008

The following evening, I avoid everyone aside from Ken, I can’t handle seeing the others, especially Rebecca. The image of her disappearing into N’s office makes my skin crawl at just the thought of anything intimate between them.

“Should we tell Ravi?” I ask Ken as I finish telling him what I had witnessed the night before.

He chews his lip in thought for a long while before he shakes his head, his arm propped against the arm of the couch.

“No. Ravi gets really explosive when he’s upset. If anything, I think we should wait. He seems agitated recently, imagine if we dropped the bombshell that his girlfriend’s cheating,”

I knew there was no denying what Rebecca and N were doing, but hearing it from Ken’s mouth snapped everything into perspective.

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

~~

“Incoming Voice Message” ERRI says in a chipper tone. I hop out of the shower, drying my hair with a towel quickly.

“Accept,” I say and the call connects.

“Mari?”

My heart sinks. It’s Ravi’s voice.

“Yeah?”

“Rebecca’s not with you right now, is she?”

“No, she’s not. I’m alone.”

Ravi takes a breath from the other side of the line, “Figured. Anyway, if you’re not busy tonight, do you want to come upstairs for a while? I’ll ask Ken if he’s down for it, too.”

“Yeah, that sounds good. See you tonight,”

“See you tonight,” he echoes and the call cuts, filling the room with silence.

I sit cross-legged on my bed, holding my head in my hands.

Figured? What did Ravi mean by that? Did he already know? No, that can’t be it. There was no way he could find out so quickly, it just meant he was only suspicious at the most. Still, the word makes me feel uneasy.

It’s rather rare for Ravi to invite me up without Rebecca there, though it did happen on occasion when she couldn’t make it due to family plans, or when something else came up.

I get up with a sigh, heading over to the dresser to pick out a pair of dark jeans and a sweater. The thought of being tangled up in someone else’s mess makes my blood boil and I hurriedly get dressed.

~~

I knock on the apartment door curtly later that night. The door swings open, revealing a rather handsome Ravi with a collared shirt and a sweater pulled over the top, his favorite snapback resting against his tousled hair.

“That’s a nice change from the usual sweats,” I say to him as he lets me in. For the first time in days, Ravi smiles.

Ken is sprawled on the couch, his nose buried in a book. I plop down next to him and he sits himself upright, kissing my cheek.

“Hey,”

My ears burn at the sudden affection and he grins.

“Wow, if I had known you two would get along so well, I’d have introduced you two sooner,” Ravi smirks with a can of soda in his hands and settles down on the other side of me. Ken pretends to snarl like an angry dog.

Ravi clicks on the tv and loses himself in a news report. To my left, Ken places his arm along the backrest and I rest my head on his shoulder as he continues to read. It’s quite peaceful, the monitor of the tv a low murmur of omniscient white noise as Ken’s chest rises and falls next to me with every breath.

Ravi drains the last of his soda with a loud belch, and to my surprise, crushes the can against his forehead and tosses it with great precision as it lands in the wastebasket on the far side of the room with a loud clang.

“Whoo,” he cheers softly to no one in particular, pumping his fist. Ken and Ravi’s hands meet in a crisp high five above my head.

“Do you have another? I’m thirsty,”

“Isn’t Ken enough for you?”

It takes a second for me to process his joke and I sock him in the arm, my knuckles tingling as I remember how much it hurts to punch Ravi.

“I’m just joking,” he chuckles, “I don’t, that was my last one. You wanna head downstairs to the vending machine? I’ll buy you one, my treat,”

“Sure,”

“Ken, you want one?”

“No, thanks,” he says without looking up.

~~

It’s nice to talk with Ravi alone for once as we take the elevator down, it seems like forever since the two of us have been able to connect like this. His mood is exceptionally cheerful and he’s nice enough to ask if Ken has been too forward, to which I reply no.

“That’s good,” he says as the two of us exit the elevator, “Ken’s been needing a girl for a while.”

I’m about to reply to his comment when I nearly stop in my tracks as I round the corner to see Rebecca step out of a room in front of me, with N at her heels.

Why now?

My mind goes blank, my pulse hammering away in my throat as panic sets in. I have to keep Ravi from seeing this. Everything seems to move in slow motion as the two of them continue down the hallway side by side. They haven’t seen us yet.

“Actually, I’m not so thirsty anymore,” I blurt out and turn around rather quickly, slamming myself into Ravi’s chest. Ow.

“Huh? But we came all the way down here,” he says in a confused voice, “are you sure? I can still buy you one for later.”

Someone stumbles into my back and I grit my teeth as Ravi’s eyes cut away from my face to the pair behind me. My stomach drops through the floor.

“Oh, sorry, we didn’t see-”

N’s cut off as Ravi let’s out an angry breath of air.

“What’re you doing with him?”

It’s a demand more than it is a question directed to Rebecca. She’s completely motionless, and her lips tremble slightly before she speaks.

“We were just talking,”

“Talking? Yeah, right,”

Ravi’s somewhat cheerful demeanor from minutes ago has evaporated completely. He’s shaking, his hands balled into fists at his sides.

“You didn’t answer my question. Why are you with him?” his tone is acidic, and he jerks his chin in N’s direction to punctuate his point. Rebecca looks to the floor, arms crossed over her chest. She looks so vulnerable and fragile.

Ravi grabs her roughly by the arm and pushes her in front of him as he guides her down the hall back to the elevator.

“Walk,”

~~

“There you are, I thought you guys got lost or-” Ken starts before his face falls as he sees Ravi, N, Rebecca and I file in through the door.

“Rebecca, you told me you went home,”

“I did, but I forgot to grab something and-”

“And that just happened to be in N’s office?!”

She doesn’t answer, her gaze fleeting around the room like a scared bird. Ravi scoffs as he paces the floor, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

“Do you have any idea how ed up this is?” he murmurs and his voice breaks.

The room is eerily silent, the only sound the muffled ticking of a clock from a bedroom with the door ajar. With a roar, Ravi hefts a vase and it explodes against the far wall just inches from N’s head. N ducks just in time, spraying him with a shower of shattered glass.

“Ravi!”

“How can you do this to me?!” he screams. Ravi has his head in his hands, raking his fingers through his hair. He lifts his face, and his eyes are tinted a terrifying blood red.

“I love you, I love you so ing much it hurts, and you go and throw it all away for him?!”

“I didn’t throw anything away!” Rebecca chokes back.

“Liar!” he retorts, “liar! Do you realize how much I’ve done for you? Do you even understand that?”

Rebecca shakes her head in disbelief and wipes her nose with the sleeve of her sweater.

“Listen to yourself, how can you say that to me? Of course I know,”

“Really? Because I don’t think you have any ing idea.” Ravi suddenly strides towards her until he has her pinned against the wall, towering over her with his height and he grabs for her hand. She tries to shake him off but he’s too strong, and he finally places one of her trembling hands on his chest.

“Tell me what you feel,” he murmurs. His voice is so soft that I can’t believe this is the same man who had just tried to injure N seconds before.

“Stop,” she begs, tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Nothing, right? I gave up my flesh and blood for you,”

Ravi pauses to catch himself, his gaze flickering to the side and I realize that he’s crying as well, biting down on his lower lip so hard, white against pink.

“They took out my heart, Rebecca, and replaced it with a steel, cold machine. Is that all I am to you now? A machine?”

“Stop. Stop it, please” she begs. Rebecca beats at his chest with her other hand now curled into a fist, “this isn’t you, this isn’t like you. You aren’t the Ravi I know!-”

He pushes himself away from her and starts to pace the floor again, angrily brushing away his tears with the back of his hand.

“Who are you to tell me what I am?!” he roars.

“-Because your data’s been corrupted, Ravi!”

Silence. It’s so quiet I can almost feel the air compressing against my ears, until Rebecca starts to speak again. She’s sobbing so hard that she’s having trouble getting the words out, gulping down mouthfuls of oxygen.

“Y-your eyes ch-changing color, the sudden a-anger, the mood swings, how you want to pick a fight with me almost ev-every hour,” she pauses and slowly breathes through her nose and gestures to N, still sitting against the wall behind her,

“N found a virus in your system. That’s why I was with him. He was just showing me your reports, he knew how I’m so worried about you, how I-I’m so f-ing scared that I’m going to lose you and-”

Rebecca suddenly sinks to the floor, her head bowed into her knees, and she covers her face with her hands. Her entire frame shakes violently as another sob rocks through her body, her voice a muffled whisper as she speaks through her hands.

“You honestly thought I was cheating on you?”

My shoulders sag and my stomach feels like led inside me. I feel so sick and disloyal for ever doubting her. Rebecca, my best friend, of course she would never hurt Ravi like that. She loves him more than anything, why didn’t I see that first?

I glance at Ken and he holds my gaze, the same sorrowful expression on his face that I imagine to be on my own.

Ravi takes a step in her direction, followed by another. At first, I think he’s going to Rebecca’s side to comfort her until he strides towards N quickly, yanking him up by his shirt collar to slam his back against the wall.

“You did this,” he breathes, his teeth bared wolfishly, upper lip curled into a snarl, “You made me this way. You programmed that software, didn’t you?! I know you did! You did this to me!”

N doesn’t have time to give an answer before Ravi pulls back his fist and smashes it into N’s jaw. His head snaps dangerously far back and Ravi grabs him again, socking him in the stomach. N’s breath rushes out of his lungs with a loud gasp, his mouth agape and he crumples to the floor, spitting up blood on the white carpet.

Everything is chaos. Ravi’s entire frame is shaking so hard and he’s screaming, screaming, screaming.

He grabs N for a third time, landing two more blows to his stomach as the sure crunch of bone crackles beneath Ravi’s knuckles. N cries out and falls to his knees, clutching his ribcage in excruciating pain.

“I’m sorry, Ravi,” N mumbles weakly, “it was an accident, I didn’t mean to-”

With an animalistic growl, Ravi slams N against the wall, his head lolling to the side like a ragdoll as he loses consciousness.

“Ravi, stop! You’re going to kill him!” Ken screams. He rushes over in an attempt to pull him off of N, but Ravi just shoves him away. Ravi’s hands move over N’s neck, hoisting him up, his feet dangling beneath him and he closes his thumbs over his throat.

And that’s when I realize that he’s trying to.

Ravi suddenly stops, his hands falling limp against his sides. N slumps to the ground, unconscious but alive, his white lab coat stained with his own blood. Ravi’s breathing like a wild beast, his face still twisted with rage, his chest rising and falling at an incredible speed. Until he starts convulsing. Tremors rock his entire body and his expression changes from one of blind anger to one of fear.

Realization seems to hit everyone in the room simultaneously as I hear Rebecca inhale sharply.

Ravi’s system is crashing.

“No, no, no, no!”

He looks up to me, eyes full of tears and his face slowly relaxes into a neutral expression, his irises flashing from red to snow white until he goes completely still.

“ERROR CODE 374”

The cool, computer-generated voice of a woman rings out through the room before Ravi goes stock still and collapses against the wooden floor.

A/N: Jeongie was nice enough to proof-read this for me and I think I made her cry omfg. This scene was a to write, like thinking about Ravi like this just makes me sad so sad omg did anyone catch the steel heart reference 

I FEEL TERRIBLE FOR LEAVING YOU GUYS ON A CLIFFHANGER LIKE THIS HHH

I've already started writing the next few chapters so you guys can look forward to that pretty soon! C: Hope you enjoyed!

xoxo Sahara