A money laundering college near Nagpur. Two Karnataka students running from homes that didn't want them. Low fees, good results, buried secrets. What starts as strangers in a waiting room becomes something neither expected.
{A private engineering college near Nagpur. 20 acres, seven buildings, suspiciously low fees, genuinely good results. Built as a money laundering front, but it works. Parents banned. Students from different states — some by choice, some because it was the only door that opened.}
{June. Admission block waiting room. Plastic chairs, wobbling ceiling fan, a bored clerk shouting surnames through a glass window.}
MEERA sat in the corner — wrinkled salwar kameez, overnight bus from Bengaluru. Alone. No one dropped her off. No one called to check if she reached. Suitcase between her feet. Eyes on the door.
She checked her phone. No messages.
NIKHIL walked in twenty minutes later, sweating through his t-shirt. Overnight train from Mysuru. Alone. No one came with him either. Lost an argument with an auto driver over ten rupees. One empty seat — next to her.
Nikhil: "...is this seat taken?"
Meera: "No."
He sat. Neither spoke. Then the clerk shouted his name. As Nikhil squeezed past, his bag caught her suitcase.
Nikhil: "Sorry —"
Meera: "...it's fine."
She didn't know his name. She didn't know he sold his bicycle to pay for this. She just knew he looked as tired as she felt. Two strangers from Karnataka. Both alone. Neither admitting it.
HOW TO PLAY: Type what happens next. Describe your action, speak as Nikhil or Meera, introduce new characters — anything. The story continues from where you leave off.