Chapter 5 – Part 3: Shadows Between Brothers
By the time they reached the hostel gates, the campus was quiet. The late-night crowd had thinned, the echo of laughter and chatter replaced by the hum of crickets. The group dispersed quickly—Sameer and Vikram went off bickering about whether the pub's music was "epic" or "trash," Kabir wandered toward the mess hall to grab a bottle of water, and Imran slipped away silently as usual.
That left only Arjun and Raghav walking together toward their rooms.
They didn't speak at first. Arjun walked with his usual casual stride, hands stuffed in his pockets, whistling a faint tune. Raghav, however, wasn't as relaxed. Something weighed on him, pressing against his tongue, but he hesitated to bring it up.
Finally, as they reached the staircase leading to their floor, Raghav stopped.
"Arjun," he said quietly.
Arjun paused, raising an eyebrow. "What's with the tone? You sound like you're about to confess some crime."
Raghav gave a nervous chuckle, then shook his head. "It's not that. I just… there's something I've been meaning to ask you."
Arjun leaned against the wall, his smirk playful but his eyes sharp. "Well? Spit it out before you give yourself a headache."
Raghav drew in a slow breath, mustering courage. "When are you going to talk to your parents again?"
The air between them shifted. The easy rhythm of Arjun's mood faltered for the first time that night. His smirk remained, but it was colder now, sharper around the edges.
"Parents, huh?" Arjun's voice carried no hesitation, only indifference. "They don't have time for me. And I don't want to waste their time either."
Raghav frowned. "You don't mean that."
Arjun's gaze drifted past him, toward the shadowed courtyard beyond the hostel. "I do. They've got their own world—meetings, business, reputation. I'm not part of that picture. Not really. I stopped trying to fit in a long time ago."
"But they're still your—"
"They're blood," Arjun interrupted, his tone sharp enough to cut. Then, softer, but still detached, he added, "But family? No. Family is the people who stand with you when the fire's burning, not when the cameras are flashing."
Raghav stared at him, his chest tightening at the rawness hidden in his friend's indifference. He knew Arjun too well—beneath the uncaring words was pain, old and buried.
"You don't even want to try again?" Raghav asked, almost pleading.
Arjun pushed off the wall, brushing past him toward their rooms. "No. I don't beg for places in anyone's life. If they wanted me there, they'd have made space."
His voice carried finality, an unshakable will that left no room for argument. But the silence that followed wasn't cold—it was heavy, filled with the weight of unspoken things.
Raghav followed him quietly. He didn't push further. He knew when Arjun closed a door, it stayed closed. But deep inside, he made a silent promise to himself: One day, I'll make him see that he's wrong. One day, I'll remind him what family can be.
As they entered their rooms and the lights dimmed, Arjun lay back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His face was calm, indifferent as always. But in the faint shadows of his eyes, there was a flicker of something else—something even he refused to name.