Ryan didn't sleep that night.
He kept thinking about what Shaan said.
"Tomorrow… we do something dangerous."
Now it was tomorrow.
And Ryan was already regretting agreeing to this.
"So let me get this straight," Ryan said as they stood near the school gate. "Your 'dangerous plan' is to find someone whose timer is almost zero and interfere with their fate?"
Shaan nodded. "Exactly."
"That's not a plan," Ryan said. "That's suicide."
Shaan shrugged. "We need data. Right now, we're just guessing the rules. Guessing gets people erased. Data keeps people alive."
Ryan hated that Shaan was making sense.
They walked into the school courtyard together. Ryan immediately started looking around at the timers above people's heads.
12 days.
7 days.
18 days.
5 days.
9 days.
Then Ryan saw one that made him stop walking.
03:14:22
Ryan grabbed Shaan's arm. "There."
A tall student was standing near the basketball court, talking to his friends and laughing like nothing was wrong.
"3 days," Ryan said quietly.
Shaan followed his gaze. "Okay. He's our test subject."
Ryan looked uncomfortable. "He's a person, not a test subject."
"You know what I mean," Shaan said. "We observe him, figure out what's going to happen, and then we try to change it."
Ryan nodded slowly. "Observe first. No interference yet."
"Exactly," Shaan said. "We follow him after school."
After school, they followed the student from a distance.
His name, they learned, was Arjun Mehra. He was in the sports club, popular, and apparently very healthy.
"Does he look like someone who's going to disappear in 3 days?" Shaan asked.
Ryan shook his head. "No. That's what scares me."
They followed Arjun to the bus stop. He got on a bus. Ryan and Shaan got on too.
They watched him for two hours that day.
Nothing happened.
No accidents. No suspicious people. No dangerous situations.
Just a normal life.
"This is the same as the teacher," Ryan said. "Before the accident, everything looked normal."
Shaan nodded. "Which means the event is sudden."
Ryan looked at Arjun's timer again.
03:02:11
The timer kept moving no matter what they did.
Day 2
Ryan checked Arjun's timer the next day at school.
02:05:44
Arjun was practicing basketball, running, laughing, shouting at his teammates.
Completely normal.
"Maybe it's not an accident," Ryan said. "Maybe disappearance doesn't always look like an accident."
"Then what?" Shaan asked. "Kidnapping? Suicide? Random event?"
Ryan didn't answer.
Because he noticed something strange.
Arjun bought a drink from the vending machine.
Ryan's eyes widened slightly.
"Peanut drink…" Ryan whispered.
Shaan looked at him. "Allergy again?"
Ryan nodded. "But yesterday he drank the same thing and nothing happened."
"So peanuts don't kill him immediately," Shaan said. "So that's not the event."
Ryan kept watching Arjun carefully.
He needed to find the exact moment. The exact cause.
Because this time, he wanted to interfere at the last possible moment.
Not too early.
Not too late.
Right at the point where fate happens.
Day 3
Ryan felt nervous the entire day.
01:06:12
One day left.
He and Shaan followed Arjun again after school.
Arjun went to basketball practice again. Then he left in the evening and started walking home instead of taking the bus this time.
"Route changed," Shaan said quietly.
Ryan nodded. "This might be it."
They followed him from across the street.
Arjun was listening to music with earphones, walking casually, occasionally looking at his phone.
Then they reached a crossroad.
The traffic light was red.
People were waiting to cross.
Arjun stood near the edge of the road, still looking at his phone.
Ryan looked up at the timer.
00:02:11
00:02:10
00:02:09
Ryan's heart started beating faster.
"This is it," he said.
Shaan looked around quickly.
A truck was coming down the road at high speed.
Very high speed.
Ryan looked at the timer again.
00:01:02
00:01:01
00:01:00
Arjun stepped forward slightly, still looking at his phone, not paying attention to the road.
The light was still red.
The truck driver pressed the horn loudly.
Arjun didn't react.
00:00:30
Ryan's body moved before his mind did.
He ran.
"RYAN!" Shaan shouted.
Ryan ran straight toward Arjun.
00:00:15
Ryan grabbed Arjun's arm and pulled him backward with all his strength.
00:00:07
The truck passed in front of them at full speed.
The wind from it hit Ryan's face.
For a moment, everything went silent.
Ryan was breathing heavily, still holding Arjun's arm.
"You idiot!" Arjun shouted. "What's wrong with you?!"
Ryan didn't answer.
He looked up.
At the timer.
The red numbers flickered.
Then changed.
Ryan's eyes widened.
"Did it reset?" Shaan asked, running toward them.
Ryan stared at the numbers.
His hands started shaking.
"…No," Ryan whispered.
The timer didn't reset.
It didn't go up.
It didn't disappear.
It changed to something much worse.
00:05:00
Shaan frowned. "Five minutes? What does that mean?"
Ryan's face went pale.
"I think…" Ryan said slowly, "we didn't stop his disappearance."
He looked at Arjun.
"I think… we only delayed it."
They all stood there in silence as the timer continued counting down again.
00:04:32
00:04:31
00:04:30
And this time…
Ryan had no idea what the next event would be.