Five days to the exams, we all gathered at our meeting place near the entrance of school.
Just friends — myself, Krishanu, Prakash, and Krrish — discussing exams, munchies in hand, going on as if everything was fine.
But it wasn't.
I saw the scrapes on Krishanu's face that day.
A bruise on his neck. His knuckles were swollen.
He attempted to conceal them under his sleeves, but it was clear something had occurred.
"Hey," I said at last, "what's the deal with you?"
He glanced up, a weak smile struggling onto his face.
"Nothing. I'm fine."
"No, you're not," I retorted. "You've been zoning out since yesterday. You look like you haven't slept, and now you've got *those* bruises. Please, Krishanu, just be honest and tell us what's going on."
He remained silent. For a long time, he did not even blink.
Then — suddenly — he snapped.
His voice shattered, eyes quivering.
He confessed it all.
About Jaanvi, about Ravi, about the way she simply stood and watched while he was beaten.
It was the first time I had ever seen Krishanu cry.
I didn't know what to say. I just sat there, feeling this suffocating guilt collect in my chest.
"Sorry, man," I breathed. "If I hadn't been talking about going away… maybe none of this—"
He shook his head. "It's not your fault, Mayank."
Prakash curled his fists up in anger.
"That girl— how could she just watch him get beaten? And that bastard Ravi—!"
"Where is he now?" Krrish growled, his voice dark. "Tell us, Krishanu. We'll take care of him ourselves."
But Krishanu didn't look angry even. His face was tranquil, too tranquil.
"Don't," he said softly. "I'll deal with this. After exams."
Prakash banged his fist on the table. "Why wait till then? You're just gonna let him go free for months?"
Krishanu smiled weakly — not the old warm one, but something chillier.
"I've already fought twice," he said. "I told my mother I wouldn't fight again. I'll keep my grades good this time, so she won't worry about me."
The silence that came later was oppressive.
For the first time, I couldn't decipher what was transpiring behind his eyes.
---
He told us that the evenning he got fight his father told him something that day:
> "If it's kindness, return it twice."
> "If it's a grudge… return it ten times more."
---
When Krishanu informed us that, no one of us laughed.
The mood turned chilly at once.
Even the air weighed on us more.
We did not utter it aloud, but we all thought it the same thing:
We weren't frightened for Krishanu anymore.
We were frightened for Ravi.
---
Then Krishanu got up, extending his arms carelessly.
"Hey," he said with that inscrutable smile, "it's late. We should go home and study. Finals aren't gonna ace themselves."
And with that, he disappeared into the dark evening — serene, unflinching, quiet.
But the sound of his footsteps that night….
It wasn't like the Krishanu we knew.
It was like a man preparing for battle.
---
To be continued.
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