NOVEL WEB Chapter 7: Plan 'O' Fool
"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.
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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 colourful 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 demeanour.
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.
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