The chemistry period had barely begun when the scream tore through the corridor.
Every conversation inside the classroom died.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
Then chairs scraped against the floor.
"What happened?"
"It came from the old laboratory!"
Students poured out of their classrooms like a wave.
Reyansh frowned before following the crowd.
By the time he reached the old laboratory, dozens of students had already gathered outside.
A boy sat on the floor, clutching his shoulder, his face drained of blood.
Two teachers were trying to calm him.
A shattered flowerpot lay a few feet away.
"What happened?" someone shouted.
"I-I don't know," the boy stammered. "Someone pushed me out of the way... and then..."
His eyes searched the crowd.
"...he was gone."
"Gone?"
"I couldn't even see his face." His voice choked.
Whispers spread instantly.
"Who saved him?"
"No idea."
"Someone must've seen."
Reyansh stepped forward.
"Move."
The students instinctively made way.
He crouched beside the injured boy.
"Can you stand?"
The boy nodded weakly.
Reyansh slipped an arm around his shoulder and helped him to his feet.
"You should go to the infirmary."
One of the teachers exhaled in relief.
"Thank goodness you came."
Before Reyansh could answer—
A phone camera clicked.
Then another.
Within seconds, several students were recording.
"Reyansh was the first one here."
"I knew he'd handle it."
"He's unbelievable."
Reyansh's brows drew together.
"I wasn't—"
"Sir!"
A student interrupted, pointing at the injured boy.
"He's bleeding."
The teachers hurried away with the boy.
No one waited to hear the rest of Reyansh's sentence.
The whispers only grew louder.
"Did you see how calm he was?"
"Obviously he saved him."
"Who else could've done it?"
Reyansh glanced once towards the laboratory.
The door stood half open.
His gaze lingered there for a brief second before he looked away.
Someone accidentally brushed against a wooden stand near the entrance.
An attendance register slid off the edge and landed on the floor with a muted thud.
The crowd slowly dispersed, carrying the story with them.
By lunchtime, the rumors had already changed.
"The mysterious senior..."
"The one who always appears at the right time..."
"Maybe..."
"...it's Reyansh."
Reyansh let out a quiet sigh.
"...People really do hear only what they want to."
He turned and walked away.
Behind him, the old laboratory corridor fell silent once more.
Only the attendance register remained where it had fallen.
Cut-
The lingering excitement from the morning's incident refused to leave the classroom.
Clusters of students spoke in low voices, each version of the story growing slightly different as it passed from one desk to another. A few pretended to revise their notes, but their wandering eyes betrayed where their attention truly lay.
The classroom door opened.
Their class teacher walked in carrying a slim file against her chest.
She greeted the class as she always did, but she looked serious.
One by one, the conversations faded.
She placed the file on her desk and looked around the room before speaking.
"Before we begin today's lesson, there is something I need to share with all of you."
The room grew attentive.
Even the students who usually found reasons to whisper sat quietly.
Her gaze settled on the third row.
On Vritika.
"The school administration was informed only recently, due to an unfortunate communication lapse, that one of our students has a profound hearing impairment."
She paused briefly.
"That student is Vritika."
For a few moments, no one reacted.
The words seemed to hang in the air as everyone tried to process what they had just heard.
Then, almost unconsciously, faces turned toward Vritika.
She did not flinch beneath their attention.
Her hands remained neatly folded on the desk, her eyes resting on the open notebook before her.
There was no embarrassment.
She had lived through moments like this too many times to count.
Some of the girls looked at her in deep disgust.
One of them mocked, "So my crush was having a crush on this deaf,"
Across the aisle, Aarohi stared at her in disbelief.
"She's... deaf?"
A dozen forgotten moments rushed back all at once.
She thought, "So that's why when Shadow Hunk tried to ask her what she was doing at that mid night she didn't hear and ran way."
"I need to initiate with her, so that I can know more about her. That would surely make some sense."
Near the windows, Reyansh leaned back in his chair, lazily rolling a pen between his fingers.
He looked at Vritika for barely a second before returning his attention to the desk.
It surprised him.
Ayaan quietly uncapped his pen and wrote the date at the top of a fresh page.
He had heard every word.
His expression didn't change.
After a brief nod to himself, he continued arranging his notebook as though nothing extraordinary had happened.
The teacher continued.
"I would like everyone to keep a few things in mind from today onward."
She spoke gently, choosing each word with care.
"When you're talking to Vritika, please face her so she can read your lips. If she misses something important, write it down instead of repeating it from across the classroom."
She looked from one row to another.
"It doesn't take much to make communication easier for someone."
"Sometimes, all it takes is a little patience."
Several students nodded quietly.
The teacher smiled before adding.
"And I hope this changes nothing about the way you treat her."
"She doesn't need pity."
"She doesn't need special treatment."
"She simply deserves the same respect every student in this classroom deserves."
Vritika lowered her eyes to the blank page in front of her.
She remembered countless classrooms.
Countless introductions.
Countless moments when strangers stopped seeing her and began seeing only her disability.
She had only become better at hiding how exhausting it was.
The teacher picked up a piece of chalk.
"All right."
"Let's begin today's lesson."
Books opened across the classroom.
The rustle of pages gradually replaced the earlier whispers.
Pens began moving.
Within minutes, the room returned to its familiar rhythm.
Aarohi glanced at Vritika once more before opening her textbook, unable to shake the thoughts crowding her mind.
Reyansh had already lost interest in the announcement and was half listening to the lecture.
Ayaan carefully underlined the chapter title and continued writing his notes without another glance.
The lesson simply continued.
And perhaps that was exactly what she had always wanted.
Aarohi suddenly twisted Ayaan's ear.
"Ow—!" Ayaan winced, instinctively pulling away. "What was that for?"
"You didn't hear a single word Ma'am said, did you?" Aarohi whispered through gritted teeth.
"I heard..." he muttered, rubbing his ear.
"Oh, really?" she shot back. "Then tell me what you're going to do now that Vritika is deaf."
"...What exactly am I supposed to do about Vritika being deaf?"
Instead of answering, Aarohi gave his shoulder a light smack.
"It's all your fault."
That sentence finally coaxed Ayaan's attention away from the notebook occupying him. He lifted his gaze, his brows knitting together in utter disbelief.
"My fault?"
"Yes, your fault."
He stared at her for a long moment before asking, with unmistakable incredulity,
"How, precisely, is it my fault that she's deaf? What did I do?"
Aarohi folded her arms with theatrical indignation.
"If you had looked at her when she first entered the classroom instead of burying yourself in those notes, we would've known from the beginning that she couldn't hear."
"So... because I was studying... she became deaf?"
Aarohi opened her mouth to argue.
"...That's not what I—"
"But that's exactly what you said." He blurted.
For a fleeting second, she realized how ridiculous her accusation sounded.
"I meant—"
Their hushed bickering continued like an endless rally, entirely oblivious to the fact that the classroom had fallen suspiciously quiet.
Only then did both of them slowly turn towards the front.
Their teacher had lowered the chalk.
She regarded the pair over the rim of her spectacles.
"Aarohi."
"I did not expect a student as brilliant as you to be distracted during my lecture."
Aarohi's shoulders instantly stiffened.
The teacher's gaze shifted towards Ayaan.
"And Ayaan..."
"You are, without question, one of the most disciplined students I have ever taught."
The entire class instinctively glanced at him.
"...But even discipline loses it's worth when attention wanders."
Ayaan quietly closed his notebook.
"Both of you," the teacher concluded, "if your discussion has reached a satisfactory conclusion, perhaps you would be kind enough to let the rest of us continue with the lesson."
A ripple of restrained laughter travelled across the classroom.
Aarohi lowered her head in embarrassment.
"...Sorry, Ma'am."
Ayaan merely offered a brief, apologetic nod before opening his notebook once again.
Cut-
The afternoon, corridor was unusually deserted.
Most students had already dispersed after the last period, leaving behind only the lingering hush of a campus settling into the evening.
Ashi adjusted the strap of her bag and continued walking, a faint melody absentmindedly escaping her lips.
"You're thinking too much." Someone said.
The unfamiliar, yet strangely recognizable voice brought her to an abrupt halt.
She turned.
A solitary figure stood a short distance away, his presence blending so naturally with the quiet that it was impossible to tell when he had arrived. A black hoodie concealed much of his appearance, while the fading afternoon light outlined the tall, composed silhouette standing motionless before her.
Shadow Hunk.
Ashi frowned.
"What?"
He folded his arms.
"Don't waste your time trying to figure out who I am."
A dry laugh escaped her.
"Why would I even think about that?"
He offered no immediate reply.
She folded her arms as well, meeting his silence head-on.
"You're the one who suddenly appears out of nowhere and you have started giving unwanted warnings without any reason. Then you expect me not to ask questions?"
A quiet chuckle left him.
"Without any reason?"
He inclined his head ever so slightly.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me?"
Ashi stared at him, caught completely off guard.
"...Excuse me?"
"You've involved yourself in one of my plans."
Her brows drew together.
"I don't even know what you're talking about."
"I know."
"Then explain."
"I can't."
She stepped closer, determination replacing her confusion.
"What plan?"
Silence.
"Why me?"
He simply looked at her.
Frustration flickered across her face.
"You make absolutely no sense."
For the first time, the playful undertone vanished from his voice.
What remained was quiet gravity.
"Listen carefully."
Something in his tone compelled her to stop speaking.
"For the next few days..."
"...don't interfere."
"Stay away from anything that feels unusual."
"And if something happens..."
"...pretend you saw nothing."
A faint shiver traced its way down her spine.
"What are you talking about?"
His eyes drifted briefly toward the far end of the corridor, as though measuring the passing moments.
When his attention returned to her, every trace of amusement had disappeared.
"It's not safe."
Her heartbeat quickened.
"Safe from what?"
He slowly retreated toward the connecting staircase.
"Go home."
"Wait..."
She hurried after him without thinking.
The moment she reached the staircase; she came to an abrupt stop.
It was empty.
She looked from one landing to the next, unable to understand how someone could vanish so completely within the span of a heartbeat.
For a long moment, she simply stood there, her thoughts in disarray.
Only one sentence continued to echo relentlessly in her mind.
"You've involved yourself in one of my plans."
She had no idea what he meant.
His warning unsettled her far more than the mystery surrounding him ever had.
Ashi fumbled, "What he was saying was that true…"
Dikshita arrived.