Topsy- turvy

Manya opened her eyes and found a man seated on the chair near the bed she had been lying on. The person seemed to have fallen asleep while holding her hand, with his head resting on the edge of the bed. There was another man in the room, who was somehow familiar- very familiar. Her vision was still slightly blurry, but her eyesight was becoming clearer with each passing second. Once she could see perfectly well, she called out loudly, using every bit of energy she had left in her veins, "Arjun!"  

Arjun and Ishaan both woke up, startled by her voice. They both looked at each other for a brief second, as if to confirm that her voice wasn't just a hallucination and that both of them had, indeed, heard her call out. After seeing their confusion mirrored on each other's faces, they finally looked towards Manya.

Ishaan almost ran forward, towards her bed before he stopped in his tracks, abruptly realising that she had called out for Arjun, not him. Meanwhile, Arjun had stood up from the chair with a delighted expression on his face, as if a five year old kid had finally been taken to Disneyland after much pleading. But his face fell immediately, when he saw Manya looking expectantly in Ishaan's direction, as if waiting for him to say something.

He dismissed the doubts that were quick to arise in his mind and said sweetly, "Yes, Minnie? Do you want something? How are you feeling now?" 

But his remaining strength was drained out of him when she whipped her head around towards him, perplexity clouding her face. She jerked her hand out of his grip, asking indignantly "Excuse me? Why are you answering on his behalf, when I called out for Arjun? And why were you holding my hand just now?"

Arjun was staring at Manya, stumped. His mouth hung open, and all the joy that he had been experiencing up until a moment ago was replaced with dread. 

*He was trying desperately to come up with words, any coherent string of words in either of the languages he knew, to give as an answer to her questions; each one of which had struck him like a ton of bricks- strike one, two, three, OUT! Even now, as she was looking at him with that puzzled expression, one eyebrow raised, demanding explanations; he could do nothing but stare blankly ahead.*

"Not again, not again," he mumbled to himself as his brain slowly came to grips with the situation. 

*She had forgotten about him YET AGAIN?! The same thing again? Well, not exactly the same, an annoying voice in his head corrected him. No, it was not like the previous incidents- this time, she did remember his name, but she had apparently misplaced his face with Ishaan's! Seriously, was this actually happening right now? At this point, he was pretty sure that he had messed with some powerful deity in his past life, who had chosen this way to exact their revenge. Yet again, what he desired most was dangled in front of him as bait, and it had turned out to be a trap; yet again, he was left with his hands grasping for treasure and coming up with emptiness. Arjun Chauhan, did you ring the doorbell of Satan's den and run away, because this seemed to be an apt punishment for such a prank! Who else would carefully script such mirages into his life, if not Satan himself, trying to derive satisfaction by punishing him?*

The moment Arjun's rant ended in his mind, Doctor Maheshwari entered the room and saw Manya in her conscious state, unaware of the circumstances that had panned out.

"Arjun, kiddo, how are you?" Arjun could only nod in greeting as Dr.Maheshwari stepped towards the bed to examine Manya. Grabbing her wrist to check her pulse, he asked "How are you feeling now, child? Are you feeling nauseous, or any troubling sensation in your stomach?"

Manya pulled out her hand from his grip real quick and screamed, "Would anybody care to tell me what the hell is going on? Why are you calling this random guy Arjun, when Arjun is standing right there?"

Doctor Maheshwari gathered the seriousness of the situation and quickly pulled out a spinning top-like object. He struck it against the side of a table, causing it to make a tingling sound, due to which Manya collapsed on the bed.

Both the boys freaked out after seeing this and shouted at the same time, "WHAT have you done to her?!" 

"Relax kids! I have just hypnotised her to properly reveal the memory she has come across. We are lucky that she has recalled your name; probably, soon after this, she will remember everything else as well. If you guys don't mind, please leave the room till I am done with the procedure."

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It had been two hours since Doctor Maheshwari started the procedure, but there was no sign of either of them coming out of the room yet. The wait was killing both of them, as they paced about the lobby anxiously, trying to avoid collision with each other. There had been times when either of them had wanted to say something, but then decided against it and as such, the two hours had passed by in nervous silence.

After fifteen more minutes of waiting, the door finally opened, and they rushed into the room to find Manya, their eyes bloodshot. 

Her first reaction after seeing them was to exclaim, "Mr.Ishaan Arena! As the head designer of ARENA's, this will be my last project as I never break my promises. And after that, we shall resume to be strangers to each other."

She completed the sentence and turned towards Arjun, and spoke "And Mr. Arjun Chauhan, or should I call you Juno?! I always thought that you are the only person in the entire world who knows me well, and knows the fact that I hate lies. And yet, look at you, getting along with this imposter! He has cheated me for the past twelve years, and you found your loyalty tucked away in his court, instead of mine!  I guess I have no friends anymore, so you better not show me this pretty face of yours anymore, or it won't remain as pretty!"

She then turned to Doctor Maheshwari and broke out into sobs. "Can you please call my mom and ask her to come here? I am the worst daughter in the world, indeed; not only was I not able to save my family, but also blamed it all on my own mother!"

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A/N- Hello my lovelies! Thank you for supporting me and my characters so far, I hope you have enjoyed the chapter! Well, the sassy Manya is back with most of her memories and grudges intact. Are you ready to go on this journey with her? Brace yourselves, because it's going to be a fun ride. Sending my love to you all! (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

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