After a few seconds Olivia looked up and found his incredulous stare fixed on her face. On the surface she appeared absolutely impassive but her cold hands and feet said otherwise. Now all she could do was patiently wait for his reaction, response, query, anything, even sit quietly in this tense atmosphere.
Koushik, on the other hand, was desperately searching for any sign of this being a joke or a prank but each passing minute took away whatever hope he was clinging on to. Finally giving up, he cradled his face in the palm of his hands and muttered to himself, repeating all the information he just got over and over again.
"So you're telling me that all the interactions I had with her, every word exchanged, every moment shared, were all fake? None of the feelings I felt were reciprocated? Whatever I learnt about my friend was just made up nonsense?" He said in a tired voice, still holding his face like that.
"...yes." Olivia answered after some hesitation.
Initially she wanted to argue against that, say that Ankita felt his sincerity, thought of him as a friend and enjoyed the time spent together. However, at the end of the day her existence was curated, there was a big if in everything. If someone like that really existed, if they went to the same school, if they met, if she felt what Olivia assumed she should feel, if she acted on those feelings as Olivia assumed she should act, then Koushik might have gained a friend outside of his bandmates. Olivia strived to act as accurately like a person of Ankita's personality and mind would, as possible yet she could never give life to Ankita.
"Why? Why did you do that?" Koushik asked in a heavy, choked voice.
"I was hyperfocused on playing the character perfectly and getting the job done. I am truly sorry for stringing you in this. I was very careless about taking into account the relationships my disguise formed on the mission. I did not expect you to get attached to Ankita so quickly and so deeply." Olivia felt even more guilty now that she knew about Ekalabya.
Koushik winced at the words character, disguise and most of all Ankita. The truth pained him a lot but there was no other way to accept that the memories he cherished up until yesterday turned out to be no different than a long hallucination. He could not figure out what he felt at the moment, anger, sadness, emptiness all blended together into an invisible ball that got stuck in his throat and became impossible to swallow, only growing bigger by the second. He covered his ear and tried to focus on the thudding pulse, recall every little trick his career taught him to hold it in. Crying before Olivia was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment, hell, he did not even want to let out the faintest sob. Having no other way he got up and dashed out of the room.
"Wait the gate.." Before she could finish, Koushik was already running down the hallway.
Olivia went after him, debating between outrunning him and opening the gate and waiting for some time so that he could maybe cry it out. It did not take long to choose because personally she would hate to be trapped in an unfamiliar place in a vulnerable condition. So she broke into a sprint but surprisingly, in the few seconds she spent in her head, Koushik had already reached the gate. She had underestimated the growth he had from their training. Speaking of training, he would likely want a different coach, no-one in their right mind would continue to work with someone who played with their feelings.
Olivia shook her head, getting lost in thought was not the best decision now. Koushik was standing by the gate, holding onto the bars with his head hung. Understandably he did not want to meet her face so Olivia stayed a respectable distance away and user voice command for the gate to open. As soon as the gap was big enough, he exited, the gate had not yet fully opened. She stood there until his figure disappeared from view.
Koushik tripped on his way back a lot. He was running at full speed and his blurry eyes did not help in locating bumps and pebbles on the path. Wet cheeks and palm felt sticky against the cool air and eyes stung from how much he rubbed them. Amidst all this he finally got to his dorm. Alas everything seemed to be going wrong that day. Koushik held his ID but the scanner seemed to be taking too long to identify. The chest region of his shirt had become damp and stuck to his skin unpleasantly. The cool breeze which could have been an enjoyable element any other time only added to his discomfort at the moment.
"Work! Damnit!" He jerked his watch against the scanner almost hitting it.
It finally worked and the gate slid open. Once again without waiting for it to make way he squeezed through the minimum necessary gap and sprinted to his room. Getting inside, he slammed the door shut and collapsed on the floor. Finally all the bottled up emotion burst out. Koushik curled up on the floor and cried bitterly. The one time he opened up after the passing of his friend turned out to be a lie. After getting to know Ankita, he really thought he would be able to let go of his grief and take a new step ahead but it seemed he moved twenty backwards. As he lay there on the cold stone, his mind took him back to the times spent at VN High School. The face he had grown accustomed to and looked forward to seeing every day at school now became hazy. As every little interaction replayed, he started questioning if any of the expressions or words spoken was real. Was all the care shown part of the act too? What about the silly things they laughed at? Was the smile fake too?
Koushik could not take them anymore. The thoughts and memories echoed and became a huge mess in his head. He pressed the base of his palm over his eyes trying to ease the headache. It helped a little but the throbbing pulse on either side of the temple did not ease at all. The coldness of the floor felt nice but he dragged himself off it and climbed on the bed somehow. His body and mind was feeling miserable enough there was no need to catch a cold.