PaNi – a story we wish were true (Season 2) – Chapter 4

Recap: Shoot resumed for Season 2. Niti is friends with Karan and the others but is missing Parth at every point be it getting dressed, rehearsals, shoot, behind the scenes or anything else on set as well as off set. Ayaz gives a surprise visit to the set and Charlie asks him to call Parth.

Ayaz: Okay fine. I don’t think this can work but I’ll still give him a call.

He took his phone and called Parth and left it on speaker mode to let Veebha and Charlie hear it. He picked up at the 2nd ring itself as if he had been waiting for the call. He remembered getting a call from Niti the other night and had been expecting her to call him back. He therefore didn’t even check the caller id before picking it up.

Ayaz: Hey Parth! What’s up man?

Parth: (disappointed on not hearing Niti’s voice) Hey! I’m good. How are you?

Ayaz: Nothing just came by to meet everyone here on set. They’ve started shoot for the second season from today.

Parth: Oh that’s…that’s great!

Ayaz: So, what are you doing these days? Apart from working out. You told me about that the last time we talked.

Parth: Yeah. For now, that’s pretty much it.

Ayaz: That’s it? Like, aren’t you working for another role or some other show or film…you know for what you left this show.

Parth: Umm…no…I mean yeah…I’m still going through scripts. Haven’t finalized one yet.

Ayaz: Okay. So, when are you coming back to Mumbai?

Parth: Not anytime soon. I wanna be here, take a break from…things..and…

Ayaz: Look Parth I know this is bothering you as well and that’s why I want to tell you as a friend, a brother that why don’t you just give it up? Just let it go and sort things out. Even Niti’s not in a good state of mind here. She’s suffering, you’re suffering then what’s the point?

Parth: The point is that you wouldn’t understand it. Niti’s like your sister more than me being your brother so you would obviously defend her right?

Ayaz: Look Parth I’m not defending anyone here…All I’m saying is…

Just then Niti opened the door and entered making Ayaz go numb. He hadn’t disconnected the call and as Parth heard Niti’s voice, neither did he feel like disconnecting it.

Niti: (opening the door and entering) Hey Veebha! (Surprised to see Ayaz) Oh hey Ayaz! What a surprise! I believe you’re here to spend some quality time with your sweetheart but I’m afraid you won’t be able to for a while. Veebha has got a call for her next shot.

Veebha: Umm okay. I’ll see you all later..

Ayaz checked his phone and found that Parth still hadn’t disconnected it and therefore understood that he had been wanting to listen to Niti. He therefore left his phone over there and accompanied Veebha to her shoot.

Niti and Charlie settled down and Charlie took up just the right topic to be discussed about.

Charlie: So, how was your shot? Sorry we didn’t come up there. Actually Ayaz had already told me he was going to come up and surprise Veebha so I had to keep her in here. That’s why I even asked you to stay back for a while but you had to go.

Niti: It’s alright. Shoot was just okay. You know I was just wondering how strange things are. I mean this show, be it season 1 or 2, my life has always gone according to the show. I mean whatever is happening with Nandini on the show, something quite similar is happening with me in the real life. Like when, Manik and Nandini hated each other, me and Parth couldn’t stand each other as well. Then, when they started coming closer, me and Parth became friends. And everything else, almost all the feelings have always been mutual between me and Nandini. Even right now, Nandini is mourning over losing Manik to death and I am mourning over losing Parth to destiny.

At that she broke into tears. Charlie couldn’t see her in that state and therefore went up to her side and took her into a hug. She still couldn’t control her tears and kept weeping in her arms.

Parth had been witnessing the whole conversation and at the end of it, even he had tears forming in his eyes. When Niti talked about how her story had shaped up with the show, all the wonderful memories from the past started rewinding in his head. He missed the old days and wanted to scream out on the phone that he still loved her, he loved her a lot and he too missed her the exact same way. But, he couldn’t, he just couldn’t do that simple little thing. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t do it just the way he hadn’t been able to do it so far. He wanted to be with her but with his conditions. He was still angry that she didn’t respect his decision to quit and support him in it and she was upset that he didn’t care about her feelings when he uttered those harsh words to her.

After sobbing for some time, she lifted her head up and continued,

Niti: I’m sorry Charlie. I didn’t wish to break down like this in front of any of you but it’s just that, I couldn’t control myself. It’s like the first scene I shot right now, was one where I was missing him and I still do miss him. I don’t know how am I going to be able to pull it off in this second season like this?!

Charlie: Niti, why don’t you just talk to him about it then? If it’s bothering you so much.

Niti: No. I can’t! Not after what he said to me before leaving. I can never ever get those harsh words out of my head. And since I can’t forget that, I can’t even forgive. Oh no I forgot! There’s nothing to be forgiven because he hasn’t even asked for forgiveness. Obviously because he is not at fault! (She said that in a sarcastic tone)

Now that aggravated Parth’s anger. Suddenly, his tears vanished and there was again the same old anger and disgust in his eyes. How could she talk about him like that? Of course he was not at fault then why did she have to say that in a sarcastic and ungrateful manner? He instantly disconnected the call and decided to not talk to her or think about her ever again! He decided to move on.

A few weeks passed and the shoot for season 2 had been going on with a bang. This time, they had been running too ahead of schedule and accordingly they had been shooting the 12th episode and on television it was just the 3rd episode being aired.

Niti was getting used to the changed surroundings slowly because she had to. She had tried to control herself from breaking down on set in front of the others. She did not wish to take all of them into the dark zone with her. They were happy and she wanted to let them be happy.

Karan and Yuvraj had started gelling up with Niti to keep her occupied and to not let her mind slip into Parth’s thoughts. Yuvraj had noticed something different with her in the first 2 days of shoot and had gone up to Karan to talk about it out of curiosity. He was a bit reserved and shy but when he realised there was something troubling Niti, he couldn’t control himself and asked Karan about it who seemed to be a very good friend of hers. Karan did tell him about Parth and Niti asking him to not reveal it to the anyone apart from the KYY family. Yuvraj could be trusted on that and therefore Karan did tell him all about it.

It had been 3 days since the show had started to air on TV but Parth had been resisting from watching it. He was already angry with Niti that had initiated the fight between them and the other day what he heard on the phone from her had raised his anger to another level. He still loved her but had been struggling hard enough to keep her out of his mind.

All his struggling failed when he heard her voice as Nandini murthy on the TV while passing through his mom’s room. She had obviously been watching it and he overheard it. Both Niti and parth’s parents still did not have a clue about their problems but they did sense it. Although they never asked them about it as they did not wish to interfere with their lives.

When he heard her voice, he could not resist and rushed to his room, switched on the TV and started watching. As soon as he put on the channel, he saw her. She was there right in front of him after a long time and…she was…crying…he knew then that the tears were no glycerin. It was Niti who was crying over Parth and not Nandini mourning over Manik. He couldn’t watch it any longer and therefore switched it off.

Since then he kept thinking about her and finally after good 4/5 hours, he decided to call her up. It was 12 am and he did wonder whether it would be appropriate to call at that time but then decided he did have that right to call her up anytime. Things were not completely over between them.

He called several times but there was no answer. But, he didn’t give up. He kept calling and then finally it was answered at the 7th call. Before he could speak up, he heard a male voice speak up, “Hello”. And without speaking further, he disconnected the call.

He thought, “Who was this guy with Niti at this hour of the night? I was so stupid to have thought of calling her up. She doesn’t care, then why should I? I was wrong! That was Nandini crying on the show and not Niti.

Yuvraj walked up to the main building where Niti had been shooting and carried her phone from the vanity to her.

Yuvraj: Hey Niti! Here your phone had been ringing for a long time so I finally picked it up. It was an unknown number but when I picked it up, nobody answered and just disconnected the call. Maybe you wanna call back and check?

Niti: Oh okay sure. Thanks.

Since the day she had started shooting for the second season, she had deleted Parth’s number off her phone to not tempt her to call him again and again. She took her phone and checked it on true caller and was horrified on finding the ID.

She could not believe Parth had been calling her for so long. This one definitely couldn’t be due to alcohol. She was about to call him back but couldn’t as she had to resume shoot.

Precap: Surprise!!

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Thank you!

Lots of love ❤️

Medhavi

#behappy

#spreadsmiles

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PaNi – a story we wish were true (Season 1)

PaNi – a story we wish were true (Season 2)

Manan ff – Unconditional Love