LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 11: First Domino
Abhi gets on the bus, waving his newly made friends goodbye for the day.
This was just a public bus yet it seemed Lavish. It had comfy, clean and spacious seats. The Bus's interior was quite artistic and unique quite different from the usual public busses; it had abstract paintings, colourfull railings, and even some signs with motivational quotes on them and it also had all the general facilities like ACs and disabled sections. Abhi looked around inside the bus for a few seconds and then searched for a place to sit. As the bus was pretty empty today he sat on the first seat in the row. After he took the seat, the few people around him gave him a peculiar look, Glaring at him intensely. The bus driver turned around and told him:
"This seat is reserved, move; find another, or keep standing."
"Heh? I thought this was just a public bus. Are reservations a thing here?" Said Abhi with a genuinely perplexed look on his face.
"Yes, well for some people. Now move" Replied the bus driver.
Abhi complied and moved seats reluctantly. A minute or two passed, Even though no one else was waiting to get on the bus and everyone was settled the bus wasn't moving. Abhi was tapping his feet and rubbing his temples he seemed to grow impatient because of how long it was taking for the bus to start but no one else seemed to mind it.
Though it had only been a minute or two Abhi felt like the wait was much longer and his face expressed a sense of anxiety. Suddenly a well-dressed middle-aged man with an expensive-looking suit and a serene look walked onto the bus. Before even taking a seat he started to greet the people around. After greeting everyone, he sat next to Abhi in the reserved seat, but as this bus was quite spacious there was still plenty of distance two seats in the same row.
He then waved at the driver and the driver gave him a nod back. The bus finally started moving. As the bus was moving Abhi didn't say a word. It was subtle but there was a sense of awkwardness within that situation; For that entire ride, he didn't make eye contact with the man sitting next to him even once.
Abhi's gaze shifted to the window, he saw the city while the bus traversed through it. Nixom High City was fascinating, it was unlike anything else; far more advanced than any other city, it had a lot of international influences, both Eastern and Western as well.
Even though tourism wasn't a big aspect of Nixtom's economy it felt like a tourist attraction. There were international fast-food stops such as AFC or Crac Donalds, clubs, theatres museums, themed cafes, karaoke's, various festive event spots, stadiums, etc. As the land area of High City Nixtom was not as large as many other cities all of these attractions could be seen by Abhi while travelling on the bus.
Abhi's eyes showed a glint of wonder and excitement while observing the life in the city, but suddenly his eyes lost the spark in them, turning empty… almost soulless. Abhi suddenly took out a notebook from his school bag and started to write something:
"Time management:
Wakey wakey - 6:30 am
Leave for school - 7:30 am
School starts - 8:30 am
Break - 1:30 pm
School ends - 6:30 pm
Reach home - 7:30 pm
Work time - 8:00 pm
Work end - 12:00 am
Sleep from 12:30 am"
Abhi holds his pencil with his two fingers and softly hits it against his head expressing the fact that he is thinking about something. He then soon starts to write again.
"6 hours of sleep and yet no time to study…
Shift the majority of the academic workload to the weekends.
An hour of break isn't necessary just to eat food. Take half of that time to revise everything that happened in the first 5 lectures.
Use the 30 minutes between Work time and Reach home to revise the rest of the lectures".
Abhi lets out a sigh of relief and audibly says. "I guess I can work this out". These words attracted the attention of the mysterious man sitting beside Abhi. The mysterious man looked towards Abhi, and then towards the notebook that Abhi had kept on his lap.
Abhi noticed this with his Peripheral vision, he then quickly closed the book and put it back into his bag. After he was done fiddling with his backpack Abhi briefly noticed the mysterious man intensely looking at him with the side of his eye. Abhi tried to ignore this and soon, the man stopped staring at Abhi.
After some time the bus stopped at its last destination. Abhi quickly got out of the bus and looked at the time displayed on top of the bus station.
"It's 6:45; as I thought it takes about ten to fifteen minutes to get here." Abhi wrote down this information alongside the timetable he previously made and kept his book inside his backpack again. He kept observing the surroundings for a bit, walking around the streets and seemingly being unable to find his way. He stands still in a relaxed manner, takes a deep breath, and whispers something to himself. Once again he gains a sudden sense of confidence brightly expressed from his face and starts walking.
After walking for a bit and crossing some streets he catches something with the side of his eye, an ominous presence! He still keeps walking while subconsciously trying to observe everything behind him. After a bit of walking, he subtly turns around a bit to see who or what is behind him. "What!" He realizes that the same mysterious man in a professional-looking suit is behind him. Abhi is shaken to the core, his walk gains a bit of tremble, and he starts to breathe and sweat heavily, his eyes constantly trying to look back.
...….