A stark contrast to the peaceful and quiet atmosphere in Charan's home, the island was actually booming at the same time.

Bhavna had planned a campfire party that night in order to commemorate the weekend. She had been busy almost the whole afternoon arranging everything meticulously. From decorations to food, it had been hand-picked by Bhavna.

With booze and Dj blaring, the whole beach had lost its serenity until late that night. Instead, laughter and smiles of people lit the whole place like a festive season.

Everyone spent the evening laughing dancing and bantering with each other in merry. It was well past midnight when all the excitement subsided at last. Slowly one by one started calling it a night but some still stayed back. Even though the music was stopped and all the staff was dismissed, some of them still sat scattered around the beach and enjoyed the tranquility of the night on the beach. Even some staff members stayed behind.

Amongst the loitering people, there was also Shreya.

As always, Srinivas and Zack called it a day and went to bed after having their fill. Akash, on the other hand, took Madhu for a walk along the beach. Zee and Pritam got a call in the middle of the party itself and were yet to come back.

That left with Shreya, Bhavna, Ayush, and Nakul staying behind at the beach.

Shreya just laid back lazily on the sand and looked around with a blank expression. Normally, she would have gone to sleep herself, but because of her insomnia in recent times, she did not dare to crash for the night until she was dead beat tired. But more than that, the main reason for her to actually staying behind on the beach was, of course, to keep an eye on Bhavna.

Throughout the past week, she noticed that Ayush had been giving a little too much attention to Bhavna. His intentions were pretty obvious to almost everyone in there except for the oblivious self of Bhavna herself. Akash even gave him a warning a few days back.

Not that she was objecting or suspecting that he might have some malicious intentions towards Bhavna. She knew Ayush's personality and she trusted them both or else she wouldn't have brought Ayush and Nakul here in the first place and expose them to her family...

But then no matter how good a guy is.. nobody is ever going to be good enough for Bhavna in Shreya's overprotective eyes.

Her eyes inadvertently became cold seeing Ayush guarding Bhavna's drunken stumble and Nakul who was sitting diagonal to Shreya, of course, caught her eyes. Her dissatisfied frown was almost impossible to not notice. But then she did not do anything else. Her eyes stayed on them until they were almost out of her sight.

Nakul let out a chuckle and commented amused, "If only looks could kill, I am guessing Ayush is going to be 6 feet under by now.."

That is when Shreya noticed that there was someone else in there. She quickly averted her eyes from the two people walking away and gave her attention to Nakul instead. But she neither defended herself nor agreed with his comment.

"He is a good guy you know!" Nakul said staring back at Shreya seeing as she was not going to say anything.

Nakul and Ayush were together from diapers. Both were practically siblings. In fact, they were better than siblings. So, Nakul knew about Ayush more than anyone else.

Ayush's family used to live in Nakul's house as tenants. And Ayush being a year younger than Nakul stuck to him like a super glue from when they were kids. And it had not changed one bit till this date. It was almost impossible to see one without the other throughout their childhood.

Ayush even followed Nakul into the army in spite of his own family's vehement objection. But Nakul being a single child family also treated Ayush as his own family. He had protected and guarded Ayush almost throughout his life.

They both would have still been in the army if not for Ayush's dad falling ill all of a sudden. He was terminally ill with nobody to look after. That is when Ayush, at last, took the decision to quit the army. And for once, this time Nakul actually followed him out in spite of Ayush's objection.

But once they were out, they were jobless with a stalk of medical bills piling up. When they were most helpless, Shreya showed up and gave them both a job and also took care of Ayush's dad's medical expenses without a word. The rest of it was self-explanatory.

Shreya somehow seems to have the knack of finding and saving lonely, desperate people. Most probably, it was because she could easily relate to such people and their emotions.

Shreya after a long stretch of silence, let out a sigh and said, "I know. It's just.. if you had a sister, you will know.. nobody is ever going to seem good enough.. and it would have nothing to do with the other person whatsoever."

Nakul, of course, understood what she was talking about but this was not something any of them could do anything about anyways. And since Shreya was not really doing anything about it, Ayush would just have to suck it up.

Ayush on the other side of the beach was having a hard time reasoning with Bhavna actually.

Even when she was normal, Bhavna was one of the stubbornest people he had ever met. Add to it a couple of bottles of beer, you got yourself a whole lot of mess in your hands.

"Come on, Bhavna.. you are drunk. You are not even walking straight.?Let's get you back to bed.. okay?" Ayush tried to convince her nth time now.

Bhavna shook her head very sternly and kept walking.. or more like wobbling towards the water. It was not like she was going to be much of an obstacle if he wanted to stop her physically but he was also scared to manhandle her. After all, technically speaking, she is her boss even though he seemed to be infatuated with her.

Just as they reached the waves, Bhavna sat down in a squat and reached for the water with her hands. As soon as the cold water brushed against her palms, her brows frowned and she took back her hands in a hurry and winced.

Ayush sat beside her and asked seeing her pouting face, "What happened?"

"It's cold!" Bhavna said giving an accusing glare towards the water.

Even otherwise she almost always behaved like a kid.. it was more apparent when she was drunk. But Ayush did not seem to mind.

"I know.. that's why I stopped you from coming here. Now come on. Get up. Let's get back okay?" He asked holding on to her arms coaxing her to stand up.

But Bhavna still stubbornly shook her hands and pointing at the vast expense of sea and whined, "I want to go there.."

"Into the water?" Ayush asked confused. After all, she just complained the water was cold just a few minutes back.

But Bhavna nodded her head very diligently.

"But you will get wet.." Ayush replied. He really felt like he was talking to a kindergartner rather than a grown a.d.u.l.t.

Bhavna actually gave him a depressed look... She looked as if the whole world had abandoned her or something. But then suddenly in a minute of soberness, she got an idea and her face brightened instantly as she said excitedly, "Then you go in.. I will hop on your back. That way, I can walk in the water without getting wet."

Ayush gapped at her for a while dumbstruck.

If she was just going to hop on his back, how does that count as 'her' walking in the water exactly?

Seeing as he was not replying, Bhavna's face fell all over again as she gave him a pitiful look and asked, "You don't want to help me?"

Ayush resigned to his fate and squatted down in front of her and said, "Hop on.."

Bhavna brightened all over again and circled her arms around him excitedly as he walked into the chilling water. He walked just enough to keep her feet out of the water. His height played to his advantage.

Between her goofing around and puppy dog eyes, he actually got soaked fully while Bhavna sat down on the sand far away from water giggling away at his expense.

Shreya, who came in the check up on them, walked away seeing as they Bhavna was the one doing the bullying. Not that she had expected anything less from her.

"What? Didn't want to be a light bulb?" Nakul asked sarcastically seeing Shreya walking back.

Shreya did not bother to answer to his teasing. But instead, she swatted down and took her belongings calling it a night. But before walking away, she looked at Nakul and said, "You guys will the following Bhavna this time around. I will arrange for your accommodations near hers. Things are getting really tense here. I need trusted eyes on her.."

"Okay.. no problem. We will keep her safe.." Nakul said solemnly and watched her walked away.