking out her aggression on the pillows in her room, shouting, "Well I hate smart guys like you!" At that moment, manik steps in the room breaking her trance.
Manik: "mom just told me to tell you that today you are staying here." And he walked out
Nandini's pov:
aiyappa His parents are perfectly friendly people. His mother, she's so welcoming and cheerful. The same is his dad but look at him he is monster manik.
End of pov
The next morning she can't believe she's having breakfast with manik, as he continues to look at her with disdain. He does seem fixated on her though, despite his cries for her to leave him alone. He may look down on her, but he's definitely feeling her presence keenly.
He abruptly gets up to go to school early, making nandini chase after him, since she doesn't know the way to school from his house. She catches up to him, crashing into his back when he stops.
He looks at her like she's a fly, announcing that they can walk to school together just this once, and tells her not to start any rumors at school. On second thought, to pretend she doesn't even know him. He makes her walk a few paces behind him too.
Nandini sneers at him from behind, swears welling up, as she calls him a jerk under her breath: "Finally! Hello, backbone! Nice to see you!" She says bitterly.
Manik comes to a full stop on the way to school, insisting that she walk ahead of him, since her legs are short and she can't keep up. She hmphs at the insult and walks on ahead, and manik takes note of a trenchcoat pervert hiding in the bushes.
At school, nandini frets over the midterm buisness test that she has to ace, and decides that she'll make the class proud and conquer it.
Nandini stays behind at school, studying till late, which is unusual for her, or anyone in her class. She peeks into maniks special study hall, reserved for the top fifty students, and witnesses the special treatment that they get, like A/C and their own computers. She looks at the placement chart, sighing that she's got quite the distance to travel, from last to first.
After some while she thinks that manik is still there, waiting to walk back home with her so decides to wrap up and go.
But manik is sitting peacefully at home, until Mom asks why he came alone, when nandini is unfamiliar with these streets and there are crazy people about. Manik remembers the trenchcoat pervert, and starts to get a little worried as he sits outside. Exclaiming how annoyed he is, he heads out.
Sure enough nandini encounters the trenchcoat man on her way home. He's quite the bumbling flasher, and resorts to begging her to look, just once. She loses her shoe in an attempt to get around him, so he picks up the shoe and takes off running.
She gives chase, wanting her precious gift from maniks mom back, so finally they strike a deal—he'll promise to give the shoe back if she promises to look, just once, to which she agrees.
She asks for a moment to prepare, and Trenchcoat starts to unbutton his jacket...
...and just as opens up his coat to flash her, manik appears behind her, putting his hand over her eyes. He turns her around to face him. She's stunned when she realizes what's happening, as her heart starts to race.
Manik gives chase and Trenchcoat instantly lands on his knees, begging not to be reported since he's new at this and has a family. He swears never to do it again. Manik gets nandini shoe back, and lets the man go.
He returns her shoe like a proper prince, and nandini asks if he came out to look for her, because he was worried. He claims it was to go to the convenience store.
Nandini: "But the timing was so perfect."
manik: "That's just my bad luck."
She smiles, and scurries behind him all the way home.
Nandini stays up late in an attempt to study, but can't get past the first pages of any of her books. nyonika comes in with a late night snack, wanting to bond with her, so they look at baby pictures of her, and then manik.
nyonika confesses: "I so wanted a little girl so badly that i raised manik like a girl when he was little, but then eventually had to fess up when we were found out at a community swimming pool. Manik was apparently scarred from that as a child. I think that maybe this has something to do with why he's so cold now. he thinks all these pictures were burned, but i still got the negatives, so i held onto them." Nandini smiles deviously to herself.
The next day at school she can't stop laughing over last night's discovery. Just then, manik appears in the doorway of her classroom, motioning for her to come out. With everyone looking on, he tells her to come outside with her gym clothes. She doesn't know what's up, but she complies, and realizes when she takes them out of her bag that their clothes have been switched.
With the entire class watching them from the window, they go outside and exchange gym clothes. Nandini takes this opportunity to go in for the kill.
nandini: "Why didn't you just wear them? You should be used to girls' clothes by now." And with that, she takes out the picture of him as a little girl.
All of a sudden his calm exterior disappears, as he frantically chases her up and down and around a tree, desperate to get that picture out of her hands. He finally pins her against the tree, at which soha and harshad both freak out from their window. They had a cute eyelock to which manik comes out from first. Manik started coming closer to her. Nandinis heartbeats were increasing each passing second. All of sudden she pushed him. After much chasing and hullabaloo, nandini finally tells him he can have the picture back, but at a price.
Nandini: "tutor me for the upcoming exam."
Manik: "it's in a week's time, and i am not a god. I will be a fool to help you, since I will be the one who will lose the bet, and then have to piggyback you too."
Nandini: "i will take the piggyback off, if you agree to help me, the bet is off. I will resolved my feelings for you, and have no desire whatsoever to be piggybacked by you.
Manik: "Oh, really?" he challenges her, leaning in close, within kissing distance...
Everyone at the window gasps...
Manik: "...and then we cut away. Wha?? Why are we cutting away? Listen, in my old-school vocabulary, cutting away in that moment means...... " And Then They Kissed. They broke there kiss and started panting heavily. After few mins Nandini realised what happens and ran away. Every student was gossiping about them.
At home, manik and nandini begin their study sessions. The parents are shocked and pleased. It goes about as well as can be expected, with manik babbling on and on about log x and binary code, and nandini making moon eyes at him.
At one point he snarks that it's amazing how much she doesn't know, and nandini counters with, "Do you know everything? Do you know who these people are?" She holds up a picture of Super Junior, rattling off their names one by one. She adds that it's simply that their interests vary; that's all.
She plasters post-its all over the house and loses sleep, earning dark circles and the worry of her friends. Manik looks over at her, impressed that she's finally learned to concentrate. He cracks a smile.
He falls asleep while waiting for her to finish her practice test, and she thanks him sweetly for helping her, if only because he can't hear her. Nyonika comes by later with snacks, and walks in to find them both asleep at the desk together. She squeals from the cuteness, whispering, "awesome!" while running to get her camera.
When they get to school on test day, manik throws her a nonchalant, "Do well," as he walks into class, startling nandini but making her smile. She takes the test and when the results go up, she goes straight to look at maniks score, relieved that he still scored perfectly, despite losing sleep that week to help her.
Manik, on the other hand, goes right up to check on nandini's scores first. Oh, you two. He walks away, and nandini catches up to him, telling him that he did a good job. He congratulates her too, which is when she runs over to see that she did actually make it—50th place, earning her a spot in the special study hall.
She runs over to him, so happy and grateful, that when he sticks out his hand, she mistakes it for a handshake. She shakes his hand up and down, thanking him profusely. He pulls away asking what she's doing, and tells her he's waiting for her to hand it over...the picture. He snatches it out of her hand and warns her not to tell anyone and walks away.
Too happy to have her mood killed, she shouts at him, "Thank you!" He smiles, with his back turned away from her.
But just before he can get away, nandini's teacher calls him out for the bet—the one to piggyback nandini if she scored in the top fifty. Nandini tries to explain that the bet was called off, but the teacher goes on and on about how proud she is, and how he can't go back on his word. He tries to ignore her, but then she starts chanting, "Piggy-Back! Piggy-Back!" and all the students join in.
Manik looks back at nandini incredulously, as she tries to indicate that this isn't her idea...
Will he? Won't he?
What's a girl gotta do for a piggyback ride?