"A murder has been committed in the capital city Delhi. The murder was that of a 26 years old museum curator who was found to be dead when a delivery service man came to give her ordered belongings. She was amputated with her tongue cut off, leading to a gruesome death. When asked, the police refused to provide a statement, denying any questions. Is it enough proof for the police to realise how much of a failure they are? The fates of many like Miss Anu-"
Ishan hurriedly switched the TV off that was bearing the news of a murder committed in his hometown. The moment he managed to put the remote back on the table, the task he almost failed because of his inborn clumsiness, his brother entered the room in his uniform, all set to go to the police station.
"Good morning, bhaiya," Ishan greeted, his mouth stuffed with cereal, rendering his expression somewhat comical.
"Morning, don't talk while eating, the food may enter your wind pipe." Hardik, the Superintendent of the police department said, pouring himself a cup of tea.
"Aye aye, Captain." Ishan mock saluted him, then took his sweet time to chew the food properly and made a show out of it.
"Are you late for school today?" His elder brother asked, taking his last sip and placed the cup in the sink.
"Yes, I indeed am. I mistakenly equated 1 hour to 5 minutes." Ishan confirmed his suspicion.
Hardik sighed, "How about I offer you a ride since Krunal has already left?" Although meant as a suggestion, his words carried the weight of instruction as he reached for his keys.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Ishan smirked.
______________________________________
Dewdrops trickled down the car windshield as the vehicle glided beyond their neighborhood, en route to the high school.
Ishan in his mind, cheered for the dew drop in the lead to win his self imagined dew drop race. But to his dismay, the drop in the bottom of the line merged with another. And with their twin efforts won the race, leaving his chosen one in the dust. In this case, a dew drop.
"How's your studying coming along?" Hardik inquired from his seat behind the wheel, breaking Ishan's concentration leading his telepathy to go in vain to help his chosen one in another race.
"Had a test last week. Aced it." Ishan answered smugly and turned his head towards Hardik, expecting some sort of appreciation.
"Don't look at me like that. It's not a big deal, me and Krunal did that all the time. Moreover, your principal called." Ishan stiffened beside him.
"Care to explain why you punched Rohan?" Hardik gave him his infamous 'No nonsense' look which he often used on his suspects.
Kyunki woh bkl hain, Ishan thought. It was his initial response. But it would do him no good other than earning him more of the lecture that his brother planned to give, so he bit his lips to stop his trash mouth from speaking.
"He's a school bully, who likes to slander whoever he believes is inferior to him which definitely includes me. Actually, I am his number one favourite. So, I punched him." Ishan explained, replicating how his fist connected with Rohan's face in slow motion three days prior. Not forgetting to imitate Rohan's shock striken face that couldn't believe that someone had the guts to retaliate him.
"Ok. And?" Hardik asked expectantly after taking in the provided information.
"And what?" Ishan questioned back even though he knew that his brother meant it as a rhetorical question, since he was a discipliner himself.
"The aftermath. Who won the fight, obviously?" Hardik asked as a matter of fact and .... smirked.
Ishan's expression shifted from confusion to understanding, a smug grin creeping onto his face as he deciphered the hidden message in Hardik's words. Sensing his brother's tacit approval to speak his mind without fear of a lecture, Ishan boldly continued,
"I, duh. That feeble bull of a guy, fell straight on him as- butt from the first punch alone. And later tried to give a fight but when he knew he would have gotten a few broken bones in return, he ran around shouting how it was me who started it. Obviously, no one believed him except our so called teachers. But the look on his face that day was enough to make me sleep peacefully for a couple of days."
Hardik snorted, showing his appreciation. And quickly added, "Tabhi main sochu Kumbhkaran hamare ghar kyun padhare hain."
Ishan scoffed at the implication, dismissing it with a roll of his eyes.
"You know this already, don't you. That's why you offered me icecream yesterday." Ishan contemplated.
"That was for a job well done.", Hardik remarked with a smirk.
Ishan chuckled softly, knowing his brother, this was exactly something he would.
Hardik with his duty as the Superintendent of Police doesn't get enough time to spend in his home. Their brother Krunal who served in the same precinct as the Additional Superintendent of Police had already left for work earlier that day. But then, he wanted to spend time with his fiance as they were engaged three months ago.
His own accomplishments as an honest officer and the attitude of a workaholic requires him more time than necessary in his job. So, they try as much as they can to never make their baby brother feel the absence of their parents who died in a car accident when they both the elder brothers were 7 and 9, and Ishan just an infant.
"How are your friends doing?" Hardik inquired.
"Great."
"Just great?"
"Nope, when will they settle for just great. Oh! They do." Ishan exclaimed as if he found an answer to the Big Bang theory.
"When the great includes tormenting me. Mayank and Abhishek, why did I even clear their misunderstandings?" Ishan fake regretted. "Why didn't my great self just let them be sullen and gloomy?"
"Because they are your friends and they very much like each other." Hardik answered taking his rhetorical question as an actual one.
"You are not supposed to answer that. Besides, if I just had let them think that they both had interest in someone else then this day would have never come. Everybody would have lived happily ever after. But now, it's me who has to sit there, with them making those gooey, uncute, vomitable faces." Ishan ranted his misery that he had been bottling up inside him since a certain someone hadn't listened to him.
"Atleast there's Shubman who is suffering the same fate as you." Hardik squinted his eyes at him when he didn't acknowledge him.
"Did something happen between you two?"
"No" Ishan looked out of the window and sulked.
"Then-" Hardik's sentence was interrupted by Ishan who sounded too willing to change the subject.
"So, how's bhabi?" Ishan swiftly redirected the conversation in a different direction. His brother occasionally caught onto these subtle maneuvers, but to everyone else, Ishan's skill at changing the subject whenever discussions became too intense or distressing remained unnoticed.
"Oh, she's probably doing well. Haven't heard from her in weeks. But Krunal is going to meet her today for an evening date," Hardik responded, despite being aware of Ishan's attempt to change the subject.
"But I meant your bhabi. Of course not your bhabi but your bhabi." Ishan suggestively wiggled his eyebrows.
The car came to a sudden halt as the view to their right revealed the iconic Abhayajuli Public School.
"Oh look, we reached your school. Get out now, you are already running late. " Hardik made shoo shoo gestures at him.
"That ain't fair." Ishan said as he hopped off the car.
"Everything is fair in love and war." Hardik quoted.
"So, you admit it you love her." Ishan chuckled.
Hardik spluttered.
"Be safe." Ishan bid goodbye, giggling at his brother's antics as the car disappeared.
Ishan entered his class, the room before the last. To no one's surprise, Mayank and Abhishek were talking animatedly with each other, forgetting Shubman's lingering presence, who looked really tired from thirdwheeling and was one step away from vomiting all over the lovebirds.
Shubman instantly perked up when Ishan went over to them, unlike the bastards who unintentionally ignored Ishan's glooming figure, too engrossed in their ongoing conversation about who looked best in their childhood photos. Typical couple things.
"Hey!" Shubman chirped.
Then, only the lovebirds took their sweet time to glance up at their fourth member.
"Hi" They greeted together in sync then resumed whatever shit they were doing in the first place. Not even waiting for Ishan to greet them back.
Ishan sat back on the chair next to Shubman. But the fact that he deliberately ignored Shubman didn't go unnoticed.
"Are you angry with me?" Shubman asked, straight to the point. No are you okay? Did something terrible happen other than me completely forgetting our sleepover?
Ishan remained silent, despite his attempts to convince himself that he was only trying to make Shubman aware of his mistake. Deep down, he knew he was relishing Shubman's undivided attention on him.
"Is this about our yesterday's cancelled sleepover?"
"Of course not, cancellation is done by two very agreeing people, not one. The correct word would be 'ignoration'." Ishan exploded with a hint of sarcasm.
"So, this is about yesterday. Do you want to know why I didn't respond to any of your calls and messages?" Shubman asked.
"No, and I don't want to know." Ishan huffed, slumping his shoulders down like a pitiful child.
"It was because Anupriya is dead."
What the fuck??!!!!