And that’s how he found the disc.

The old DVD player hummed to life, its laser struggling to read the scratched disc. For the first time in a decade, the words flickered onto the dusty television screen: Yaariyan .

He paused the movie.

Kabir ejected the disc. The plastic case felt warm in his hands. He looked at his flight ticket. Then at his phone.

His eyes drifted to the corner of the room. A dusty cricket trophy. Next to it, a photograph in a cheap plastic frame. Four faces, arms around each other, grinning like they had just conquered the world. Akhil, Rohan, Simran, and him. His own yaari .

And all because of a scratched, silly, beautiful Bollywood film about friendship that, for once, got everything right.

He pressed send. The message showed two blue ticks.

Akhil typed: "Tujhe treat deni padegi, loser." (You'll have to pay, loser.)