Entangled

Part 8

Manik wasn't ready to carry out their plan.

        Mukti : "Why can't you do it?"

        Manik : "I myself don't believe in love, then how do you expect me to make someone else fall for me."

        Mukti : "You don't have to believe in it to carry out the plan. We will guide you as to how to go about it. You won't have to put in too much of an effort. You have everything a girl would look for in her Prince Charming - good looks, wealth, intelligence..  so anyone could easily fall for you. In her case, maybe she won't fall for you right away, so you will have to pretend to care for her and get close to her."

        Manik : "I didn't like that girl from the first time I met her. After knowing that she is responsible for your state, I have started hating her. So there is no way I can even pretend to be nice to her, let alone care for her."

        Cabir : "Your few days of pretending can put an end to Mukti's suffering of months. You wanted to teach her a lesson too. Remember, she laid her hands on your possessions. She deflated your Jeep's tires and broke your guitar's string, this is your chance to break her heart and avenge it all at once."

        Manik : "I want to .. yes.. but not like this. Pretending to be nice at the front and plotting at the back is an act of a coward, and I am not one."

        Alya : "Didn't that girl do the same with Mukti, then what is wrong in us doing the same with her? We are making her taste her own medicine."

        It reminded Manik of the words Nandini had left in her note when she deflated his jeep's tires.

        Mukti : "I understand that I am asking too much of you, and you will have to behave way different than you actually are. But can't you do this much for me, so that I can close that chapter of my life and move on?"

        His friends continued to convince Manik and finally he agreed, though unwillingly.

        Manik : "Okay fine. I will carry out the plan for you, but don't involve me in the planning process. Just make sure to devise the plan in such a way that I can execute it quickly and be done with it."

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        Mukti, Alya and Cabir started devising their plan.

        Cabir : "We can use the tactic - "Che Din Ladki In" (Six days to make a girl fall for you), so we will be done with it in a week or two just the way Manik wants it."

        Mukti : "I don't think it will be that easy to trap her."

        Alya : "Who knows, she herself might have used such a tactic to trap others, so she might be familiar with it."

        Cabir : "Okay, how do you think we should go about it then?"

        Alya : "First, we will have to erase the impression that girl might be having of Manik and create a good impression. So, we will have to create a situation where Manik could help her and show that he is caring."

        Cabir : "Let's send some goons behind her, and Manik can rescue her from the goons. He saves the damsel in distress and becomes her hero."

         Alya : "Sending goons is a very old tactic."

        Alya : "Mukti, are you aware of any of her weaknesses? Targeting her weakness will make the plan more effective."

        Mukti thought for a while.

        Mukti : "From what I know of her, she is scared of closed places. She doesn't know how to swim, so she stays away from water."

        Cabir : "Getting her near a pool will not be that easy, but getting her to a closed place can be done very easily. We can send a peon with a message that the Principal wants to meet her and get her locked in a room."

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        They explained their plan to Manik and put it into execution the next day. As per their plan, they got Nandini locked in a room. They took precautions so that no one else could come to her rescue, also she couldn't contact anyone for help. They waited for quite sometime to make sure she starts panicking and then informed Manik so that he can go to her rescue. They wanted to make Nandini feel that Manik had come to her rescue in the time of distress, but things didn't go exactly as they had expected.

        When Manik went inside, there was pin drop silence. He found Nandini lying unconscious on the floor. Her body had turned cold, though that room was pretty warm, and she was breathing very faintly. His friends had left the place so they weren't around. He picked her up and carried her to the sick bay. Since the day had come to an end, the nurse had locked the room and was about to leave. He stopped the nurse just in time, explained what had happened and got her to treat Nandini.

        Nurse : "She must be claustrophobic, and she is very weak too. You got her in time, if her vitals would have dropped further, you might have had to admit her to the hospital."

        Manik stayed there till Nandini gained conscious. When Nandini woke up, she remembered what had happened, and then she saw Manik. She didn't try to analyze what could have happened before she spoke.

        Nandini : "It was you who got me locked inside, right? You couldn't humiliate me in front of everyone that day, so you chose this way to torture me. You must be happy now, after seeing that your plan was successful."

        Manik had agreed to his friends' plan, but he hadn't expected it to turn out like the way it did. He was worried after seeing Nandini in that state. He hadn't even thought that she was someone who he had to take revenge against, and had rushed her to the sick bay. So, Nandini's words angered him.

        Manik : "Don't you think you are giving too much of an importance to yourself. I have better things to do than making plans to torture you. I committed a huge mistake by bringing you here. I should have left you there to die."

        Manik left from there in anger.

        Nurse : "You should have been thankful to him, instead you were blaming him. He got you here in time, otherwise your life would have been danger."

        The nurse explained to her what state she was in when he got her there. 

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        Manik's friends were waiting to hear the outcome of their plan.

        Mukti : "Why isn't he here still? What is taking him so long? Everything would have gone as we have planned, right?"

        Cabir : "Don't worry. We had taken all measures, so it is going to be successful."

        Manik reached just then.

        Manik : "Our focus was only on the success, so we didn't think about the consequence. The plan didn't work as you had expected. You wanted to change the impression, it changed for the worse. You expected that this plan would make me a hero in her eyes, but it turned me into a villain instead."

        Mukti : "What happened? What went wrong?"

        Manik explained what had happened.

        Cabir : "What if this plan failed, let's come up with another plan."