Reality Ever After

Part 54. The Price of Privilege

Hi everyone,

Hope you are doing well. For those who didn't get my message that I left on my profile, I didn't update last weekend as I had my COVID-19 vaccine and I was unwell throughout. And I am feeling better now. Hence, here's an update for you guys.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
-SV

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A few weeks passed since the band had broken up. All of them were sad and depressed. FAB5 was very important to all of them and to see it break like that was tough on everyone. However, they had not told that to anyone yet as Paramount still had to launch their album. They had decided to honour the commitment and complete the album. And anyway, the only thing pending now was the photoshoot and promotions and they had to wait for the Paramount to get back with the dates for that.

Mukti and Alya had been each other's support since the band broke up. Although they were sad, they both decided to focus on the future. They both spent a lot of time together as both of them needed to figure out what they wanted to do post college. Mukti was pushing Alya to pursue something in fashion as she was always into it. Alya agreed with her but she wasn't sure if she wanted to become a stylist or a designer. She was trying to speak with more people to understand what was a better option. Whereas Mukti knew she wanted to continue in the music space. She was exploring various avenues on becoming an EDM DJ and music producer. She was exploring various music schools abroad to learn under the best and also gain more opportunities worldwide.

Cabir was producing more and more content for his social media channel and he was getting an amazing response with increasing followers and even better engagement. He was mostly busy shooting and editing videos all day long. And Dhruv on the other hand had slipped into depression. He was extremely low on self-esteem after he screwed up in the recording and now he had no courage to go face the outside world. And if that wasn't enough, he didn't have his friends with him this time. And he had no courage to even call them up and ask for help. He had, therefore, locked himself up in his room and barely got out.

Nandini had now gone back to her house as Rishabh was back after his partial treatment. The doctor had treated him for his seizures but now they had to work on his speech. The doctor had recommended a great speech therapist in Mumbai itself and Chacha, Chachi and Rishabh had to visit him as soon as they got an appointment. Hence, Nandini was super excited for her brother. She couldn't wait to listen to his voice and talk to him for hours and hours. She thanked Ayyappa every single day for making this miracle happen and she continued to pray for him to get completely okay. Apart from Rishabh, she maintained her usual routine of spending time with Manik in college during the weekdays and stayed over with him on weekends. However, the two of them didn't end up spending any time together as both of them were busy with their own things. She was busy with her studying as her exams were just about to begin in a couple of weeks. And Manik was all over the place. He was studying a little for his music theory exams as he needed to pass those to graduate. The best part about the music exams were that the practical exams held more weightage than the theory ones and he had already aced those.  Hence, the theory exams were just namesake and he cared two fucks about them. What was troubling him was his strategy on how to go about with the whole business thing. He had gone ahead and decided to do business but he had no idea about how to go about it.

On a Saturday afternoon, both Manik and Nandini were settled in Manik's room and both of them were busy with their respective laptops doing their own thing. If someone were looking at them currently, they wouldn't believe that they were so deeply in love and have been together for almost a year because both of them were just so different. Nandini obviously woke up early in the morning, had a refreshing shower, her usual filter coffee along with some breakfast, after which she got to her books and her laptop to study. On the other hand, Manik woke up late around 10 am and barely even bothered to get out of bed since he woke up. All he did was go to the washroom to brush his teeth and freshen up a little and without bothering to eat, drink or shower, he was back on his bed with his laptop. The only thing he didn't forget to do was drop a quick kiss on Nandini's head before getting comfortable on his bed again. Only after an hour of waking up, he realised that he was hungry and that's when he called the butler and called for his Earl Grey tea along with breakfast upto his room.