Conundrum 》ICT AU

-40-

Ritika was the darling of her family. The only daughter born after three generations of the Sajdeh family, she was pampered.

When she started school, she was pampered as well. Aside from having a built in best friend called Gia - who was also born in the same family circle, she also made friends with Virat pretty easily, partially due to him being Gia's best friend and partially due to him being around the two of them so much, she'd begun to see Virat as an honorary brother.

She always wished Gia and Virat got together as soon as possible.

When secondary school started, she met Anushka as a friend. Nupur joined in as well and for a while, Virat was teased being the Lord Krishna of the group with his four gopis, although that ended pretty quickly when Rohit joined the group, being with Virat in his basketball team.

Rohit met Ritika and the rest was history.

She'd never even thought that the group she'd started out with in primary school would expand, she would find the love of her life in middle school and finally when most of them except Gia and Simran were set to graduate, they would be hit with scandal upon scandal.

Sure, they'd all had their ups and downs but Ritika was sure, she would die for them if they asked.

If they asked her to kill for them, she'd do that too. No questions asked.

-

Anushka switched on the news channel as she got changed from her uniform when she got back from school, her mother bringing in an apple with some water for her.

She came out running from her closet once she heard the headlines.

"Mom, I'm leaving. Shit just erupted." She muttered, not being able to believe what she heard. Beside her, her mom stared at the tv, wide eyed at seeing one of her close family friends on the news and not for a good thing.

"Yeah, go." She muttered. "Did you guys do something to make someone angry?" She questioned as Anushka opened the door to her room.

"We didn't do anything." Anushka turned around. "It's fucking crazy, who's so brave to go against the king of real estate?"

"Or crazy." Her mother muttered. "Someone who has nothing to lose?"

-

"Alright." Ritika stormed in Virat's backyard where everyone else was gathered. "This is someone with a vengeance."

"Or someone who can hack really well." Simran pondered, as everyone turned towards her. "Think about it. Did any of you know so many details about Rohit's case? Virat, you were literally at the scene. Did you know about the investigation?"

"No, not really." Virat held Gia tightly, all of this turning out to be some sort of retribution. This was too much now. How could anyone dig out the past so easily?

It was a silent evening as Rohit, Rohit's younger cousin sister Yukthi and Virat were coming back from a trip to the Sharma's farmhouse in Narhera, about two hours drive from their home in the capital city. Yukthi was driving due to her newly acquired driving license and the fact that she would not hear a no, so the boys had allowed her to drive.

(Just assume people in India get their driving license at 16 - please🙏)

The three were singing along to songs, going crazy at the fact that they were allowed to drive back alone.

Suddenly, Yukthi screamed and immediately pressed the brakes. A loud thud was heard as the three of them looked at each other, Yukthi breathing heavily. Rohit immediately took off his seatbeat and got down - muttering a fuck once he saw the aftermath.

"Virat." He muttered, once he had gotten down as well, Yukthi beginning to cry as she held on the seatbelt, refusing to get down.

They both looked at Yukthi, who just cried harder at their gazes. Rohit looked at Virat, who seemed to know what his idea was.

"Rohit, you can't do it. Let us think of a better solution."

"Yukthi." Rohit went to the drivers side, opening the door. "Get down and go to the back seat."

"Ro- rohit." She hiccuped, crying harder.

"Yukthi, now." He said, watching as she took off the seatbelt and opened the back door, crying harder as she caught sight of a white striped shirt on the road, stained with blood. She didn't dare look further.

"Virat, call my mom." Rohit said. "Tell her I was driving."

"Rohit, what are you doing." She cried out, opening the door and stepping out. "It's my fault, I should be punished.

"Do you know what happened, Yukthi?" Rohit immediately erupted, looking at her. "This is murder, Yukthi. You were looking at an Ivy League school right? Gone. You'll be in jail, for most of your adult life."

"And you won't be?" Yukthi screamed back at him.

"Listen, I hate to play the family card but I'm a Sharma. Mummy and papa will do something, anything to make it go away, it'll hurt their reputation. You're Yukthi Singhal, not Sharma. My parents will just stay aside, watch as your future goes down the drain. They can't help and they will not help." He calmed down, looking at her. "So you have to understand, okay? You have to do this, for me."

"I can't." She sobbed. "Your future would be destroyed."

"Listen." Virat jumped in, not able to see this anymore. "I swear to you, no one will get to know about this. Not the media, not the public. I'll personally make sure no one but the authorities concerned will know and the file will be sealed. I promise, no one's future will be destroyed."

"You swear?" She looked at both of them, speaking after a poignant pause.

"This won't destroy his future and neither yours." Virat promised.

"Virat, Virat!" Gia shook him, bringing him back to reality. "Lost somewhere?"

"No, nothing." He muttered, hoping that Rohit comes out of this scandal, safe and sound. "What were we talking about?"

"Who's this person going to target next?" Simran muttered. "I'm so pissed man."

"Why? Worried that you're next?" Ritika snarled, Anushka patting her shoulder, moving her head sideways at Simran.

"No." Simran replied, rolling her eyes. No one wanted to take Ritika on right on, only hoping that they didn't ever have to feel this way.

"We need to do something and we need to do something fast." Bhuvi nodded, serious for once. No one had seen Bhuvi without his smile and it felt almost odd to talk to him without it.

"Alright, any secrets you guys have, protect it." Gia muttered. "This person can hack, so anything you've got online, triple check it."

"Won't the person who's hacking be alerted if we try to access it?" Simran countered, scoffing when everyone looked at her with surprise. "Guys, I'm actually smart!"

"Alright." Anushka nodded. "I'm fucked anyways. My parents are politicians guys. I'm bound to have skeletons in my closet, so I'm done for this fucker to make my life miserable. It's someone who's been in contact with us, it has to be someone in our class."

"So we dig out everyone?" Virat questioned, a smirk on his face. "I like this idea."

"I think that's an idea, if any." Ritika agreed. "Everyone who's been in contact with us, past or present."

"That's a lot of research." Simran muttered. "And to think I was actually hoping I'd pass all my subjects without any supplemental exams."

-

The group is coming together to solve the mystery!
Also I wanted to ask, is anyone else facing the problem of being booted out of Wattpad every single day? I've begun to remember the password to my account at this point which is testimonial to how many times I've had to log in.

Let me know!