Chapter 1

"Nandini," he exhaled as relief washed over him. Embracing her into his arms, he let the anger drain out of his system that was directed to both Alya and Mukti. Only he knew what he had gone through in the past few hours when he was told that his best friend was nowhere to be found. His vulnerability reached a different height when all his attempts to contact her, failed. His life had almost toppled upside down with the mere information.

"Manik," she mumbled into his ears, while he kept his firm hold on her, scared that she might slip out of his grip and disappear. Unwilling to go through the helplessness that he had felt for hours that had seemed like eternity to him, he dropped his head into the crook of her neck and inhaled the freshness of the mild fragrance that it held.

She sighed under his hold and wrapped her arms around him. "Happy Birthday, Manik," she softly voiced, running her fingers through his unruly hairs.

Others followed her lead and squeaked into an ear deafening scream, "Happy Birthday, Manik."

All thoughts flushed out of his system as her words registered. Straightening himself, he leaned his head back, enough to pierce his questioning eyes at hers. Her arms slid across his shoulder, down to his arms as he moved. Though adorning a cheeky smile and gleaming eyes did nothing to falter his gaze rather he pinned her with hardened ones. However, he was nothing but melted.

"Where in the hell were you?" His eyes burned into her, though she remained unaffected. Instead, she had the audacity to roll her eyes at him, after making him run over the streets, searching for her at every place he knew, like crazy. "Don't you roll your eyes at me, Missy," he pointedly stated before repeating the question that was bugging him.

'Well," she drawled, fumbling with the fabric of his shirt sleeve, unknowingly. Half way through the interrogation and he knew it was planned to make him go brainless crazy in search of her so that they could plan his surprise birthday party. And all this while she was right there at his place, decorating it; and waiting for him.

By the end of it, she shrugged, rolling her lips out into a pout. A smile crept across his face as he looked at her. She was still embraced in his arms and her fingers had gone from fumbling to curling designs over his arms, mindlessly; to now stilled. It was her habit, to fumble with her fingers or anything that was under her hold, when she used to get nervous.

Mukti interrupted to answer the interrogating stare that Manik held, "You would have known if it was anything but this," that was true, he could actually have pin pointed any prank his friends would have played; anything but this.

"Anyways, you wouldn't have gone this insanely crazy for any of us, so she was the safest bet," she informed casually, unaware of the impact it made on him. He thought, whether he was really that partial? This was another thing to think about, after this incident.

Why was Nandini any different to him?Why did he fear losing her?