Arun finished adjusting his new desk at the Mumbai office—monitor tilted just right, chair lowered to his preferred regrettable posture, system logged in and slightly laggy because IT hadn't optimized anything since the Stone Age.
The Mumbai branch felt different.Louder.Busier.Every person walked like Google Maps had put a red "Delay" symbol over their head. Phones rang nonstop. Someone yelled "ASAP!" every ten minutes. Another guy loudly explained crypto to a man who definitely didn't ask.
Arun stared at his inbox: ten new mails.
Not bad for a first morning.
By afternoon, he had solved two small issues and eaten half a vada pav from the office canteen.Half—because the other half tasted like an ethical violation.
Around 3 PM, his head felt heavy, so he decided to step out for air. Chennai traffic used to annoy him; Mumbai traffic felt like divine punishment for sins he didn't remember committing.
Outside the gate, the world was vibrating.
A paan seller at the corner slapped betel leaves like they owed him money. A taxi swerved, honking at a dog. The dog barked back like it had equal rights in the argument. Office workers hurried toward Vadapav stalls, because deadlines were deadlines but hunger was hunger.
Arun walked toward the busy intersection nearby. Cars and bikes flew past like they were trying to escape invisible demons. The city felt fast, alive… and slightly unhinged.
His mind drifted to the bus girl he'd seen in the morning.Not romantically.Just… curiously.
Her calmness stuck in his mind, the way she barely reacted when the bus jerked.People usually flailed.She didn't.
He tried to dismiss the memory.Mumbai had thousands of people like her—busy, serious, staring out of bus windows as if life was a crossword puzzle.
He shook the thought away and stepped onto the zebra crossing when the pedestrian signal turned green.
That's when everything went wrong.
A white SUV came flying from the right, engine roaring, headlights off even in broad daylight. The driver wasn't slowing. Not even secretly planning to slow.
Someone screamed.
A cyclist lost balance.
A man tripped forward.
The SUV swerved sharply—straight toward the crowd. Straight toward Arun.
His heartbeat fired one instinctive message:
Now.
And time obeyed.
Silence slammed into the street.
Everything froze.
The SUV hung mid-skid, front wheels twisted violently, the driver's face locked in mid-panic. The cyclist was paused with one foot in the air. People were frozen shielding themselves or falling or gazing in shock.
Even dust particles floated like glitter trapped in amber.
Arun stood still for a moment, letting his breathing settle.This wasn't like Chennai.This wasn't a small near-miss.
This was a full Mumbai-level disaster.
"Perfect," he muttered. "Second day in the city and already life wants to kill me."
He walked toward the frozen SUV. The front bumper was inches from the cyclist's shin. If time resumed now, the cyclist's leg would… well, not survive.
Arun grabbed the cycle handle and pulled sideways.
His muscles strained.His jaw tightened.
"Bro… why are cycles so heavy when frozen in time…?"
He managed to shift it just enough.
Next, he approached the man mid-fall. Arun nudged him slightly left so he'd land safely instead of smacking into a bike.
Then he saw a delivery boy's food box flying mid-air.
Arun caught it, placed it back into the boy's frozen hands, and nodded.
"You're welcome."
He walked to the SUV driver. The man's face was twisted comically in panic. Arun examined him once.
"You are the reason pedestrians pray."
He nudged the steering wheel a little, just enough to redirect the SUV away from the densest part of the crossing.
Then he took a few steps back, exhaled, and whispered:
"Resume."
Time snapped back violently.
The SUV shot forward—but veered sharply, scraping the divider instead of plowing into people. The cyclist stumbled but didn't crash. The falling man hit the ground with a slap and yelled, "Bach gaya re!" The delivery boy blinked at his food box like it had teleported.
The driver stumbled out of the SUV, dazed and definitely sober now.
People immediately erupted:
"Signal red tha, idiot!""You want to kill everyone?!""Drive properly!""Arrest him!"
Arun didn't stay.
He slipped into the moving crowd and headed back toward his office building, hands in pockets, heart slowly calming.
No pride.No thrill.Just annoyance.
Mumbai wasn't Chennai.Mumbai was a video game where the difficulty setting had been accidentally set to "Nightmare Mode."
He reached the office gate.Security looked at him. "Big accident, sir?"
Arun replied, "Just Mumbai saying hello."
His tone was flat, but inside something nagged at him. During the freeze, he felt something odd—a faint echo, like someone else in the city had briefly… noticed.
A disturbance? No. Impossible.
Unless his instinct was malfunctioning.
He pushed the thought away and went back inside.
Colleagues were already discussing the accident.
"He was drunk!""Someone could've died!""Mumbai drivers, yaar…"
Arun opened his laptop and acted like he had no idea what happened.
Inside his mind, though, reality was clear:
I need more control. That freeze happened before I even consciously triggered it.
He couldn't risk that in crowded spaces.
He needed to train his instincts the same way he trained selective unfreeze.
He needed discipline.
He needed routine.
Because this city wouldn't give him time to breathe.
Later that evening, he returned to the PG.
Rohan, his roommate, was lying on the bed reading balance sheets like a man reading romance novels.
"You're back early today," Rohan said. "Mumbai traffic okay?"
Arun tossed his bag onto the bed. "Traffic is the least of our problems."
Rohan laughed. "You'll get used to it."
Arun didn't respond.
He lay down, staring at the ceiling.
A tiny thought sat in his chest—not fear, not exhaustion.
A realization.
If this much chaos hit me on day two… what's waiting for me next week?
He closed his eyes.
The faces of the frozen pedestrians floated in his mind.The SUV.The panic.The instinctive freeze.
Then a different image flashed—a girl in a blue kurta on a bus, looking at him with eyes that didn't look away fast enough.
He didn't know why that memory came back.
But something in him whispered:
Mumbai is leading you somewhere.Someone.Something important.
He ignored it for now.
Tomorrow was another day.
Another fight.
Another freeze waiting somewhere in the city.