Suddenly, an unknown person appeared behind Veer.

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

"Yes, we mind. Please fuck off," Veer replied in a playful, sarcastic tone, still unaware of who was standing behind him.

"Bruhh," The person standing behind responded, sounding discouraged.

Dep and Kevin nonchalantly gaze at each other with an unperturbed look. But internally they were screaming for Veer to not blow this opportunity.

…

"He’s just goofing around. Come sit with us," Kevin reassured him while forcing a smile.

Veer lowered his voice and leaned closer to Kevin. "What? Why are we letting someone sit with us?" Veer asked, still not realizing who was behind him.

Dep leaned closer towards Veer and whispered in his ear "Turn around, you freaking moron,".

Veer turned around and his eye lit up with surprise. ‘No way. It’s him; it’s Abhi!’ he thought to himself.

"Damn, you almost got me! Ha-ha," Abhi said with an awkward smile as he stood behind Veer.

"*Cough* my bad. *Cough* I just can’t help myself. Gotta do a little bit of trolling, you know..." Veer said, finally realizing that the key to unlocking the truth had willingly walked straight into their pockets.

"It’s all right… If you all forgot about me, I’m—"

"Abhi! Your Abhi. We know you, mate. There’s only one person who had an intro we didn’t forget the next minute," Kevin interjected.

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

"Yes," Abhi answered bluntly, then continued: "Also, it’s been a few hours, so I could have forgotten some of your names by now. Can I double-check? The last thing we want is for years to go by without knowing each other's names, right?"

"Yeah, that’s fine," said Dep.

They were all about to reintroduce themselves when Abhi spoke up first.

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

"Damn! That’s one way to describe me," Veer replied.

"I’m sorry; that’s just how I memorize things. It’s a habit… more like an instinct," Abhi explained.

"Okie dokie," said Veer.

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

"I’ll take that as a compliment, ha-ha," Kevin laughed.

"And… Deep?" Abhi continued.

"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 luscious brown hair." Said Dep in a silly grumpy tone while pouting her lips.

“Uhhmm” Abhi reacted….

"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, seemingly divergent 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."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"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 comically high-pitched 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 school 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 furrowed his brows, considering Veer's words in silence.

"That's a fair point; my bad," Kevin admitted his mistake. "So how do we gather this information without raising suspicion?"

"I agree that directly asking about incident 99 might be too personal for him. What if we..." Dep suggested a plan to 'naturally' coax that information out of Abhi.

...

"That sounds good," Kevin and Veer replied in unison.

///

A few minutes later, Abhi walked out of the school building and headed towards the tree where the group was sitting. He greeted them, saying, "Hey, I'm back." However, everyone seemed engrossed in a deep conversation and didn't notice him. He quietly took a seat beside Veer.

"Yeah, do you think this has something to do with the incident 99… Oh, hey! I didn't see you there, Abhi," Veer said, glancing over at him as if he had just paused from his conversation.

"Hey..." Abhi replied with an awkward smile. He began eating his midday meal, enjoying some of the Paneer Tikka that Veer had saved for him. "Thanks for keeping a share of your food for me," Abhi added.

"No worries, enjoy," Veer responded with a gentle smile on his face.

Veer, Dep, and Kevin exchanged glances for a moment. Dep then turned her eyes to Abhi, who was sitting opposite her, and spoke up.

"What happened today was crazy, right?"

"You mean the stuff with the president?" Abhi replied, a confused expression on his face.

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

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

"Not just that; he even gave the students a task. Isn’t that just insane?" Dep said, raising her eyebrows in shock.

"Yeah, he talked about the task of gathering information regarding the terrorist attacks and all that," Veer added theatrically.

"Oh yeah, I was a bit scared when he mentioned it. I also noticed something: the teacher said that the informational video is extremely important for everyone, yet she didn’t call the roll to confirm who was present," Abhi pointed out.

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

"What did you say?" Abhi asked, confusion evident in his voice.

"It's nothing; just forget about him. Let's talk about you. So, Abhi, you're from Rakvill yourself, right? Do you think today's video had something to do with Incident 99?" Kevin said in a subtly friendly tone, his usually gloomy eyes sparkling with an unusual glint and a bright smile on his face—perhaps too bright.

The three of them exchanged glances, subtly observing Abhi's reaction. They had planned to get him to open up about Incident 99 while engaging in a casual conversation to avoid raising any suspicion. However, the reaction they received was unexpected.

"I... I don't… I don't know..." Abhi stumbled over his words. His posture was relaxed yet completely still; not a single muscle twitched. His eyes appeared empty, fixed on the same spot without blinking. It seemed he was deep in thought, yet there was a void behind those dark brown eyes. Suddenly, his pupils dilated, eclipsing most of his irises.

A full ten seconds passed, and the three of them glanced at each other, concern etched on their faces regarding Abhi's frozen state of silence.

"Abhi... ABHI! Are you okay?" Veer asked, shaking him gently by the shoulder to bring him back to reality.

"I need to go today? Oh wait… yeah, I'm fine. Just phased out, I guess. Happens sometimes," Abhi replied, rubbing his eyes with his wrists as if awakening from a deep lucid dream.

The three felt a moment of uncertainty, wondering if they had pushed him too hard for information. Still, they signalled to one another to continue.

"No way, broski was just daydreaming that deep," Dep joked.

"Haha, it do be like that sometimes," Abhi replied with a yawn.

"Here, have some water," Kevin said, extending his water bottle toward Abhi.

"Thanks, mate, but I’ve got some water with me. I’ll be fine," Abhi politely declined.

"Alright, though I've wanted to ask you something," Kevin continued, setting down his water bottle.

"What is it?" Abhi asked, eyebrows furrowed.

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

Abhi didn't respond immediately, drinking from his water bottle instead.

"Yeah, you could've just kept it a secret," Veer added, collaborating with Kevin to dig for more information.

As Abhi finished drinking and closed the lid of his bottle, Veer and Kevin exchanged eager glances, waiting for his response.

"Well, if I'm being honest… I just heard all of your colourful introductions, with loads of hobbies and interesting backgrounds. I couldn't think of anything special about myself, so I just blurted out my background in an attempt to sound interesting," Abhi admitted, looking down at the ground and fiddling with his hair in a shy manner.

Kevin, Dep, and Veer exchanged glances with each other.

...

...

...

And burst into loud and carefree laughter.

"Is that really so funny?" Abhi asked, looking mildly confused.

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

"Well, that was all, ha-ha," Abhi replied with an awkward smile. They shared a few more seconds of laughter. As they calmed down, Dep noticed that Abhi had lowered his guard, and she seized the opportunity to ask more.

"Wait a second, I just realized another thing about your intro: you didn't say your last name. Is there a reason for that?" asked Dep, his tone soft and his smile genuine.

Abhi suddenly stopped moving again.

"*Cough* Uhm... *burp* Sorry guys, I have to go to the… I’m going to have to leave now. Let’s talk some other time," Abhi said hurriedly, avoiding Dep's question as he packed his things and jogged toward the school building.

..........