abhijeet carefully examined a video playing on his computer, as pasi too was taking notes, side-by-side, their eyes completely glued on the screen. suddenly, abhijeet hit the spacebar, to pause the video. he zoomed in, only to reveal anushka's face, an oddly agitated nervousness on her face. 

"hmm, dekho, bilkul sahi shak nikla tumhara...aise jawab bata rahi thi jaise maths ke ratte hue formulae bolne ko kaha ho..." pointed abhijeet, as pasi nodded, looking over to his notes. 

"aur sir yeh har bayaan mein baatein gol-gol karke ghoomaye jaa rahi hai ek hi taraf, ki isne jasmine ko dekha tha jaane se pehle, saumya ki body ke paas jaate hue..." informed pasi, as abhijeet raised his brow. 

"par yeh toh saumya aur arjun ki ladaayi ke baad hi nikal gayi thi, darr gayi thi na soch kar ki saumya marr gayi hai?" questioned abhijeet, as pasi nodded. 

"wahi toh sir, achanak se bayaan kyun badlegi yeh? kyunki kai baar questioning ki humne, aisa toh nahi hai isko tab kuch yaad naa aaya ho, joh ab aa gaya..." expressed pasi his suspicion, when paswan entered. 

"sir, saara data joh retrieve kiya tha anushka ke phone se, woh aapke system pe transfer ho gaya hai." informed paswan, as abhijeet nodded. 

"dekhte hain, kaun isse yeh formulae ratwa raha hai..." remarked abhijeet, as he opened the hard drive on his system with the transferred data. 

he immediately opened the whatsapp chat data, scrolling through the recent contacts, same as her frequently contacted, nothing unusual in the chat history on the surface. 

when his glance fell on a contact, where the last message read, 'tu theek toh haina?', that too at 1 am today itself. 

he clicked on the chat, as the window appeared, 5 messages at once were received by anushka from the contact, they went as follows:

'kya? yaar tune yeh pehle kyun nahi bataya!'

'dekh, ek baar soch le...this is serious'

'yaar mujhe batati toh tu..'

'parents kya keh rahe hai?'

'tu theek toh haina?' 

unfortunately, the message these replies came for, was deleted, leaving another clue for abhijeet to figure out. 

                                                               ***

nihaal was quietly packing his bag for school, he glanced at the clock, it was 7:10, he realised he had to leave soon, as he quickly zipped his bag up and was about to pick it up to hang it around his shoulder, when he saw purvi and kavin bringing bani home, through the entrance. she still looked weak, just like the last time he saw her, disdain and anger immediately coming across his face, he couldn't help but look away. 

he placed the shoulder strap on one of his shoulder, holding it down, letting it hang, pacing away quickly to leave.

he was by the door in a matter of few seconds, when bani looked at him helplessly, as he just glared at her in disbelief, walking away right past her. 

purvi, who noticed all this, watched him walk away, something cooking up in her mind already. 

                                                                 ***

gautam was working on his computer, when there was a knock on his door, he replied to come in to the recipient, when ishita entered. he looked up to see her immediately, as she stepped closer to his table, sitting on the chair in front of it. 

"toh dedi phir, dushyant ko woh information joh usse chahiye thi?" questioned ishita, as he noddded. 

"kya baat hai, abhi bhi tumhe directly nahi batata woh, kuch pata chalne pe?" retorted gautam, as ishita placed her elbows on the table, leaning forward. 

"kya zaroorat hai usse baat karne ki, jab tumse kar sakti hoon?" remarked ishita in response, a smirk on her face crept up, as gautam couldn't help but scoff. 

"don't worry, i did exactly as you said...after all, usse pata kaise chalne deta hamare kaam ke baarein mein." stated gautam casually, as ishita leaned back, folding her arms. 

"pata bhi nahi chalna chahiye, you know better, if i go down, i'll take you down with me..." stated ishita bluntly in all seriousness, making gautam give her a piecing glance. 

"you know, itne saal ho gaye hain tumhe jaane hue, tumhe ek seedhi-saadhi middle class ghar ki ladki se kya bante hue dekha, and jab bhi mujhe lagta hai main tumhe samajh gaya hoon, you surprise me." stated gautam, in complete awe of the fact, as he had a rather a enamored glance at her. 

"maybe that's what you should learn already, never think you can get ahead of me." replied ishita, her eyes,  rather bitter, resentful, something very disturbing about it, maybe it was the unexplainability of it. 

                                                                                ***