Now that the charity event was over, both Manik and Nandini began to focus on what they had to do next.

Nandini contacted the office staff and got the details she wanted.

Nandini : "This will make things easier for me. I should be able to figure out who it is soon and then I will have to think of how to approach her. Also, I have to thank Manik for this."

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On the other hand,

Manik : "This is going to be a difficult task. First, I will have to tell them that I have backed out of their plan. They are going to be furious at me, especially Mukti. When it comes to this, they will gang up on me. Then, I will have to convince Mukti..."

He thought for a while.

Manik : "It would be better to get Cabir on my side first and then we can figure out together as to how to tell the others."

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Manik asked Cabir to meet him alone later during the day.

Cabir : "You have been so busy from the past few days that we couldn't meet often like we did."

Manik : "I had to volunteer more often since there was an event. Now it is all done and I won't be volunteering anymore."

Cabir : "That means that you succeeded in our plan as well."

Manik : "No, I didn't. I couldn't get myself to continue with it, so I backed out of it sometime back. I didn't tell you all because none of you seemed to understand my point of view at that point of time."

Cabir : "What? You who wanted to win at everything you committed yourself to, backed out?"

Manik : "Winning usually brings a sense of achievement, but in this case winning would come at the cost of losing my peace of mind."

Cabir : "Then what were you doing there all this time? .. Volunteering? .. From when did you gain interest in that?"

Manik : "I have no interest in volunteering, but I couldn't back out when the event was nearing and put all the load on Nandini, so I stayed back till the event was over."

Cabir : "What? You had to make her fall for you to take revenge for what she did to Mukti, instead you backed out from it, and stayed back to support her."

Cabir was in deep thoughts and Manik let him be.

Cabir : "OMG! In the process of making her fall for you, did you end up falling in love with her? Why didn't I think about this aspect earlier?"

Manik : "What?! .. How did you even get such an absurd idea into your head? There is no correlation between what I have been saying and what you are interpreting."

Cabir : "That's how it happens in the movies. The hero tries to make the heroine fall for him as a part of a bet or a revenge, but he ends up falling for her."

Manik : "This isn't a movie, it is real life. You know very well that I am against love. I wasn't even ready for this plan, but I agreed only for Mukti's sake."

Cabir : "Movies may be exaggerated but they are inspired from real life. .. Movie starts with hero not believing in love, but he ends up... "

Manik : "You have seen that in the movies, but I see the aftermath of it in real life every day. There is no way I am going to fall into it after seeing my parents arguing every single day."

Manik : "Anyways that is not what I wanted to talk to you. I want you to understand what I have to say and support me to convince the others to drop the idea of taking revenge from Nandini, and also convince Mukti to talk to her and sort things out."

Cabir : "Have you thought of how she is going to react when she finds out?"

Manik : "She will never come to know why I was there."

Manik was thinking of Nandini.

Cabir : "Huh.. I am talking about Mukti. She has pinned her hopes on you and she will be very very upset with you when she comes to know that you have backed out of it. I hope this doesn't bring a rift in your relationship."

Manik : "She will be upset, may be even furious, but I will manage to pacify her. You are going to help me with it."

Cabir : "We had convinced you to continue with the plan, then what caused you to change your mind?"

Manik : "I couldn't get myself to continue with it after thinking of the possible outcomes. It was good that I backed out, otherwise I would have ended up punishing her for no fault of hers."

Cabir : "How can you say that she isn't at fault?"

Manik : "Mukti is accusing Nandini of a major betrayal, but Nandini doesn't have the slightest idea of why Mukti is angry with her which isn't possible if she is really at fault. Also, she has come here looking for Mukti."

Cabir : "She might be pretending like the girls said. When Mukti is not ready to trust her even after knowing her for so long, how can you rely on her when you have known her only for a short time?"

Manik : "She isn't pretending, you have my word for it. Mukti is blinded by her misunderstanding and I am sure it will be cleared if we get Mukti to talk to Nandini."

Cabir : "I am still not convinced, but since you are vouching for her, I will support you."

Manik : "Will the fact that she saved me without caring for herself convince you?"

Manik explained Cabir how she had saved him.

Manik : "Do you still think that she, who can risk her life for someone else, can betray her friend?"

Cabir was finally convinced. He thought about the matter for a while.

Cabir : "It will become very difficult to convince Mukti if you tell her that you have already backed out, so we shouldn't bring that up for now. You have managed to keep it away from her till now, let's continue with it for some more time. It's been sometime since you tried to convince her, let's try again tomorrow and see how it goes. Based on that, let's think of how to proceed further."

Manik : "Alright.. I was thinking that may be we have to talk to Mukti alone. It will be difficult to convince her with Alya around. Sometimes, it feels that Alya hates Nandini more than Mukti does. She wouldn't let Mukti agree."

Cabir : "Why are you saying like that? Alya is only supporting Mukti as a good friend and you should be happy about it. She didn't even know Nandini till Mukti told us about her, so there is no reason for her to hate Nandini more than Mukti. It would be better if she stays beside Mukti for her moral support."

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Manik and his friends met, but there discussion was going nowhere as usual. Manik and Cabir were trying to convince the girls and the girls were trying to convince Manik and Cabir that they were right. That's when they heard a knock at the door and turned to look at who it was. It was Nandini and Manik went to her quickly because he felt that it wasn't a good time for Nandini to be there.

Manik : "You? Here?"

Nandini : "I got the details from the office, so I wanted to thank you. Thank you so much!"

Manik wanted to send Nandini from there as quickly as possible, but her eyes fell on Mukti.

Nandini : "You know Mukti?! She is the one I was talking about."

Nandini went towards Mukti.

Mukti : "I have told you earlier too that I am not interested in talking to you. Leave from here."

Alya was furious at Nandini for ruining their plan.

Alya : "Did you come here to confirm if you managed to bring a rift between us?"

Nandini : "I am not able to understand. Why would I cause a rift between you all? I didn't even know that you knew each other."

Alya : "Don't pretend as though you don't know anything."

Manik : "She doesn't have anything to do with it. You are mad at me, don't take it on her. Nandini, it is better you leave now. I will meet you later."

Manik held Nandini's hand with the intention of getting her out from there, but that action of his and his concern for Nandini fueled Alya's anger.

Alya : "Manik, there is no need to pretend to show concern for her anymore. She knows that you and Mukti are related, so we won't be able to continue with our plan anyways."

Nandini : "Why would he pretend to show concern? .. What plan?"

Alya : "So you thought that he was really concerned for you. Why would anyone be concerned for an orphan like you? We wanted to take revenge on you for what you did to Mukti. We wanted him to make you fall for him and then dump you. We wanted you to suffer, but you ruined everything."

Nandini withdrew her hand from his. That made Manik feel that she had lost the trust she had in him.

Nandini : "It was all a plan, and I thought he really cared?!"

Manik : "Come with me, I can explain."

She wasn't ready to go with him.

Nandini : "Mukti, now that you have succeeded in your plan, will you tell me what I did to you that you are so mad at me that you wanted to take revenge?"

Cabir took Manik aside.

Cabir (murmuring) : "You can't change what has happened. You wanted them to talk and clear the misunderstanding, so don't interfere now. You can meet her later and explain."

Manik didn't expect things to turn out like that. He wanted them to talk but not in the way it was happening now.

Mukti : "Come on Nandini, you are still pretending as though you don't know. I don't think there is a need for me to answer that."

Nandini : "I asked you earlier too, but instead of telling me what I did, you chose to go ahead and punish me. At least now, don't you think I should know what I am being punished for."

Mukti : "You betrayed me by having an affair with my boyfriend."

Nandini was taken aback after the revelation. She knew that Mukti had something big against her, but she didn't expect it to be that. She was unsteady and Manik stepped forward seeing that. Nandini took the support of a chair near her and sat on it, and Cabir stopped Manik from moving towards Nandini.