Rajveer

Returning to my quarter with Ali and Huda, we wait for Pooja.

Earlier, when I went to confront Bhargav, I sent Ali and Huda to Brigadier Chandok's office to bring him to Bhargav's quarter, and sent Pooja to Naina's room to get all the letters from her cupboard.

I knew Naina would be in the infirmary, so Pooja could bring those letters without letting Naina know anything about them.

With everything going on in the academy, Naina is already much distressed. So much so that she even fainted in the infirmary earlier.

That is why I do not want to tell her about all this and stress her more.

Hearing a knock at the door, I quickly open it to see Pooja standing on the threshold, clutching a few envelopes in her hand.

"Were you able to get all the letters, Cadet Ghai?" I ask her, ushering her to the living room.

"Yes, Sir. I thoroughly checked Naina's cupboard and have brought all the letters that I could find.

"I also checked everywhere in the room to see if there were other letters hidden somewhere else, but there were none."

She handed all the letters to me, and I immediately tore them without even reading the content of those letters.

"Cadets, I am grateful to you for what you did today. If not for you three, these letters would have surely expelled Cadet Naina Singh from KMA, and I would also have faced the severe consequence."

"No, Sir. Please do not thank us. It was because of my stupidity that the letters were even present in the first place. If only I had not written those letters, none of this would have happened," Ali says, with remorse evident on his face.

"It's ok, Cadet. The important thing is that you realized your mistake and amended it before it could do any damage. You don't have to feel guilty anymore," I tell him.

"But, Sir, we are still sorry for the way we behaved with you and Naina. We thought all those rumors about you two were true. Please forgive us, Sir. We are ashamed of our behavior," Huda apologizes.

I sigh and nod, hearing Huda's apology. "You got caught in the web of planning which Major Bhargav spun around you. He wanted to break your friendship, and I am afraid to say he was almost successful in it.

"You all must remember one thing, Cadets. No matter what your enemy does, you should never forget your friendship. If you have any doubt, communicate with each other and clear everything up. If not, you will lose your friends, and believe me, you do not want that.

"I have already forgiven you. I am your teacher, and you did not know much about me, so I can understand you all doubting me after being brainwashed by Bhargav. And I am glad that we have cleared that up.

"As for Cadet Singh, I am not sure if she will forgive you easily. You abandoned her when she needed you the most. So, the only advise I can give you is do not give up until she gives in and forgives you." I look at their thoughtful faces as they ponder over my words.

"Yes, Sir. Now that we have the correct connection, we promise you we will support our friend and stand beside her. We will send her sorry SMS every single day until she forgives us," Pooja says, and I smile at her.

"Cadets, it's almost time for lights out. You must now return to your rooms," I tell them, but they instead of leaving, anxiously looking at each other and at me.

"What happened, Cadets? Do you have anything else to say?"

"Yes, Sir. There is another important matter to solve," Ali says, making me curious.

"Ok. Tell me, Cadets," I urge them.

"Sir, we saw Naina walk out of her room earlier and heard a few of our batchmates taunt her. Usually, she would shout at anyone who talked those disgusting things about her and would even slap them, but today she looked defeated," Pooja tells me.

Imagining Naina defeated hurts me immensely, and I also felt guilty because I am also one of the reasons behind her current condition.

"It looked like Naina did not want to fight. It was as if the fire in her had cooled down, and we felt guilty seeing her like that. If only we had supported her, then she would not have been alone would have been strong enough to deal with them.

"We wanted to teach those boys a lesson for talking nonsense about you two, but we did not want to get suspended like Aalekh and Yudi.

"Naina needs us now, and we cannot afford to get suspended and leave her alone here. So, we thought of handling this matter sensibly by telling you about it first," Huda adds.

I take a deep breath when I hear Huda. I know I have also failed Naina.

I too abandoned her when she needed my support. I also made her alone and lonely.

But enough of that now. I will fully support her from now on. I will not let her give up so easily. I will bring her fighting spirit back.

But for that, I need to know what exactly she is facing.

I know that other cadets gossip about me and Naina, but they are careful not to say anything in front of him due to the fear of punishment.

So, I first need to know in what way they are taunting Naina.

"What were those cadets telling Naina? Tell me each word without mincing anything."

"They were saying that Naina was your keep, but you washed your hands off her when the whole academy got to know about it. They were also saying that you did it because you didn't want any link up with a traitor's sister," Pooja says and screams when she sees me throw a vase across the room.

Red hot anger engulfs me after hearing Pooja.

This was what others thought about them? Naina was taunted by these types of talks every day since they returned from the camp? All these disgusting rumors about them.

I feel like breaking everything around me.

Does Naina also think that I washed my hands off her because I did not want any link up with a traitor's sister?

'Why wouldn't she think like that? You did everything in your power to make her think like that. In your hurry of mending everything, you messed up and hurt her badly,' my heart mocks.

I close my eyes as I feel a piercing pain with my chest.

No. Not now. I do not have time to wallow in regrets now. I first need to solve this, and I know exactly what to do.

"Ok, Cadets. Now that I know about this, I will make sure that this will not repeat. You can go to your rooms now," I say after a few seconds. "And I hope you all will mend your friendship with Cadet Singh soon. She needs you guys right now."

Once Ali, Pooja, and Huda leave my quarter, I also walk out to go to the infirmary.

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On entering the infirmary, I only see Shalini inside.

"Where is Naina, Shalini? What had happened to her? Is she fine now?"

"Yes, Raj. She is fine, and currently resting in her room," Shalini answers.

"But what happened to her? Why did she faint suddenly?" I ask the question that has been nagging me since I saw Naina faint.

Shalini stands from her chair and faces me, her expression grave as she folds her hands over her chest and starts talking.

"Because of the stress, Raj. Naina is strong, but there is a limit for everyone.

"She joined this academy with a purpose, but since Major Bhargav arrived, she went through a lot in a short period of time.

"She was humiliated by the taunts she had to face when everyone knew about her being Captain Naveen's sister. Then she had to undergo psychoanalysis and the hearing to be allowed to continue her training in the academy.

"She had not even recovered from that fully when the mentorship camp mishap happened. And again, she was the one who endured all the humiliation and the taunts, even from you, Raj." Shalini gave me a pointed look.

"She faced everything alone, Raj. Even you abandoned her.

"Every person has a certain tolerance level, and after facing such adverse situations back to back, I think Cadet Naina's tolerance is on the verge of snapping.

"She is in dire need of support because from what I saw earlier, I feel that she is withdrawing into a shell, and if we do not act fast, she might slip into depression."

After hearing everything Shalini said, I could not fathom what to say to her.

So, I only nod curtly and walk out of the infirmary.

I feel like someone is relentlessly squeezing my heart. Even my mind is stunned, refusing to cooperate with me.

I have never felt like this before. Not felt like this when I was posted in the war zone. Not felt like this when I saw terrorists point guns directly at me to kill me. Not felt like this when I was severely injured and almost dead while fighting in the war.

This primal terrifying fear is something I have never felt before, and I do not know how to deal with it.

The only thing I know is that I need to talk with Naina and fix everything as soon as I can.

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Naina

Lying on my bed, I stare at the ceiling, feeling a strange kind of numbness within me.

I should have asked for some sleeping pills from Dr. Shalini.

Those pills would have helped me drift to sleep, giving me a break from thinking about all those lewd gestures and disgusting taunts everyone throw at me in the academy.

I wonder how my life came to this.

Before Naveen's arrest and death, I was a simple, cheerful girl.

Like everyone else, I also wanted a happy, peaceful life with her family and, hopefully, with a loving husband down the lane.

But one incident changed the course of my life, so bitterly shattering me, that I have not been able to collect the pieces even after all these years.

I tried hard to move on from Naveen's death. Although, I was unable to fully do that, I at least was able to gather enough strength to join KMA and get my brother's honor back.

A wry chuckle suddenly escapes my lips.

I came here with a purpose to get Naveen's honor back, but instead of achieving that, I have lost my honor and dignity.

Tears pour out of my eyes as I feel a raw pain burning my heart.

"Enough. Please. It's enough. I can't take this anymore," I whisper tearily and close my eyes, hoping to get some sleep.