Chapter 4: Directions of Destiny

[Self-note: "///" means a change in the scene took place]

…Suddenly an unknown person appears behind Veer.

"Yo! Mind if I sit with you guys for lunch." ...

"Yes, we mind. Please fuck off." Said Veer with a playful sarcastic tone while not knowing who was standing behind him.

"Bruhhhh," Abhi replied with a discouraged tone.

Wait, it's him, we can get to know him right now. Veer better not ruin this opportunity. Dep and Kevin thought to themselves.

"He is just goofin' around. Come sit with us." Kevin reassures him while displaying a forced smile.

"What, why are we letting someone sit with us? Asked Veer without realizing who was behind him.

"Turn around you freaking moron" Dep whispered to Veer.

Ain't no way. It's him, it's Abhi.

"Damn, almost got me ha-ha." Said Abhi with an awkward smile while standing behind Veer.

" *cough* my bad *cough* I just can't help myself. Gotta do a little bit of trolling ya know..." Said Veer after realizing that the key to unlock the truth had walked towards them with its own two legs.

"It's all right… If y'all forgot about me, I'm-".

"Abhi! Your Abhi. We know you mate. Only one person had an intro we didn't immediately forget the next minute." Said Kevin.

"Yeah, everyone was shocked. Are you really from Rakvill?" Veer asked nonchalantly.

"Yes." Answered Abhi bluntly, in a second, he continued:

"Also, it's been a few hours so I could have forgotten some of y'all names by now. Can I double-check because the last thing we want is not knowing each other's names for years to come right?".

"Yeah, it's fine." Said Dep.

The three of them were going to reintroduce themselves but Abhi started speaking before they even got a chance to.

"Veer, the Orange-haired skinny dude who likes MMA." Said Abhi while pointing at Veer who was sitting next to him.

"Damn! That's a description." Said Veer.

"I'm sorry, that's just how I memorize things. It's a habit… actually more like an instinct."

"Okie dokie." Said Veer.

"Kevin, the big black buff dude. I mean, the dude with long black hair who likes going to the gym?"

"I'll take that as a compliment ha-ha." Said Kevin.

"And… Deep?"

"Nuhuh, it's Dep. Also, why don't I get a Memory Description as well, huh?" Said Dep.

"Oh sorry, I'll try next time." Replied Abhi.

"Heh, so you are gonna forget my name again? So bad, at least you could have mentioned my pretty brown hair." Said Dep in a silly grumpy tone while pouting her lips.

"Stop pulling his leg." Said Kevin.

"Ha-ha, it's fine." Said Abhi.

"By the way, Is Abhi like a shortened name? I go by Dep, shortened from Deepika, so is your real name Abhishek or Abhijit?" Asked Dep

"No, it's just Abhi; which literally just means 'Now' Quite funny, isn't it."

"Pretty cool yeah." Said Veer.

"Nice, so when did you come to town?" Asked Kevin in an attempt to pry into the mystery behind Abhi.

"Just a few months ago... I also have a part-time job after school." Said Abhi.

"Oh, so did you leave Rakvill around the end of last year?" Asked Kevin.

"Maybe…. I don't exactly remember." Answered Abhi.

"Really? Wasn't that around the time the war had ended?" Said Veer.

Kevin subtly looks at Veer, gazing at him with his piercing eyes. Expressing displeasure over Veer asking that question.

"I don't know, by the way, my job gives me a house to live in as a bonus," Said Abhi, perhaps in an attempt to divert from the trio's questions.

"Hey, that's pretty cool, I do hear about some hard jobs giving these types of facilities from my father." Said Dep with an energetic tone to Abhi.

"Well, it's work at a steel factory, so it's as hard as it gets around here, no pun intended." Said Abhi while softly chuckling.

The rest of the group also lets out a giggle which eases the atmosphere a bit.

"Great, by the way, I wanted to ask if you know anything about incident 99 of Rakv-" Kevin gets interrupted while finishing his sentence.

"Heyyy Abhi, wanna try some of Paneer Tikka?" Veer interrupted that question, giving Kevin the same piercing gaze he received from him just moments before.

"Oh thanks, Veer but I'll have to pass, you don't have much food left."

"Ay, don't worry 'bout it, I ate plenty. You can eat as much as you want. Well, I wouldn't mind sharing your food either, my parents don't want me to eat the Mid-day meal, and the food lady rats me out if I get some without my parent's permission, so I really would like to try some. Equivalent Exchange ya know."

"Ha-ha, Alright then I'll appreciate your Paneer Tikka, my friend," Said Abhi in a light-hearted comical tone. 

"Ha-ha, go ahead, it's all yours." Veer slid his tiffin box towards Abhi, and then Abhi joined his hands and said a quick prayer.

He takes a bite of the food and, for a second sits there silently staring at nothing.

"Wow, it's amazing, Veer. Thank your mom for me please." Said Abhi while slowly chewing the bite in his mouth. 

"Sure, though my chef made the dish, not my mom." Said Veer.

"Oh… Well, say thanks to your chef as well then." Said Abhi in a silly tone

"Sure ha-ha." Veer chuckled back at Abhi.

"I need to go to the bathroom real quick. I'll be right back" Said Abhi, then he slowly stood up and walked away.

The group gazed at Abhi while he slowly walked towards the building, they did not speak a single word until he finally entered the school building. As soon as he was out of sight:

"That was sudden." Said Dep while gazing at the entrance of the building where Abhi was last seen.

"Kevin, you dummy, what if he left because of you." Said Veer with a stern irritated voice.

"What did I do?" Said Kevin while creasing his eyebrows in confusion.

"Weren't you piercing me with those gloomy eyes of yours when I was asking Abhi about the exact time he left Rakvill?" Said Veer

"Yeah, asking that question was too personal, too quick. He could've become suspicious of why you were digging for information so hard." Replied Kevin.

"So why did you go straight to asking about incident 99? Wouldn't it be even worse?" Said Veer.

"..." Kevin knitted his eyebrows while he thought about Veer's words in silence.

"Fair point, my bad. So how do we get this information from him without raising suspicion?" Said Kevin.

"I agree, asking about the incident 99 might be a bit too personal for him. Then what if we…" Dep proposed a plan to 'naturally' get that information out of Abhi.

"That works" Replied Kevin and Veer together.

///

A few minutes later, Abhi walked out of the school building. He then walked towards the tree the group was sitting under and greeted them.

"Hey, I'm back." Said Abhi, but to him, everyone seemed to be deep in a conversation and didn't notice him. He sits down silently on his own beside Veer.

"Yeah, and do you think this has something to do with the incident 99… Oh hey didn't see you there Abhi." Said Veer turning to look at Abhi while acting as if he took a pause from a deep conversation.

"Hey..." Said Abhi with an awkward smile. He starts to eat his mid-day meal again, alongside a little bit of the Paneer Tikka Veer kept aside for him. "Hey Veer, thanks for keeping a share of your food for me." Said Abhi. 

"No worries, enjoy." Replied Veer with a Gentle smile on his face.

Veer, Dep, and Kevin all three look towards each other for a second, and in the next instance Dep who was sitting opposite Abhi speaks up.

"What happened today was crazy right?"

"You mean the stuff with the president?" Replied Abhi with a confused expression.

"Yeah, we were just talking about that. Even after a few hours I still can't believe what happened." Said Kevin while looking straight at Abhi with his gloomy eye.

"Yeah, a warning about a terrorist attack from the president of the country is a pretty wild thing to happen on the first day of the school." Said Abhi with a small chuckle.

"Not just that he even gave the students a task isn't that just feral." Said Dep with her eyebrows flared up high, showcasing a shocked expression. A bit too shocked.

"Yeah, he talked about the task of collecting information regarding the terrorist attacks and all that." Said Veer flamboyantly. A bit too flamboyantly…

"Oh yeah, I was a bit scared when he talked about all dat. I also noticed something; the teacher said that the info video is extremely important for everyone yet she didn't take roll call to confirm everyone is present." Said Abhi.

"Probably because only one specific person's life was supposed to be influenced by that message." Mumbled Veer softly while looking at the ground.

"What did you say?" Asked Abhi in confusion. 

"It's nothing just… just forget about him, let's talk about you. So Abhi, you are from Rakvill yourself, right? So do you think today's video had something to do with the Incident 99?" Said Kevin in a subtle friendly tone with an unusual glint in his usually gloomy eyes and a bright smile on his face. Slightly too bright…

All three of them subtly looked at Abhi's reaction with razor-sharp attention, they planned to get Abhi to talk about incident 99 on his own while partaking in a normal conversation they fabricated in order to avoid any suspicion. But the reaction they got was… unexpected.

"I… I don't… I don't know… I don't know." Abhi stumbled upon his words, his posture was relaxed yet completely still with not a single ounce of movement. His eyes were… empty and pointed in the same direction, without a single blink. It seemed like he was thinking about something yet it also seemed like there was nothing but darkness behind those dark brown eyes. His pupils suddenly dilated, eclipsing most of his eyeballs.

A full 10 seconds passed and all three of them looked at each other, concerned about Abhi's suspended state of silence.

"Abhi... ABHI! Are you ok?" Veer held his shoulder and shook him out of his previous state.

"I need to go today?... Oh wait… yeah, I'm fine. Just phased out I guess, happens sometimes." Replied Abhi while rubbing his eyes with his wrists.

He was acting as if he just woke up from a deep lucid dream.

For a second the three of them looked at each other with uncertainty.

Could this be a sign of us pushing him too much for information?

They thought, still subtly signaling each other to keep going forward.

"No way bros just daydreaming that deep." Said Dep in a joking tone.

"Haha, it do be like that sometimes *yawns*." Replied Abhi.

"Here, have some water" Kevin extended his water bottle towards Abhi.

"Thanks mate but I got some water with me, I'll be fine." Abhi politely declines Kavin.

"Alright, though I've wanted to ask you something." Said Kevin while putting down his water bottle.

"What is it?" Abhi asked with creased eyebrows.

"Why did you reveal you are from Rakvill? You are aware that there are a lot of stigmas against the people of Rakvill right? Even if everyone assumed you came here legally, they might still treat you with indifference."

Abhi didn't immediately reply as he was drinking out of his water bottle.

"Yeah actually, you could've just kept it a secret right?" Veer said while collaborating with Kevin in his efforts to dig for information.

As Abhi finished drinking his water and closed its lid Veer and Kevin subtly looked at each other as they were eagerly anticipating the result of their collaborated efforts.

Abhi finally speaks:

"Well, if I'm being honest… I just heard all of your colorful intros, with loads of hobbies and interesting backgrounds. But I just can't remember anything special about myself so in the moment, I just blurted out my own background in an attempt to make myself sound interesting." Answered Abhi with his head facing down towards the ground and his left hand fiddling with his hair with a shy demeanor.

Kevin, Dep, and Veer looked at each other for a second and started laughing out loud.

"Uhm! Is that really so funny?" Asked Abhi while looking mildly confused.

"No, we just… *still laughing*... we just thought there would be a deeper reason behind revealing your homeland to the entire class ha-ha." Said Dep while laughing.

"Well, that was all ha-ha," said Abhi while awkwardly smiling back.

All of them had a few seconds of laughter together. As they calmed down, Dep realized that Abhi had his guard down while laughing, and used this opportunity to get more information.

"Wait a second, I just realized another thing about your intro, you didn't say your last name while introducing yourself, is there a reason for that?" Asked Dep with a soft tone and a genuine smile.

Abhi suddenly stopped moving again...

"*Cough* Uhm *burp* Sorry guys I have to go to the…. I'm gonna have to leave right now, let's talk some other time." Abhi didn't answer Dep's question and instead packed his stuff and jogged towards the school building. 

.....