GANGULY POV-

It was 2am, Mona and I were organizing a lot of weapons in the basement of some building I dont know because Mokshitha just dragged us here. We were almost done when the door opened to tall person, wearing black and he had this tattoo on his neck which was a dragon.

"Are you guys done?" he asked in a husky voice. "Yes." Mona replied. He nodded his head and asked us to follow him through this weird corridor which had paintings of many men and women in suits. Maybe they were the previous mafia leaders. 

He lead us into a room of few people and a man sitting on a fancy ish chair. We simply stood IN front of him, I couldn't make out his face features clearly as it was a bit dark and the only light that was present was far away. 

"So you guys have accepted to join us...... happy you made the right decision, you people will be an asset." He started speaking.

"If you dont mind  me asking why exactly did you bring us here?" I asked I had to know what's up with this. 

"Well most of you assume that we are the bad guys, but let me tell, please take a seat." 

We sat on the chair behind us. 

"Well 5 years ago Rishi your manager signed a contract with the SM company because he had gotten under the influence of Ruther, he was the SM director. According to the terms of the contract Rishi has to merge his company with SM after 5 years if he wants to continue his terms. But what Rishi didn't know was that Ruther was part of a mafia gang and did illegal things. That's how Rishi got into mafia stuff in the first place, it was due to the influence of Ruther. 

A few months later Rishi decided to make deals with HYBE LABELS but Ruther disagreed to it because he had enmity with that company, but Rishi didn't want to change his mind so he was ready to make a deal with their company but during the company meeting Ruther had burst into the meeting room and shot the manager of HYBE LABELS and many people died and got wounded in that process. And Ruther threatened Rishi that he would leak the killing to the media and even the mafia gang. Your leader felt helpless and agreed to Ruther and from then kept on following Ruther's orders until he died 2 years ago."

"Woah." Mona said, "i didn't know we had that much history." 

"Yeah we very well do have, so the reason I gathered you two here is because maybe you can stop Rishi from following the contract, because the new leader of SM is Vernon and let me warn you he's up to no good, he wants to take over all the mafia companies and be the most powerful." The man said finally stepping out of the dark. 

I gasped realizing who it was. I immediately ran and hugged him. "You're alive HAWKS, I missed you so much." 

"I missed you too bud." 

"Um may I know what's going on right now?" Mona interrupted. "Yeah he was my mentor, my teacher, basically my guide for my life." 

"Oh nice to meet you." she said putting her hand forward as hawks shook it smiling.

"So now that we are done with the pleasantries, shall we get to work?" Hawks finally said. 

  I nodded my head, it was about time we start.  

TIME SKIP 4 AM 

Mona, Mokshitha and I were driven back to the headquarters. It was surprisingly dark and cold as well, whelp. I was just really happy I got to meet hawks again after soo long. But the fact that Rishi was irresponsible and gullible  just couldn't get into my head, like why? just why man? 

We actually decided to include Rohith since he needs to know as well. 

MADHULIKA POV-

I wake up to hear the sound of thunder and lightning, woah i guess its raining early morning, i decide to back to sleep when my phone rings. I look to see Hitesh calling. Why is he calling right now? i answer anyway 

"Yeah what man?"  i say

"Dude Ganguly, Mona and Mokshitha just came back to the headquarters from somewhere, I'm watching them from a balcony, a black car dropped them off and they are now in the 7th floor." Hitesh says sounding like he's the most great spy.

"What- geez......you know what I'm way to sleepy and tired to even think straight so how about we talk about this in the morning?" 

"I  thought you would be excited to get more information but I guess not but ya you're right imma go back to sleep bye." he said cutting the call.

Well that was not at all expected, but why would those three be out in the first place, that made me realize that we hadn't even seen them properly since like 2 days, they've been going out randomly. Well I'm too sleepy to overthink, I'm going back to sleep.

TIME SKIP 11AM 

I was in my room on my phone just sort of waiting for Harshith to wake up when someone knocking at my door loudly, "I'm coming!" I said getting up from my bed, I opened the door to see Manas, damn this is a surprise after last night. 

"Hey......" I said unsure of what to even say. "Hey, good morning." he said entering my room to see Harshith sleeping deeply on my couch, he gave me the raised eyebrows look. 

"We were talking in my room last night and he just fell asleep like that only." I explained. Manas simply nodded.

"So did you eat your breakfast?" 

"Ya I did." and for some reason there were some awkward silence because I kind of just zoning out, dont know the reason in particular. Manas snapped me back to reality by slightly touching my hand, "Are you okay?" he asked looking at me with concern. 

"Yeah, I'm fine, I guess I just overworked yesterday." 

"Hmm yeah, I can see that." he said. "You wanna walk around for a while?" 

"sure." I said grabbing my phone and  not locking my bedroom door because Harshith would soon wake up. 

We walked in comfortable silence although I could tell he wanted me to speak up cuz it was odd of me not speaking. We sat on the couch of the 5th floor hangout place, I simply hugged him and rested my head on his chest. "I think we should go out today evening." he said breaking the silence. I looked up at him and nodded. 

"You seem like you need some fresh air and environment." well he's not wrong about that, I do need a change of atmosphere.

"You're right." I said looking up at him and smiling. I realized our faces were pretty damn close, almost enough for us to kiss, but our good moment was interrupted by his phone ringing. He groaned in annoyance and gave me an apologetic look and answered the call. 

"yeah I'm coming." he said as he got up, "I'm really sorry but I got to go, but we'll meet at 5pm in the reception, I'll take you out." I nodded. 

Well looks like I'm kind of jobless at the moment, so I decided to go check up on Hitesh and Vaishnavi, I entered the art and editing room in 6th floor to see them talking eagerly about some topic. 

"Hey." Vaishnavi said seeing me walk in. "What's up people?" 

"Nothing we were discussing how we could change our editing style to make it look more vintage or polaroid vibes maybe?" 

"Ohh that's cool, and um Hitesh we need to talk." He understood the look I gave him and we walked aside. "So you saw those three come back from somewhere?" I asked again. 

"Mhm." he said nodding confident. "Man i feel we need to tell some more people so we can more information about the contract and who joined another company from our group." 

"Yeah." 

"You know what I'll call a meeting, and call the most trustworthy or well at least information extracting people I can find." I said taking out my phone and texting a bunch of people to meet me at 11 30 in the 6th floor.

Soon my friends gathered in the 6th floor. I texted Maukthika, Navdeep, Todoroki, Bakugo, Jai vishnu, Sashank and Pragna. I even informed Harshith and Vaishnavi. 

"So the reason I called you here is because there's something strange going the past days, I'm not sure if you guys have noticed it or not. But we've been having attacks, and getting notes that someone among us has joined the opponent party's team. So I've taken the initiative to gather you guys so we can find out some more information and also increase the safety of all of us." 

Hitesh quickly fills everyone on the contract of Rishi and SM company and the Mona and two disappearing randomly. Everyone seems to be thinking a lot. 

"Yeah, I've noticed Mona and Ganguly not come to practice that often the past 2 days." Maukthika says agreeing. 

"So basically we should trust each other a lot during these times, and at the same time about trusting people, Rishi and Manas seem to be hiding something from all of us, and from what I've heard its not a small issue." I said in a firm tone.

 "So that's why I've called most of you here, so that we can gather information mainly on the contract Rishi has with the SM company and the details of the contract and we have to gather information about if he is secretly meeting up the manager." 

Everyone in the room nods seriously. "So we got to dig through files and do some serious spying." Vaishnavi said. I nodded as a reply. 

"Well uh- Everyone get to work and make sure no one doubts us at all and at the same time work on the fashion items as well." Navdeep says walking out of the room.

RISHI POV-

I got off a call with Vernon and it seems we are short on time and moreover Madhulika seems to be suspicious of me and Manas. I hope she doesn't jump to conclusions. 

I lay back on my bed staring at the ceiling of my room, hoping the contract will solve all my problems but deep down this nagging feeling is telling me that things might take a U-turn instead, but I guess I'll keep hoping for a change, after all this is what Arthur wanted me to do. 

I kept telling myself affirmations and words of reassurance before I dozed off to my afternoon nap.

MADHULIKA POV-

I was in the office with Manas who was on his laptop typing something really quickly, dont know what's rushing him though. A while later he finally got off his laptop. 

"Hey." he finally spoke. 

"Hey...I can tell you're busy so you can continue, dont let me disturb you." I said writing down something." 

"No I need a break and I want to spend time with you." He said smiling. Aw that was kind of cute.

"Well sure, I guess  we can walk in the rooftop for a while."

"Ok." he said getting up and extending his hand out for me to hold it. I did so.

We both walked to the elevator holding hands when Mokshitha and Mona were laughing hysterically and loudly while coming out of the elevator. Manas and I simply looked at them with a weird stare while the walked past us. 

We entered the elevator, and had a somewhat awkward but bearable silence hanging between us. "So......I saw you being busy with Harshith and Hitesh a lot these past days." He said giving me a look. 

I scratched the back of my neck and sheepishly said, "Oh yeah that we are actually finding more information about the opponent and like I was with Hitesh to monitor his editing work because I was bored anyway." 

"You could have come and sat with me in the CCTV room, you know I get bored there easily." He said as we were stepping out of the elevator. 

"Oh well I thought you were busy with Rishi soo...... I didn't come." He seemed to have winced at the mention of Rishi's name. I dont know what's up with them. 

We sat on the couch facing the view of the sky although it wasn't night, the bright sky and fluffy clouds were comforting. The afternoon sun was glooming in a way, a cool breeze was flowing through our silence. 

"You know once all of this, um finding our enemies thing is over, we should go on a vacation, like I guess both of us or I dont know the whole team."  I said breaking the silence. 

He nodded, "Yeah, we should." he said looking off at a distance, I could tell something was up, I  just dont know why he's keeping secrets with me about the company. I mean come on even I'm an employee here, like what's so secretive that Rishi tells him but not me and even Harshith aka Rishi's own assistant doesn't know what's going on. Ugh.

"Manas." I said seriously, looking into his eyes, while he looked into mine. "You know you can tell me anything right, like I'm always there for you." I sighed then continued, "And I dont want what's going on in the office to affect our relationship." 

He sighed and nodded and simply pulled me into a hug, I hugged him back not knowing what further to say. "Madhu, I cant tell you now, but when the time's right I will and that time, you have to promise to not get mad at me and understand me alright." 

I simply looked at him in a bit of confusion but then nodded and kissed him on the forehead. We sat there for a while then went back to our office cabins.

I accompanied him in the CCTV room mostly just being on my phone because I was just bored. I was texting Harshith, he seemed to be spying on Rishi. Geez that guy doesn't let go of him. 

"Hey, I'll be right back." Manas said to me before he got up and left. I simply shrugged my shoulders cuz it didn't make such a big difference anyway. 

I was reading a webtoon when a sudden notification came from his laptop, i ignored it. Another notification sound. Ignored it yet again. Another one and another one, this time i got up from the couch and walked over to his desk and saw that it was an email from an unknown user id. Well I thought I'd read it so I did. 

As i read through the feeling of being alone soon turned into the feeling of someone is watching me. I immediately turned off the CCTV's main switch. I texted Harshith immediately about what i had just found out from Manas's laptop. 

So this is what he meant he would tell me later and he expects me to understand this shit, wtf-

"Hey-" Manas said pushing the glass door of the room to see me in a angry state, his eyes darted towards his desk and he immediately sighed and looked down for a second. "Look I didn't expect you to find out in that way, I swear I was gonna tell you sooner Madhu." He said pleading. 

"This is how you repay my trust." I said gripping my phone as I sort of felt tears forming in my eyes. 

"I'm sorry, Rishi wanted me to do it, I knew you would get mad but I'm so sorry, its too late now....." He said looking away. 

"YOU KNOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO KEEP FOLLOWING RISHI , THAT GUY IS AN IDIOT AT HEART YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT? YOU'RE LIKE MUCH MATURE THAN HIM. HE DOESNT UNDERSTAND WHAT HE'S GETTING HIMSELF INTO?  WHY DON'T YOU GET THAT?!" I yelled furious.

"YEAH, BUT LIKE- I-I- I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS RIGHT, I DONT WANT THIS COMPANY TO COLLAPSE." 

"OH? SO YOU'RE GONNA LEAD US STRAIGHT TO THE DEVIL'S HOME THEN HUH?" I argued back.

"Madhu, DONT YOU THINK I TRIED CONVINCING RISHI? I DID. HE JUST DIDN'T BUDGE AND I DIDNT WANT TO LEAVE HIM ALONE TAKING THE RISK." Manas said in a firm tone. 

"GEEZ YOU COULD HAVE JUST BEEN ON MY SIDE AND LIKE GEEZ YOU COULD HAVE HELPED US WITH THE INFORMATION YOU HAVE- .......man- I cant'- " I stepped back. 

"Madhu-" he said stepping towards me. "NO-" I put my hands IN front indicating a straight no and i immediately walked out of the office straight to the elevators and hit the emergency meeting button beside the button of the lifts. 

The alarm was loud but it was worth it right now. 

Soon everyone gathered in the 5th floor. "What happened? I ran as soon as I heard the alarm." Mokshitha said panting from her run in the stairs. 

"We have a traitor among us." I said staring blankly at a distance. 

"WHO?" Maukthika asked. 

"Its Manas, him and Rishi have been still having contracts with Vernon, the head of the SM company and they are planning on handing the whole company over to them." 

"WHAT?" Everyone gasped and was filled with question marks. 

" WHY THOUGH?" Mokshitha spoke up. 

"Because Vernon is a greedy ass bitch that manipulated our dear Rishi."  I said with sarcasm dripping in my tone. I was in such a venomous mood that istg if someone talked to me, id straight up stab them with my nails.

"Well what are we gonna do now? " Pragna asked looking worried. That's when I realized that not everyone had come down, Ganguly, Rishi and Manas weren't there. 

"Well I suggest we just blow up the enemies place." Bakugo finally spoke. Todoroki soon nodded and even Ramteja. 

"No we have to be discreet now that they know that we know, they are gonna do anything to stop us, so we have to be on alert, first of all we need to act normal and like mind our own business until the meeting day comes. Second, we need to start finding out the location of where the meeting will take place and prepare our machinery etc." I said already having  a plan in my head. 

Everyone nodded in unison and soon dispersed.

I ran into my room and shut the door and immediately started crying behind my door because of what happened with me and Manas. 

It feels like everything is happening so fast I cant even tell where we started and how this shit even happened. All of it is elevating so quickly. I cant even trust anyone at this point. 

I ended up falling asleep on the carpeted floor of my room.