Road to the Ocean

Chapter 25: Rumors

Inevitably the chaotic spread of rumors about Parth being an insensitive co-star, snubbing to wish Niti on her birthday out of courtesy while every cast and crew were present at the small celebration lead to more aggravated fans riling on social sites. Similarly, there was another article released next morning stating the same facts, "cold war between Parth and Niti continues". However, bewildered Parth and Niti were surprised on how fast these false rumors unfurled in the air. Though Niti attempted to conciliate the fans through her tweets, but none of the Nitians and few PaNi fans were ready to surrender their doubts. In fact, they even alleged it was a frail attempt of PR to justify Parth through Niti's perception. The fandom was completely fragmented into many small groups and none were ready to concur to any fact even if it was true. Consistency is said to be the key to warp any lie as the truth, and it was indeed the exact camouflage tactic employed by the anonymous source who was consistently spreading out rumors from sets, in such intricate details, that the recipients of those rumors were brainwashed into believing it as a fact. Obviously, it was a careful concocted plan by Vikas who had several ulterior motives at that time but little were people able to connect the dots, or the way his twisted mind worked, especially when he was the type of being that drew his energy from chaos around him. Disha was just one prawn in his sick game, something that people would later come to know, but for now, even if he disclosed her a small piece of his plan, the greater scheme remained hidden inside the deepest darkest part of his mind.

The rumours spreading like a blood thirsty wildfire was merely a trick which was already pre-planned by Vikas. Some fans even aborted to watch the season with so many spread out negativity which invisibly munched the positivism this fandom once conceived. Distraught Richa was completely dysfunctional as she couldn't conduce the culprit behind spreading rumors and targeting fans, though she did cogitate a possible scheme from an opposition banner trying to divert fans from watching MaNan's chemistry which to them was irrelevant to the offscreen equation of Parth and Niti

Musicana shoot didn't just end there, it was a prolong investment to deliver the best product out of the breakup track. The Musicana concert was swarming with people along with professional singers to maintain the standard Richa had envisioned. The actors were practicing to lip-sing on their designated songs, but Parth was exceptionally well with his skills. For a lot of the people it felt as if Parth had actually sang the song. The grand concert shoot was a success. The editors didn't have to edit a lot because the team's effort was top-notch. On the dance floor after the Musicana shoot wrapped up, Manik and Nandini had an imaginary dance sequence, where they supposed to dance with different partners. Niti tried to confront with Parth, but he was tight-lipped as his intention was to keep a close eye at Niti and her ongoing disorder for which Parth might have her to go through some more examination. For him, nothing was pivotal more than what he needed to plan to get Niti out from the issues she was dealing with. Even if he had to endure hatred from his fans, he wouldn't back off. Furthermore, he didn't want to take any chance of giving any clue to Charlie, who was watching him like a hawk, as he knew she would relay the information to Disha, who these days was behaving more like a ticking time bomb rather than the adorable girl he met two years back.

But Niti knew exactly what to do to instigate Parth to discourse on the current fan wars. Richa wanted them to rehearse first and then record their final execution. Smiling coyly at Utkarsh, Niti tried to get cosy up with him on the dance floor. Seeing how much Parth always got irritated with Utkarsh, most specifically when the latter was around her, she knew her move would trigger a reaction in Parth. In the corner of her eye, she caught glimpse of Parth stiffening, and she bit her inner cheek to restrain the triumph smile from spreading on her face. "What the hell is she doing with that loser?" Parth thought to himself, as his eyes bulged out. "In usual cases Kuttu needs so many retakes to act his part, but just look how his stupid face right now. It's practically lighting up! Aagghh!" he remarked mentally as his fist curled, suddenly the immense desire to plant his fist in Utkarsh's face overpowered him. "Take that" Niti smiled to herself, enjoying herself a little too much on being able to melt Parth's cold composure after trying so hard to talk to him earlier, and she put her hands on Utkarsh's shoulders and then slid down to his chest. Charlie and Krissan were standing in a distance, distaste evident on their face, as they witnessed Parth's attention securely fastened on Niti, who seemed busy flirting with Utkarsh.

Unable to take in anymore what was unfolding right in front of his eyes, all logic, reasons and rationales dumped across the windows, Parth marched towards Niti and asked her if she and him could discourse for little bit, to which Niti smirked and looked at Parth squarely in the eyes. Needless to say, Utkarsh was completely annoyed, and he held Niti's arms when she was about to leave.

"Stay! Parth why don't you talk to her here." Utkarsh was not going to give up easily, but he wasn't aware of Parth being offended by his behavior. Irately, Parth dismantled their hands from each other and hauled Niti from the place. He was so caught in his cyclone of his feelings that he didn't take any consideration of the members on sets. Surely this would lead to another rumour of Parth manhandling Niti, but at that instant all his focus on her. He had always been so protective of Niti, especially with roadside Romeos like Utkarsh and now that he was acquiring more about her problem, he thought she was too fragile to be wounded again. Even if she chose to be with someone else , he would still make sure she was in right hands. Until then, it was Parth's accountability to keep her under his care for as long as she would take to completely recover from the jilt she went through in her past. Although, Parth hadn't realized the feeling of love yet, he knew Niti meant the world to him. He brought her to his vanity van and locked the doors before twirling to face her.

"What you think you were you doing"? Parth looked straight into her eyes, and she took a step backward, causing her to stand flushed with the wall of the van. His broad shoulders were leaning against her, his hands pinned at the wall where she was standing, almost restraining her to escape. A shy and timorous Niti tried to speak, but her words refused to leak from her mouth as her heart was flittering, robbing her of her breaths, especially with Parth being so close to her, his eyes ablaze with emotions, his nose flaring as he was heaving to calm his mind. Even when his features were distorted with ferocity, she couldn't stop marvelling how handsome he was. She could spend hours like this, drowning in his dreamy eyes, his mere proximity cocooning her in a cloak of warmth and security. He queried her to answer his questions, and she voiced out the first thing that came to her rambled mind, that she only wished to rehearse with Utkarsh to obtain the legitimate feels with complete execution of the required scene. However, Parth couldn't incorporate the word 'feels' in her statement as the feels should only be between Manik and Nandini. Looking at Parth's frowned face and furrowed brows, Niti burst into a melodic laugh, and Parth took a step back, realization drawing in at how intimately close he was standing to Niti a few seconds earlier. He ran his hand through his thick hair, and cursing under his breath on how he was starting to morphing into Manik in real life too.

"Why not? If I can rehearse with you, I can do it with him, no?" Niti was teasing Parth and him getting effected by these little things spoke a feel of contentment. As much as she was relishing his reactions, her heart still pinched at his morose mood and she dismissed by accepting she was just being facetious. As soon as the words escaped her lips, the torturous weight on his heart was ousted, and a genuine smile lit his face, and refused to go away even when Niti rebuked Parth for ignoring her. As a matter of fact, the more she was reprimanding him, the more his heart was swelling at how much she cared, but he sobered up when she proceeded to ask him if he was even alert of the fan wars between their fans as she received vexatious messages on her social accounts. Parth urged her not to dwell too much on this matter because after all the fan wars were one side-effect of the firece affection from their fans, to show how much they cared and that were ready to stand for the favourites. He acknowledged that fans had misinterpreted the facts about the existence of a cold war, yet he felt that it was better if fans started to disfavor him from associating his offscreen chemistry with Niti. "But why?" she asked, baffled on why he would rather face so much of loathing from the fans when the rumours were baseless. "Will you want to be under the microscopic surveillance for as long as KYY shall aired?" He questioned her. "What you mean? Whatever you are saying make no sense Parth" she responded, exasperatingly. "Niti, you read every comments on Insta, you surely know how much fans ship us together? Disha has been rubbing it in my face for the last few days. Don't get me wrong. It's nice they love our chemistry but have you also seen the frenzies? If these fans have an inkling that we are really good friends, in their dictionary it will mean we are having an affair. Not all of them will be happy, some will go on digging your grave, and open padlocked closets to find any skeleton. Is that what you want?" he finished his rant, his eyes secured on her, scrutinising her expression. Niti felt as if the floor was ripped off her feet, her heart jumped to her throat and her breath were knocked out. She looked Parth with bewildered eyes, silently pleading him for a solution. "Do you really want to be associated to your co-star?" He purposely enquired to gauge her reaction. The grim shadow on her pretty face at the mention of 'co-star' was all the answer he needed. He made up his mind that it was a label he would seek to avoid being attached to him at cost. "what...what do you suggest Parth?" came her whispered reply. Seeing her so vulnerable, so fragile, he longed to take her in his arms and shield her from all the demons of her past tormenting her as well as all her current dementors, but he knew deep down there was only this much he could do. Niti needed to grow strong on her own, only then she would be able to heal, be able to face everything and banish those fiends forever. He explained to her how he supposed that it would be better for all their distractors, if they maintained their distances. Together they decided it would be best if they limit their interactions on sets and from thereon Parth started to call themselves as professionals during interviews.

Shortly afterwards they resumed shooting. In the deepest of Parth's heart, a desperate and distressed desire were forming like dark clouds because of how there was close proximity between Utkarsh and Niti. In fact, the jealousy manifested on Parth's face was recorded naturally. His look became sullen and gloomy when Urkarsh grabbed her waist. He was disgusted how much Utkarsh seemed to be enjoying himself. It wasn't something he wanted to witness so he clenched his fingers into Krissan's back and pulled his lips inwards, while his eyes laid towards them. Richa wasn't just overwhelmed, but her mind was equally boggled. She realized how Parth and Niti were relating to Manik and Nandini in real life as well.

Afterwards there were few MaNan scenes which Parth and Niti shot followed by a wrap up. Parth offered to drop Niti home, but the heart-breaking scenes of Nandini had impaired Niti's emotions on a deeper level and she softly declined as she would rather wanted to be alone at that time, but Parth's consistent worries drove him to follow behind Niti's autorickshaw until he was assured Niti reach her apartment safely. Before anyone noticed his presence, he sneakily drove out from her area as swiftly as possible.

At reaching home, he decided to inspect the fan wars which Niti mentioned earlier as he was mounted with responsibilities to find cures for Niti and not towards his celebrity life earlier. He espied the root cause of the problem from many fans outbursts and learned that fans abhorred the way he has been behaving towards Niti. He was stunned to see disgraceful comments under his Instagram posts. It wasn't what these fans were speculating, but to everyone's surprise, instead of nullifying the matter by his clarification which fans hoped, Parth posted a selfie with Krissan and Charlie to distract some of his fans from attacking Niti. Shrewdly, he captioned his post as a mystery of many things happening between him and Niti. Of course, he wasn't welcomed with petals and crowns. His offensive post about Niti was sure to incensed many fans who were already miffed with his attitude. Parth was audacious enough to induce more hatred towards him because now fans were certain Parth had zero respect for Niti and that he didn't care to solve any quarrels between his friends and her. When the post flew to Niti as well, she was displeased because Krissan and Charlie were someone who degraded her in front of everyone. She knew the long quest of this vicious fan wars isn't going to end so soon, but at least she had Parth on her side, and despite she believed he knew nothing of her past, he was helping her to prevent the resurrection of her past memories and for that she was grateful.