Inquest (Completed)

Prologue: Another Mystery Unfolds

Dhruv was almost sleeping with his head rested on the answer-sheet, when the final exam bell woke him up. He handed the physics-paper and headed out, feeling neither happy nor sad. Simple exchanges regarding how hard the questions were, took place with couple of his classmates as he headed out of the college [it's more like high school]. He plugged in headphones and walked to the railway station listening to One Direction sing about love. 'Ironic,' he thought, 'I never actually even had a girlfriend, and I'm almost an adult, legally... maybe we can count in deep crushes, 'cause I don't think I am confident enough to be anyone's boyfriend...'

He still had a crush, on a girl who had been in his class for 9th and 10th grade back in school. Then he had joined college far from home, but turned out his crush was studying in a college located three railway stations farther than his college. He never could confess to her. 'There are more than one instances when it seems I don't love her at all,' he would justify himself to himself, for not confessing, 'and I need to be absolutely certain before I can tell someone I love them...' Dhruv stood waiting at the platform, for a train home. He used to chat with his crush very often back in school, when online chatting had really started trending, quite more for people who met on a daily basis but didn't talk much face-to-face. And he felt like he had become a close friend of hers, helping her whenever he saw an opportunity [and often when she didn't need the help at all]. A train entered the station, its destination was Thane, his city.

Dhruv slung his back-pack over his shoulder to his front, and looked how the train slowed down and accurately stopped at the same point, with a minimal margin of error. As usual, he searched for familiar faces. He had few friends in college, but he usually tried to avoid them before and after exams, so he was really searching for school friends [or maybe only Her, Dhruv wasn't sure]. And he found none. As soon as the train stopped, he literally squeezed himself into the crowded First Class compartment [he isn't particularly rich, but students can get transport-passes at a more affordable rate, hence First Class, but even that's packed with people].

Again, a quick search for familiar faces, and he almost thought he saw Her! But it was some other girl of approximately similar facial features [I mean, that's what he thought but anyone would say that the similarity wasn't really there at all]. He made eye contact with an old man who seemed to have almost reached sixties, and Dhruv smiled! And the old man smiled back.

Dhruv lived in a bustling city called Thane; the train got almost empty [the F.C. compartment] by the time they reached the last stop. And Dhruv was sitting near a window, looking outside, at the sky as it slowly turned a darker hue of blue, and he didn't notice it when the train stopped and the old man saw him, sitting lost in thought, just before the old man got off. Dhruv realized the train had stopped after some moments and left. He rushed to catch a bus, and wondered how he was going to prepare himself for Chemistry exam on Monday, the day after tomorrow.

---

Sunday passed like a swift wind, bringing the annoying start of the week with Monday. Dhruv saw his phone, for any notifications, and apparently, his crush [her name is Krupa] had shared a photo of tiny-tales on Facebook:

___[It read thus,] " 'Why are you being so exceedingly helpful to me?' She asked. 'I think we both know why...' He replied, looking down at the ground, trying to hide his pink cheeks."___

'Funny,' Dhruv said to himself, 'She didn't realize the same with me... or did she?' Before he could finish the last words, a kind of horrifying emotion crossed his mind, like how one feels when they're caught stealing something...

He got ready for college. 'Are you prepared for your exam?' Mum asked. 'Ma, I can't say yes to that, ever...,' he replied.

He said bye, acknowledging the good-luck-wishes from his mum and sis and dad, and left home. Then caught a bus, then reached Thane railway station, caught a local-train, got off at Vidyavihar railway station, walked to the college, gave the exam, and again abruptly discussed papers with any classmate in his vicinity and hurried to the railway station. He still had two exams left in the same week. He caught a Thane bound local-train, and somehow found a seat. Before reaching the destination, he got up to go stand at the exit. Just as he was heading that way, he saw a familiar face- the same old man! The old man approached him and they both got off together.