Chapter 5

They all waited there for most of the day, thinking that she might come back. Every one made various excuses for where she might have gone, while knowing what the truth really was.

Naina had left without telling any of them.

Her parents had panicked at first, until Pooja calmed them down. "Naina knows what she's doing, she would have made her own decision to go."

While Naina's mother and father went to check the city one more time, the rest of the cadets sat down to talk about it.

"I know she's gone of her own will," Huda finally said "When she agreed to get engaged she had talked about needing to do something before we got married. And then last night before we left, she had told me that I had to trust what she was doing was right." He feels a burden lifted from his chest, having told them.

"But why would she have gone?" Ali asked, confused "And the morning after her engagement… was it so necessary that she had to leave right now?"

Pooja had been sitting quietly for awhile, and suddenly leaned forward "I think it has something to do with her brother, after all she never achieved her mission while we were at KMA. And Alekh was saying that she had been feeling sad about Navin lately." Pooja looked towards Alekh to support what she was saying.

"Ha," Alekh replied shortly "She was."

"Look Alekh," Huda started, clearly feeling frustrated, "If anyone here knows where she's gone or why she's gone, it's you. So if you know something then just say it."

"I don't know anything about this, Huda." Alekh replied, stony faced.

"So if anybody were to know, then who would it be…" Pooja asked hypothetically, trying to think of some options.

"Well if it's about her brother, then maybe Captain Abhimanyu," Ali suggested helpfully "I remember he was trying to help her find out the truth."

"No way, bro!" Yudi told him, "That was before, she'd never go to him for help now!"

"Why?" Huda asked, genuinely confused, as far as knew, everything was fine between Naina and Captain Abhimanyu.

"You didn't see what happened before he left KMA." Yudi said knowingly.

"Well then why don't you hurry up and tell us, just speak clearly for once!" Huda practically yelled, getting frustrated over the current situation.

"Well I didn't hear all of it, but when I was passing by his room the day that I left, I heard them having quite a large argument…"

Two months previously…

"Naina just listen, you're misunderstanding…"

"No Sir, I think that for the first time I'm understanding perfectly."

"I swear that I had no such intentions…."

"I know exactly what your intentions were, you put on such a good act as the concerned friend of my brother, didn't you!"

"But I…"

"Forget it, you never wanted to do anything for my brother, and neither will you do anything for Captain Rajveer…I know you very well now."

"Naina, I swear that,"

"No I swear, Sir, that I will never trust you again!"

….

Yudi finished his recount, "And that's all that I heard. But it makes me think that she definitely wouldn't be confiding anything to him."

"You're definitely right, Yudibhai." Ali said "But what was she so angry at him about?"

"Who knows?" Yudi replied "Only two people can tell us that, and one of them's missing, and the other probably wouldn't tell us."

"I just don't understand…" Huda began, "If she needed to do something then why didn't she confide in us? Why didn't she ask for our help?"

"Bole to… Naina has always known what's she's doing, Huda. If she hasn't told you then there's a good reason for it."

"Just be careful, Qaidi." Huda told him furiously, "Or I'll begin to suspect that you know more than you're saying."

"Just chill guys," Yudi broke in, trying to play the peacemaker. "Well if we don't know where she's gone or what she's doing, and Captain Abhimanyu wouldn't, then who would?"

Only one name came to all of their minds, but surely that would be impossible…

Impossible or not, Huda wasn't going to give up that easily.

He finally spoke up, sounding more confident than he felt about it.

"Then I'll go talk to Captain Rajveer."