“Don’t.”
“I’m not saying—”
“Don’t tell me her age like I don’t know how old my own sister is.”
Vivek stood.
Something about the pattern had reached him.
His face had turned pale.
“Puja.”
She wouldn’t look at him.
Vivek spoke again.
“Don’t.”
Puja shut her eyes.
“Akariti too.”
Vivek sat down.
Not dramatically.
His legs simply stopped holding him.
Nobody spoke.
Three brothers.
Three sisters.
One room.
And suddenly the night had become something entirely different.
Raja stared at Puja.
“How?”
“We live together.”
“What?”
“In Patna.”
“You all said you’re in the women’s college hostel.”
“We are.”
Sanjay frowned.
“Then how are you leaving at night?”
Puja rubbed her forehead.
“There are arrangements.”
“Meaning?”
“People know.”
“The warden?”
Puja didn’t respond immediately.
That was enough.
Vivek looked sick.
“They let you leave?”
“It’s not officially written anywhere.”
“Obviously.”
“But yes.”
Sometimes money changed hands.
Sometimes explanations were prepared beforehand.
Sometimes attendance was managed.
Sometimes someone covered for someone else.
The system existed because enough people benefited from pretending it didn’t.
Raja whispered:
“Where is Sonam tonight?”
Puja looked at him.
“Raja…”
His voice became sharper.
“Where is she?”
“Another booking.”
He stepped backward as though struck.
Vivek looked at Puja.
“Akariti?”
Puja nodded.
“Different client.”
Vivek closed his eyes.
His phone was already in his hand.
Sanjay noticed.
“Don’t call.”
Vivek opened his eyes.
“Why?”
“Because what are you going to say?”
Vivek stared at him.
Sanjay continued.
“‘Hi, I’m calling because we accidentally hired Puja tonight and discovered you’re somewhere else doing the same thing’?”
Nobody spoke.
Sanjay shook his head.
“We don’t even understand what’s happening yet.”
Raja paced toward the balcony.
Then back.
“I need to get Sonam.”
Puja stood.
“Don’t.”
He turned on her.
“Don’t?”
“She’s an adult.”
“She’s my sister!”
“And I’m his.”
She pointed at Sanjay.
The sentence stopped Raja.
Puja’s voice softened.
“If Sanjay had dragged me home five minutes ago without listening to anything, what would you have thought?”
Raja didn’t answer.
“Exactly.”
She looked toward Vivek.
“Akariti has her own reasons.”
Then toward Raja.
“So does Sonam.”
“And what reasons are those?” Raja demanded.
Puja hesitated.
“They’re not mine to tell.”
That was the first boundary Puja set that night.
And strangely, despite everything, the three men respected it.
Sanjay stared at the clock.
9:21 p.m.
Less than an hour earlier, the greatest problem in his life had seemed to be whether he would embarrass himself during his first sexual experience.
Now that concern felt so absurd that it belonged to someone else.
The unopened condoms remained in a bag in the bedroom.
The cold drinks were still in the refrigerator.
The lubricant they had nervously purchased that afternoon sat untouched among toiletries.
Thirty thousand rupees was gone.
Nobody cared.
The evening was over.
Whatever fantasy had brought them to the apartment had died the second Puja said Bhaiya.
Sanjay looked at her.
“Are you safe?”
Puja frowned.
“What?”
“Forget everything else.”
