Lonappan sighed. "Okay, cool. But, first let me-" He tried saying something, however yet again his words were cut short by Ponnappan.

"Nothing's gonna change my verdict, Lonappan. My decision is final." Ponnappan said like a broken recorder.

This irked Lonappan. "Will you fucking shut up now and hear me out. Look, I get it. You stand by your decision. Although, I would like you to take my one suggestion into consideration." Lonappan spoke, trying hard to compose his calm.

"What is it?" Ponnappan asked. He decided to hear out his friend.

Lonappy took in a breath of relief. "Finally! Look, I'd suggest you meet Gopan before you actually use the neuralyzer." He suggested.

"Well, I'd have to meet him anyway if I wanna use the neuralyzer on him." Ponnappan shrugged.

"You bloody well know that's not what I meant. I want you to have a man-to-man talk with him. That's all." Lonappan replied.

"Wait a minute. Gopan? You know the guy from back then? That's oddly suspicious!" Ponnappan spoke.

"Ah, well! Coincidentally, he lived near #306. Hence, we became acquaintances. That's why I'm asking you to have a chat with him." Lonappan replied.

"Oh, then that makes it simpler. We don't have to literally scratch the Earth's surface searching for that guy." Ponnappan was relieved. "Very well. I'll have a civilized talk with him. However, don't expect much from it. My decision won't change." He reiterated the same statement.

"This mother-" Lonappan felt like cursing, however stopped himself from it. "Fine. As long as you have the talk with him. Then, what are we waiting for?" Lonappan got up. Ponnappan followed suit.

"Wait, that's it? No infightings? No suspensions or dismissals? Your agent is related to that guy; don't you feel something weird about this? Like he's planning something sinister with that guy? How can you trust this guy anymore? Isn't he a traitor?" The alien cried since it expected something more when it actually decided to confess its crimes.

Ponnappan got serious for a second. "So, you want me to believe you rather than my junior whom I've known for a long time. Tell me, in what way does that make any sense?" He asked.

"Our pal right here expected a lot more when it broke out this 'sensational' news." Lonappan chuckled as he patted the alien's shiny dome of a head.

The alien fumbled for words. "Well, weren't you trying to persuade your superior from using the neuralyzer on your friend? Isn't that clear opposition towards his decision?" The alien asked with a shaky voice.

"By no means I tried to stop Ponnappan. Didn't you hear him? He said his decision was final. I just wanted him to visit my friend and have a nice chat with him." Lonappan explained his side. "Now, go back to where you came from and don't you dare to come back!" He waved the alien goodbye.

"I'll get you someday, Agent Lonappan!" The alien cried as it was dragged to the detention cell.

"Sure! I'll be here anyway!" Lonappan shouted before turning towards Ponnappan.

"Shall we go then?"

#

"Are you sure about this?" Ponnappan asked Lonappan as he hesitated to ring the doorbell of Gopan's house.

"Yea, why not? I just want you to meet him before you make any important decision." Lonappan replied.

"Very well." Ponnappan nodded and rang the doorbell.

Gopan's wife answered it. "Oh, hey Lonappan. You want me to call Gopan?" She asked.

"Yea, thank you." Lonappan answered as she left to call Gopan.

And in a few seconds, Gopan came running whilst trying to tie his mundu [1]. "Hey, Lonappan.. and guy! Wait, did you bring him here since he wanted to join WPP? You could've gone straight to the office for that. You don't need me for that!" Gopan spoke as he looked around for his auto's keys.

"Gopan, chill. He's not here to join WPP. He's my.. colleague at work! He wanted to see you." Lonappan explained the situation. Ponnappan gave out a welcome smile.

"Colleague? See me? Why would he want to see me?" A confused Gopan asked.

"Well, Lonappan used to talk so highly about you in the office. Since I was in the vicinity, I decided to meet you and just have a friendly chat." Ponnappan explained.

"Oh, if that's the case, come in. I gotta get to the auto stand by nine though." Gopan spoke as he invited both into his house.

#

Gopan, Lonappan and Ponnappan had about an hour of casual chat, before Ponnappan decided to drop the bomb. "Hey, Gopan. I heard a funny story about the day you two met from Lonappan. Care to elaborate?" Ponnappan asked.

Gopan's eyes twitched with excitement. "Oh, I remember that day like it was yesterday!" Gopan replied much to the delight of Ponnappan. "See, we were in a WPP convention in the Thekkinkadu Maidan that day. WPP means the Worker's Political Party by the way. And Vijay Das was giving the speech, you know?" Gopan continued to give out a ten minute worth explanation about WPP, Vijay Das and all other party related things that happened that day.

Ponnappan was annoyed by this. Gopan literally told everything else that except for the incident he wanted to hear about. Just as he was about to explode with rage, Lonappan came up with the save. "Dude, you remember how I did the citizen's arrest that day?" He asked.

"Oh, yea! You caught an idiot drug dealer wearing a bright mask! That was really stupid!" Gopan chuckled.

"Well, that wasn't a mask, but its real face. By the way, it was an alien." Lonappan spoke without giving a fuck.

"What?" Gopan and Ponnappan simultaneously asked. While Gopan was questioning the absurdity of this, Ponnappan was trying to understand why Lonappan would reveal something like this to a civilian.

Gopan laughed out loud. "As if! Stop mocking my intelligence like this! Trying to make fun of me, this lad!"

"But I ain't lying though! That was an alien and we are members of an elite force called Men in Black who mediates the relation between humans and aliens." He replied.

"Dude, what the hell are you doing? You're revealing everything!" Ponnappan bit his tongue in anger and frustration.

"I get it. I'll let you write the indian remake of Men in Black!" Gopan chuckled.

"Damn, don't give people ideas!" Lonappan gasped. "However, what I said is the truth. And by the way, we have an agreement with one of the galaxian civilizations, where they supply us with cosmic weapons and stuff." He glanced at Gopan with all seriousness.

Gopan patted on his shoulder. "If you want me to believe it so badly, I will believe any shit you say." He smiled.

"See?" Lonappan eyed Ponnappan.

Ponnappan's mind was troubled. He had no idea how to perceive things. Right then, he saw his trusted junior revealing everything there is to know about the Men in Black and a guy who's actively rejecting the truth. He dragged Lonappan to a corner and whispered. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Isn't this therapeutic?" Lonappan asked back.

"We're supposed to be the secret keepers of Earth. We have the responsibility to carry them, fully knowing that we're not supposed to reveal it to anyone. Yet, your mouth is so loosely bound to this!" Ponnappan cried.

"Why don't you try it first? It'll help." Lonappan nudged his shoulder.

"No, I won't do it!" Ponnappan strongly rejected it.

However, his rejection didn't last very long and Lonappan's persistent persuasion proved effective. In a matter of a few minutes, Ponnappan sat before Gopan and started talking about all kinds of things, like the stress he had to endure due to his position, his nagging senior officials who just dumped responsibility onto him and several other things. And Gopan patiently heard the stuff without saying a word until an hour or two actually passed.

"Shoot, it's nine now. As I said, I gotta go! Anyway, what you said was really interesting. I like how you merged reality and fiction into one coherent unit- that's great! I really hope you make it into a story. People will like it!" Gopan said as he shook Ponnappan's hand and headed out.

Ponnappan breathed out a sigh of relief as he saw Gopan leaving. They did as well. However, they did not talk to each other for quite some time.

Finally, Ponnappan decided to break the silence. "How long do you think it will take for him to realize that what we've told is the truth?" He asked.

"As long as the aliens don't loudly proclaim that they exist and wage war against us or something, he'll never realize." Lonappan assured.

"Have you ever felt guilty? Like leaking all our secrets and stuff?" Ponnappan asked.

"We did not leak it! We merely confessed like one does to a priest in a church. So, I guess I don't. Rather, it takes the weight off my chest." Lonappan explained.

"Huh, makes sense!" Ponnappan muttered as he continued silently walking beside Lonappan.

In the following few years or so, Ponnappan continued with his sporadic visits at Gopan's house to relieve himself of his stress, until he became stressed out about relieving his stress like this when he completely stopped coming. However, he never erased this from Gopan's memory since he formed a trustful relation with him.

#

[1] A traditional wear mostly seen in Kerala. Also called Lungi, Dhoti, Veshti amongst many other names.