It had been a long flight to South Africa and they had landed at 6 in the evening. The bus journey was going on unendingly too, or so it seemed to the ones in the team who were tired.

Kuldeep, Yuzi and Hardik weren't among them. They were rowdily playing 'Brawl Stars', all of them against each other.

Yuzi peeked into Hardik's phone and cried, "Kuliya, he's hidden behind the hedge on your..."

"DON'T TELL HIM, YUZI!" roared Hardik.

"...right!" finished Yuzi.

A gleeful Kuldeep swiftly eliminated Hardik's character in the game.

"YOU TWO TEAMED UP ON ME!" howled Hardik at the top of his voice as Kuldeep and Yuzi fist bumped, and Rohit jolted awake with a terrible shock.

"HARDIK!" shouted Rohit furiously. "Can you keep your voice down?"

As Rohit always got cranky when he was woken up suddenly, Jaddu reached over and patted his head soothingly and said, "Hush! Go back to sleep, my dear."

Rohit swatted his hand away with a snort and sent Hardik a last glare before closing his eyes again.

Hardik opened his mouth to say something, but Mahi bhai put a finger to his lips and whispered, "Shh!"

So Hardik shut his mouth again and gestured something fiercely to Kuldeep and Yuzi, who only laughed.

Hardik's eyes narrowed.

___________

Once Rohit had stumbled into his room to sleep peacefully, Hardik resumed his howling against KulCha to the only person who was listening--Mahi bhai.

Mahi bhai was a great listener.

"I feel for you," he said gravely.

"We should do something to scare them out of their wits, Mahi bhai!" said Hardik.

"Should we?"

"Why not? I just remembered--Kuldeep is terrified of ghosts!" cried Hardik, his eyes lighting up.

"So?" said Mahi bhai in deliberately calm voice.

"We can dress up as ghosts and sneak up on them while they're sleeping!" Hardik was positively glowing.

"That's a very bad idea, Harry," said Mahi bhai, rolling his eyes. "That would never work."

"We'll make it work, Mahi bhai!" cried Hardik bravely. "You just come with me."

"Uh, Hardik, it's already 10:30... d'you think it's wise to..."

"Ghosts don't come out in the morning, do they?" demanded Hardik, so sensibly that Mahi bhai had to shake his head.

"But can't we do it tomorrow?" ventured Mahi.

"Mahi bhai," whined Hardik. "Please."

Mahi bhai couldn't refuse Hardik anything. That was his biggest weakness.

Five minutes later, they were making preparations in Hardik's room.

__________

"Open the door," whispered Hardik, clad carefully in a white bedsheet.

Mahi inserted the master key in Kuldeep's room (where both he and Yuzi were staying) and gently pushed open the door.

Hardik slunk in and bent over Kuldeep till his powder-white face with black devil eyebrows was just a foot away from Kuldeep's human face.

Then Mahi started the recorded voice in his phone and Hardik grabbed Kuldeep's shoulders suddenly with a shriek.

Kuldeep woke up with a worse shock than Rohit's earlier that day and the monstrous face in front of him made him lose his mind.

"YUZI!" screamed Kuldeep in terror as he struggled to free himself from his captor's grip.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" yelled Mahi bhai's phone in the background.

Yuzi jumped up and rushed to Kuldeep and the ghost.

Hardik looked at him with such a maniacal grin that Yuzi drew back in fright for a moment, but then Kuldeep's shouts of, "Yuzi, Yuzi, help me!" made him control his fear nobly and take on the monster.

Hardik, Kuldeep and Yuzi grappled with each other, yelling at the top of their voices.

"I'll save you, Kuldeep!" cried Yuzi.

"GHOST! GHOST!" wailed Kuldeep.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL! I'LL EAT YOU ALL UP!" Hardik was seriously overdoing the evil monster voice.

"Hardik, your voice!" hissed Mahi bhai in despair, but he couldn't be heard over the chaos.

"Gho--" began Kuldeep and suddenly stopped. "Wait, doesn't that voice belong to..."

Yuzi and Kuldeep looked at the ghost properly for the first time. Yuzi reached out and pulled his hair.

"It is Hardik," he said in disgust.

Hardik let them go and made to bolt out of the room, but Kuldeep and Yuzi grabbed him.

"You're mad, Hardik," said Kuldeep in horror.

"Hah, you really thought I was a ghost, didn't you?" said Hardik, starting to laugh like a maniac.

Both Kuldeep and Yuzi went red with humiliation and Hardik only laughed harder.

Then, however, someone switched on the light and their captain's voice rang out.

"It's past midnight! What do you three mean by making such a din?" demanded Virat.

Yuzi smirked at Hardik and told Virat triumphantly, "Hardik dressed up like a ghost and came to scare us and rob us of our sleep, so we can't train properly tomorrow."

Virat groaned. "I don't know when you will grow up, Hardik. An extra hour for you in the gym tomorrow."

"No--Virat--I wasn't alone, Mahi bhai--" began Hardik, looking around.

Unfortuantely for him, Mahi bhai was nowhere to be seen.

All three of them snorted.

"Mahi bhai helped you," said Virat disbelievingly.

"Yeah, right," said Yuzi scornfully.

"Go back to your room, and not one more word from you tonight," Virat ordered, dragging Hardik out by his arm.

___________

When Hardik was doing his extra hour in the gym as punishment, Mahi bhai appeared in front of him.

"You deserted me too, Mahi bhai," wailed Hardik.

"I had to," said Mahi, smirking. "The others would never have respected me in the future otherwise."

"I never expected this from you," said Hardik miserably.

"You could get used to it," teased Mahi bhai, but Hardik looked so sad that he gave him a hug.

Hardik tried to squirm away, but Mahi bhai did not let him go, and Hardik stopped trying to make him let go, because in spite of the betrayal, he still loved his Mahi bhai.

Obviously.