Previously known as Ky2S2: A Fan's Version
Have changed the name of the book, the book cover and my username. So don't get scared upon getting this notification😆.

Recap - Malhotra's throw a party to welcome back Manik, which is gate-crashed by Nyonika. Manik and Nyonika have a face-off after Manik comes to know that she was behind his and Cabir's accident. He makes her leave and locks himself in a room and starts breaking everything, making everyone worried. They call off the party and call a doctor for Manik after he suddenly falls silent in his room, expecting the worse. When the locked room finally opens by a spare key, everyone is shocked by what they see inside the room.

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Continued...

Her heart stopped beating at the sight in front of her. In the middle of all the broken objects on the floor was Manik lying lifeless. It felt to her as if her feet had been frozen to the spot. Her heart felt heavy as even the simple act of breathing, seemed to be a Herculean task to her in that moment. 

Everybody rushed to Manik, who was lying on the floor and called out to him, trying to wake him up. Finally, finding her voice, Nandini too rushed to Manik. Shaking him, she said, 'Manik, open your eyes, please! Manik!'

But all their efforts were in vain. Dhruv and Aryaman carried him to the bed. They waited for the doctor to arrive. Every single minute of the wait was proving to be a  test of their patience. Manik lied unconscious on the bed, with Nandini, Mukti and Alya rubbing his hands and feet trying to make him wake up. That, too was unsuccessful. Nandini was panicking more and more as time went by.

Finally, their wait was over as Adil, the doctor arrived. Mukti and Alya moved away from the bed making way for him to examine Manik. He sat on one side of the bed with Nandini sitting on the other side. First of all Adil checked Manik's pulse and body temperature. Since he knew about Manik's accident, it didn't take him long to understand the reason behind his condition. He gave Manik an injection and turned to face the rest who were waiting with bated breaths to know how Manik was.

'What? What's wrong? Speak up!', Mukti asked impatiently.

Adil took a look of everyone in the room and also the mess that the room was in. Srikant too spoke up, asking worriedly, 'What happened Adil? How is Manik? Will he be fine?'

Adil inspected the damage caused in the room and asked, 'Manik did this?'

Dhruv answered this question saying, 'Unfortunately, yes. But will he be okay?'

Adil gave a final glance at the broken remains of vases, show pieces and other things on the floor. Turning his attention to the people present in the room, he said, 'He should be.'

Mukti said a little angrily, 'Should be? What do you mean by should be?'

Seeing her getting angry, Navya tried to calm her by saying, 'Mukti, stay calm. Anger is not the solution to this.'

Adil glanced at Mukti and then looking back at Srikant, he said, 'You all know very well about his condition. Mental stress was strictly not allowed. Looking at the condition of this room, I can only guess the extent of his emotional outburst. What could get him so riled up anyway? If you don't mind telling me.'

Srikant looked at the unconscious figure of his son on the bed and then looked down sighing. He then said looking back at Adil, 'He came to know that it was his..... mother..... who was.... behind his accident. They don't really share the most ...... cordial relation in this world, you see.'

Adil was, no doubt, shocked to hear this. His shock could be seen on his face and the next words that he uttered were, 'What!! His mother!! How could any mother do that??!!'

'It wasn't for Manik, actually. It was for Nandini. He just happened to be caught in the middle of it. Things are a bit complicated here', Adil looked at Aryaman, who had tried to explain the situation to him.

Giving out a sarcastic laugh, Adil said, 'Yeah, I can see that.'

Srikant spoke up, 'Adil, you still haven't answered the question. Will he be fine?'

Adil said, 'You all know about his condition. So you might be having an idea of how harmful this can be. Right now, I can't tell you how much damage has been done. But he should be fine when he wakes up. Uncle, you really need to keep him away from any such situations in the future. I can understand it's not going to be easy but he shouldn't be taking any stress at this moment.' 

Srikant looked frustrated hearing this. How could he possibly keep Manik away from any such incident? He had tried today and see how that ended. Manik was Manik. Not listening to others was a part of his character. But, it was more so when he was angry. It was impossible to make him understand anything then.

Mukti, who was listening silently till now, said, 'So, what do you suggest we do?'

Adil looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, 'Take a vacation, maybe? I don't know. Anything to keep his mind off of these things. Which I know won't happen here. I also understand it won't be easy for him to forget about his mother. But he needs something to distract him. A vacation should do it.'

Dhruv, nodding his head, spoke, 'Sounds like a plan. Even we could use a break, from, you know, everything that has been happening since the last few months.'

Alya looked a bit unsure, 'Are you sure? Don't get me wrong. I agree with you that he needs a distraction but what do we do about the album? We have already delayed it so much. And now that they  know Manik is back, I'm sure they are expecting a few songs now. We can't delay it anymore. Can't music be his distraction?'

Aryaman spoke up, 'I understand your concern, Alya. So, here's the thing. Why not take a break, go somewhere, some place exotic and work on your music while on a vacation. That way no one will have any problem. And, well, sometimes natural beauty helps bring out things in you, you never knew you were capable of. It could help with your music!'

Adil said, 'That's perfect Aryaman. Sounds great! What do you guys think?'

Alya looked convinced and she nodded her head showing her agreement. Dhruv too agreed saying, 'I think it would be perfect.' 

Adil then said to Rakesh, 'Alright. Since that is out of the way, I should be leaving. He should wake up in about an hour or so. Give me a call once he is awake. Certain tests need to be done. Is it OK?'

Srikant looking a little relieved. He said, 'Yeah, OK. Thanks for coming son. I can't thank you enough for coming in such a short time.'

Adil shook his head and said, 'You don't need to thank me, Uncle!! You have helped me all my life. I owe everything to you. I can't even thank you enough. You don't need to do this.'

He smiled at Srikant and then grabbing his things, headed towards the door saying, 'OK, so, call me when he's up and I'll come by.'

With this Adil left accompanied by Aryaman till the door. All this while, Nandini had been silently listening to everything being said in the room, while absently staring at Manik.

Alya noticed her condition. She walked up to her and put her hand on Nandini's shoulder. Nandini looked at her blankly and then back at Manik lying unconscious. Alya pulled her in a hug without saying anything. Nandini stayed still for some time, but then eventually hugged her back.

Navya and Mukti too joined in the hug. They stayed in the same position for some time and then separated. One by one everyone left the room leaving Nandini with Manik.

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Almost one and a half hour had passed with no improvement in Manik's condition. He was still unconscious. Srikant was starting to get worried. He was thinking that maybe he should shift Manik to the hospital. Everyone had been coming and giving company to Nandini in turns. Finally when he couldn't wait anymore, he decided to call Adil and ask him to make arrangements at the hospital for shifting Manik there. Just as he was about to make the phone call, Mukti came in his room and said the words that he had been dying to hear since the last one and a half hours.

He immediately rushed to Manik's room and saw all his friends already present in his room surrounding his bed. Sensing his presence in the room, they moved aside making way for him. Dhruv turned to face him and said, 'I have called Adil. He's on his way.'

Srikant simply nodded in his direction and looked back at Manik who was looking back at him weakly. His eyes looked tired, as if he hadn't rested in a long while. When Manik saw the worried looks on everyone's faces, he chuckled and said, 'Guys, nobody's dead I suppose!'

Nandini and Srikant said warning, 'Manik!'

Mukti too was not behind. She scolded him saying, 'Shut up, Manik!! Does this seem funny to you? You just, out of nowhere, fell unconscious, you don't even remember what happened before you blacked out and here you are cracking lame jokes! Seriously?!'

Srikant's eyes snapped to Mukti when she mentioned about Manik not remembering what happened. He looked at Nandini who confirmed it with a nod. She gestured him with her eyes not to talk about that. He gave a slight nod in understanding.

He sat on the bed beside Manik who was sitting up with the support of the headboard, leaning on some pillows and giving a sheepish smile to Mukti on her scolding, irritating her further. But she chose to keep quiet, for now anyways.

Srikant asked Manik in a calm voice how was he feeling, but his worry was clearly evident in his eyes. Manik gave his father a smile and said, 'I'm fine. Just a small headache, but fine otherwise.'

'You have a headache! Why didn't you say that before!' Before Nandini had time to fuss over Manik anymore, Adil entered the room, interrupting whatever she was about to say or do. Srikant moved away for Adil to check Manik. 

After checking his pulse and a few other things, he said, 'Everything is normal. He sure seems fine. But bring him to the hospital tomorrow. We'll need to do a thorough checkup.'

Manik frowned upon listening to this. He said, 'You make it sound as if I am some stationary object, or a pet. I don't need to be brought anywhere! I can go by myself! Thank you very much.'

Adil gave Manik an amused look and said, 'I'm sure you can.'

Nandini, though, gave a stern look to Manik and said, 'You're not going anywhere on your own. And Adil, if he is fine, then why the headache?'

Adil shrugged and said, 'Could be because of the stress. After all....'

He was interrupted though, by Aryaman who said, 'Yes, it might be because of stress. So, I think we should let Manik rest, and we should shift this discussion to some other place. Shall we?' Aryaman gestured with his hands and eyes for everyone to move out.

Getting his point, Nandini realised her mistake and said, 'You're right. Mukti, can you please stay with Manik, we'll just be back.'

Mukti nodded her head in understanding and said, 'Sure'.

Nandini smiled at her and quickly led everyone out of the room including a confused Adil, while leaving an equally confused, if not more, Manik behind with Mukti.

Everybody went in Srikant's study to talk in privacy. Once everybody was in and the doors were locked, Adil spoke up, 'Is something wrong? What is this all about?' He couldn't understand why were they behaving so weird all of a sudden.

Srikant also was clueless about what was going on. He looked at Nandini and said, 'What happened Nandini? Is everything fine, beta?'

Nandini looked at her friends and they nodded at her, giving her the signal to go ahead. She looked back at Srikant and said, 'Uncle, Adil, there's a problem. Manik has no memory of the incident with Nyonika right now. Last thing he remembers is meeting his friends at the party. After that, nothing.'

To say that Srikant was shocked would be an understatement. He could not decide whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Not remembering that, meant not remembering a very stressful incident. Which meant not worrying about the damage it could cause. But couldn't it also mean that the damage had already been done. He turned towards Adil, who instead of being surprised, looked thoughtful.

'Understandable,' Adil said. 'See, human brain is very complex. Sometimes, in cases of trauma, the brain can put up barriers blocking out unwanted and painful memories which it doesn't want to remember or it isn't ready to deal with it yet. This condition is called partial amnesia. It is not particularly harmful but we have to be careful. The barriers are put up but it doesn't mean it can't be broken or won't ever be broken. It is put up because the brain is not yet ready to deal with something that is stressful. It must be kept in mind that those memories would eventually do resurface and we'll have to be ready to deal with the consequences. But we have to make sure Manik is not forced into remembering anything. That could be risky. The memories would come back, when he is ready.'

He looks around the room to see 6 worried faces looking back at him. Sighing, he went towards Srikant and holding his hand, said, 'Uncle, please calm down! You don't need to worry. None of you should. Manik is fine, you just need to be a bit careful so as to not trigger any unwanted memories. I'm sure that won't be a problem. Like we had discussed before, take him on a vacation. Now is the perfect time. Him not remembering the incident with his mother, might just turn out to be a blessing for him. By the way, what have you guys told him happened before he fell unconscious?' Adil looked around at the rest of the people in the room for answers, which came from Navya.

'Actually, we haven't. We were pre-occupied in fussing over Manik, so he doesn't know. And neither did he ask.'

'What should we tell him?', Nandini thought aloud.

'How about we tell him, he fainted while he was going to look for Nandini?', Aryaman questioned. 'I mean, that's when he came across Nyonika, so that should be perfect.'

'Yeah, but, that doesn't explain the mess in his room', asked Alya.

That made everyone think because Manik wasn't somebody to be fooled easily. They needed to come up with a proper reason.

Navya thought for sometime and said, 'How about we tell him we were looking for his reports or medicines or something and didn't realise when we ruined the room'.

Everybody thought over it for some time and since none of them could think of anything else that would be more convincing, they decided to go with it, praying at the same time that Manik doesn't ask much about it.

Aryaman was the first one to respond. 'I think that would do. We should get back now. It's been long and I son't know how Mukti is handling him,' he said.

'You're right. Even I should get going. I'll see you, Uncle. Bring Manik to the hospital tomorrow, we'll do the tests. And then we'll see what we can do,' said Adil. Dhruv offered to accompany him till the door.

Aryaman and Navya decided to see Manik once and then head home. They moved towards his room. Upon reaching there, though, they saw Manik and Mukti sleeping on the bed and the couch, respectively.

Watching both of them brought a smile on their faces, finally, after a long time. Everybody went out of the room while Nandini quietly went to wake Mukti up, trying not to wake up Manik. She lightly shaked her and as soon as Mukti opened her eyes, she gestured her to not make any noise. 

Mukti quietly nodded and rubbed her eyes sleepily. Nandini whispered, 'Come out,' and Mukti got up and followed her to join the rest outside Manik's room. She was fully awake now and asked, 'What did the doctor say? Why doesn't he remember anything?'

Srikant just smiled at her and said, 'First you relax Mukti. Adil said it's normal for the brain to forget traumatic incidents as a defence mechanism. It could even prove to be a good thing. We will discuss the rest tomorrow. For now, all of you go home and rest. We have got lots to do tomorrow. Lots to plan. Now off you kids go. That includes you too, Nandini.'

Nandini opened her mouth to protest but was silenced by Srikant. 'Don't even try. You are going home right away. Manik is fine now. As you can see, he is sleeping. So, stop worrying now. He'll be fine. You go. I'll ask the driver to drop all of you to your homes.'

Aryaman interrupted, 'Uncle, I have my car with me. Navya was already coming with me. I can drop Nandini home. The rest have their own vehicles. You don't have to worry. Come Nandini.'

He gestured Nandini towards the stairs. She was conflicted on whether to stay or leave Manik in this condition. She knew her Chacha and Chachi would give her the permission if she wanted to stay. And she probably would have, had the circumstances been the same as they were before, if Nyonika would have still been in the house. 

She looked at Srikant and found him looking back at her with a smile. She smiled back at him and decided to leave. She would come back early the next morning. Wishing him a good night she left with her friends.

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Sitting in the car, looking out of the window, she thought about why she didn't want to leave Manik alone tonight. She knew he was fine. She knew he would be taken care of. Srikant was no Nyonika. She remembered when Manik had fainted at her house in Mangalore and had to be flown to Mumbai. Nyonika was even ready to shift Manik to a different hospital against the doctor's advice as that meant keeping Nandini away from Manik.

She had had to beg Nyonika to not risk Manik's life and promise to not come meet him. Nyonika could be heartless and insensitive towards her son but that wasn't Srikant. And yet, it was Srikant who was responsible for leaving Manik alone with Nyonika and eventually for the way Nyonika had treated Manik all his life. 

No, she didn't hate Srikant because she had seen that he loved Manik. She had even been witness to the bond they shared in the last few days. Unike his mother, Manik actually loved and respected his father. Also, she couldn't deny the fact that his father had saved his life and took care of him for months when nobody was there with him. And yet, she held him accountable for all that Manik had gone through all those years.

Maybe, this was the reason why even though the rest bonded with him like long lost friends, she had always been a bit formal with him. She sighed at all her thoughts and looked back at the two idiots whom she called her friends sitting in the car with her and found them lost in their own thoughts. They were probably thinking about the same people as her but just on a different track. 

She chuckled and closed her eyes for some time before she reached home. It was going to be a long day tomorrow trying to make Manik agree for this sudden vacation without making him suspicious.

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Okay people, I don't even know how many of you are still here reading this but here's the next chapter. Because of this quarantine stuff happening, I thought why not complete this chapter that I had been trying to write since the past one year. And look here I am!!

Since this is so late I gave a little recap in the beginning to help you remeber what previously hapened in this book. Do let me know how many of you are still here. Also, I had been editing the previous chapters in the past one and a half month so you might have found a few random updates. Yeah, those were just the edited chapters. I have made a few changes here and there. 

By the way, how do you like the new name of this book?? And my new usename?? A lot of changes since the last update you see, haha. Okay that's it from me now. Your views on the chapter please.