"Hmm... I am not sure," answered Abhoy, unconsciously kicking the pebbles near his foot,

"I agree with Rup, you know," stated Alo, glancing at the hostel dorms, "It really feels like a set-up..."

"By the way, Alo..." Rup muttered, skillfully shifting his glance from the clock to Alo, "Aren't we forgetting something related to the word 'set-up'?"

"Oh yes... I had almost forgotten about that!" exclaimed Abhoy, "Yes Alo, I think you were saying something to Rup back there-"

"Okay okay, listen then," she asserted, "So the thing is, last night Onjoli called me and we had a small conversation. For the most part it was just small talk, like how we hadn't seen each other in a while and then she thanked me for the fest incident once again.."

"The Fest Incident," Rup jested, copying her accent, "It does have a nice ring to it"

"Heh," voiced Abhoy, smiling at her innocence as she stared at the both of them with an awkward smile for a moment, 

"Ar...gh okay," she continued, clearing her throat, "After that... Yes; She said that she was going to be waiting at the station for Ishita and Oishik. She also mentioned something like um... what was that again... uh yes, the 'Seeker's meet'... that's what she called it"

Both Rup and Abhoy glanced at each other's faces wearing a thoughful expression for a while,

" The 'Seeker's meet'...!?" Rup exclaimed, "It almost sounds like a secret society or something..."  

"Yeah, that's what I thought at the beginning too!" Alo expressed, a childish enthusiasm bursting forth from her facial expression, 

"Okay wait, don't get deviated from the main topic, what happened after that?" asked Abhoy, dragging back both of them from their fictional storylines, 

"A-a yes," Alo said, stumbling back to where she left off, "..So after that I proposed her to wait for us at the up platform instead because our train would be there faster and that was when I achieved the set-up you all are so curious about," 

"I see now," Abhoy quipped, "So the rest of it was your planning...!"

"Yeah..." she replied, her excited expression slowly fading out into a melancholic one. "You know," she said, "I just really... wanted the two of them to have a conversation after what Dhriti had done for her that night..."

"But... she doesn't know about that, right?" asked Rup,

"Nope! Believe me when I say this, I want to tell her about that night soooooooooo bad but... huh!" she sighed, remembering a conversation she had with Dhriti about that night,

"His sincere request always gets the better of me..." she stated. "Also, I didn't want to hamper his work on Shilpi by mentally distracting him, you know..."

"Hmm.." Abhoy voiced, gazing unintentionally at the tree leaves floating on the pond beside the hostel dorms.

"Anyway," Rup interjected, "Why were we bunking class and standing here again?" 

"Uh..." 

At this both Alo and Abhoy glanced at Rup with blank expressions as they once again remembered the gravity of the situation they were in,

"Hey, you guys..!" 

The three of them simultaneously glanced to their right at the arrival of the new voice,

"Sushmin... What are you doing here!?" expressed Rup, a tint of thrill mixed with his excitement,

"Long time no see, my friends!" Sushmin declared, waving his hand at the three of them. 

"Yeah, man. How are you faring?" asked Abhoy, exchanging a friendly hug with him,

"I am doing well for the most part... but, the thing is that.. the situations surrounding me... are not" stated Sushmin, his welcoming smile quickly fading into a thoughtful one. 

"Um.. by that do you mean..?" muttered Abhoy, 

"What?" asked Sushmin,

"Wait... That can't be TRUE! Like you mean to say that... Avinash is missing for real!?" yelled Alo, in absolute disbelief,

"Huh..!? What did you say!?" exclaimed Sushmin, gaping at her face with his mouth wide open,

The three of them glanced at each other's faces for a while, trying to grasp the situation,

"Um..," voiced Alo, "Then what did you refer to when you said 'situations' ?"

"I... was referring to a completely separate set of incidents, related to that broken factory behind our campus. But wait... What do you all even mean by that, like who said that?" Sushmin inquired, a look of terror visible on his face,

"Proloy," Abhoy answered, "He rang me up a while ago a-and also... he was the one who told us to wait he-" 

"Yeah, I was the one who told you that.." 

The four of them once again glanced to their right at the arrival of the new voice,

"And.. it's completely true!"