Conundrum 》ICT AU

-32-

"Shruti!" Her friend, Manasi stopped her as she was heading home from school one last time before she shifted to Delhi.

"Yaar, don't cry anymore. I'll start crying and then we'll be crying here all night." Shruti said, looking at her as she had tears in her eyes.

"What do you expect me to do? You are my ride or die, my cuddly little friend. How am I expected to find a replacement? I was prepared to let go when you were in 12th but earlier? No way. Maybe I'll ask my mom to let me come with you!"

"We can ask, I doubt aunty will allow." Shruti shrugged. "Besides it's not like we don't have phones! I'll call you everyday, I promise."

"Pakka promise?"

"Pakka promise."

-

"What the fuck is this?" Anushka stormed over to the study table where Nupur, Bhuvi, Rohit, Ritika and Virat were sitting, looking at the same thing on their phones.

"I never thought I'd see the day." Nupur whispered with wide eyes, looking over Bhuvi's shoulder at his phone. "Fuck."

Virat slammed his phone on the table and got up, walking towards the door.

"Virat, no." Anushka said, following him.

At the table, Ritika suddenly slapped Rohit's shoulder. "What was that for?" He exclaimed, looking at her with a pained smile.

"Go after him!" She furiously whispered, pointing at Virat. "He's going to murder someone."

"Oh shit." Rohit hurriedly got up, pulling Bhuvi too. He immediately ran out, Bhuvi and Nupur following as Ritika packed up everyone's belongings and left them on the table.

"This is about to be one hell of a day."

"Virat, no. Listen to me, he didn't have anything to do with this." Anushka pleaded as he stormed across the grounds, going after Hardik who was talking to Jai near the court.

"Hardik, look out!" Jai exclaimed as he saw Virat behind him, reaching out his hand.

Hardik immediately ducked as Virat threw his fists at him, then immediately held the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards himself.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" He shouted, his chest heaving. "How dare you do this to Gia?"

"Virat, listen to me." He said, eyes wide. "I swear I didn't do anything."

"Then, why." Virat punched him, getting his face. He slumped on the ground and quickly got up, blood coming out of his lip. "Did you do that with her?"

Rohit immediately pulled Virat back and held his hands behind his back, while Bhuvi went to Hardik, checking if he was all right. Hardik shook his hands away, whereas Virat told Rohit to leave him.

"What, fuck her?" He grinned, wiping the blood off his lip. "It was consensual on both sides. She agreed, as did I. I don't regret sleeping with her but I do regret that everyone else knows about it." He shook his head.

"Look, I'm not hitting you back because anyone in this school can see that you love her." He smiled. "Whether she does or not, you'll have to ask her. But I swear on my mother, I didn't do anything like this. I wouldn't do this."

"He's right, Vee." Bhuvi chimed in, looking at Hardik. "Hardik can do a lot of things but he wouldn't do this, not at all. I can vouch for him."

"Your guarantee means nothing to me at this point in time, Bhuvneshwar." Virat said, calming down. "It's viral now. Do you even know how much backlash Gia would be getting? Her parents don't tolerate this shit, not one bit."

"Oh, I know." Anushka said, chiming in. "She's going to get fucked."

-

"I expected more from you, Gianna." She winced as her mother used her full name, the whole family gathered around the table as they were all having dinner together. Her parents hadn't allowed her to go to school today, forbidding her to step out of the house as they managed the crisis that had hit with her video leaking out.

"What happened?" Her younger brother Ishaan asked, fiddling around with his food.

"Nothing you should know about, boys." Her father chimed in, looking at them. "Why don't you finish your dinner and go upstairs to do your homework, I'll come to check on your work."

"Okay, papa." Manas said as he got up, Ishaan following him. They ran up the stairs as Gia looked at them, seeing her last chance at avoiding the topic go.

"Gianna, you don't have to go to the school from tomorrow." Her father said, not looking at her face as it resembled the picture of horror. "We'll get you a tutor and you'll go to the exams only."

"Papa, it was a mistake, please." She begged, tears starting to run down her cheeks.

"Whatever it may be, it's hurting your reputation." Her mother chimed in. "Did you even think before doing this? How could you?"

"I swear mummy, I didn't do it on purpose." She said. "You've got to believe me."

"Be whatever it is, you aren't going to school till the exams."

"Mummy, papa please listen to me. I'll find out who did this."

"It doesn't matter Gia." Her father said in a calm voice, his heart breaking inside. "I don't care who's done this, the fact that it's out there damaging our reputation is what truly matters and if you cared about this family, you'd understand this too. My decision is final, I don't want anymore arguments on this."

Gia stood up from her seat and ran upstairs, sobbing.

"Do you think we were too harsh on her?" Her mother whispered, her eyes watering.

"Not at all, Anandee." Her father said. "Something like this happened to Mr. Sikka's daughter as well. Do you know what he did? Got Trisha married off as soon as she became 18. We're grounding her, nothing else."

"I hope this works out."

-

"Fuck yeah." Meera laughed as she spoke with Shruti on the phone, sitting in her house. "I got her, Shruti."

"When you said you had something, I did not think it would be this, fuck." Shruti laughed as she sat in her boyfriend's house. Jasprit was out to get some lunch for the two of them, so the house was empty right now. His parents had gone to visit a relatives place, so they had the house to themselves for the entire day.

"I know!" Meera laughed. "The media is going crazy! Of course there's a complete ban on the news now, I'm guessing due to Virat but what's already been leaked cannot be ignored."

"True." Shruti grinned, oblivious to Jasprit opening the door and closing it silently with the food in his hands. He tiptoed to the kitchen, keeping the food on the counter and coming back to the living room just in time.

"You've single handedly brought the whole gang down, Meera. Wow and to think I thought you were useless."

"It was all thanks to you, Shruti. If you hadn't told me about the party, I wouldn't have found this at all."

"Meera, you're speaking to Virat's Meera?" Jasprit suddenly asked from behind, Shruti quickly turning and looking at him.

"Hey listen, I'll call you back." She quickly cut the call and got up from the sofa, walking closer to Jasprit.

"No, Shruti. What the fuck were you talking about?" Jasprit quickly cut in as he saw Shruti trying to hug him. "I told you to stay away from all of that."

"Listen to me, Jassi."

"You need to explain yourself first." Jasprit looked angry. It was the first time she'd seen that look on him.

"Okay, I'll explain."

Today morning, CONUNDRUM reached 9k reads. 9000 of you guys have read this 7 year old fanfiction book.

From the bottom of my ♡,
Thank you.