Sounds of the bat hitting the ball echoed at the night field, others clapping at the hetrick shot.
"Ok, boys it's time for a break. We will continue the practice after a 15 min break. ENJOY!!!" the coach said, as the players went to rest.
"You played well!" Ishan said to shubman smiling as he sat down on the grass field.
"Well offcourse, I m the best" shubman said with a grin, siting down beside ishan.
"Haha!! Nice joke" ishan laughed.
Shubman rolled his eyes "huh!? Whatever"
They sat there with a comfortable silent for a while, looking up at the night sky, thinking deep. As moments went shubman decided to speak his feeling which he wanted to say for a quite while now.
He gazed at ishan, who was looking mesmerizing while looking at the sky sitting under the moonlight, his sweats forming a spark all over his forehead and neck from the reflection of the dim lights all over the field. It was getting hard for shubman, he looked away from ishan and started "hey i-i wanted to tell you something, important"
Ishan gazed at shubman, who was looking at anywhere but ishan, "yess? What's it?"
"Ishan i-i-i lo-love you" he confessed.
"Waaaw shubi, i know it offcourse you love me, don't make me blush in front of everyone" ishan said blushing.
"Ishan I want you to understand what I m gonna say next" shubman said with a serious tone, as ishan nodded.
"ishan, I love you, a lot. But I think we-we should move on from our relationship, I know we are enjoying our relationship, but in the future it will become hard for us... Being gay is still a big problem in India, even if we try to hide our relationship from everyone, someday they will eventually know. Which will lead to a end of our career, they will be very harsh to us ...... We will get hate... Our career will be ruined... And I don't want to regret our relationship that time......... It's better for us to end it .............. Here"
Ishan heard all of this with a pale face, tears forming in the corner of his eyes, as his throat became dry " but yo-you told m-me that you wo-ould f-f-fight for u-us" he shuttered badly, with a heavy dry voice.
Shubman sighed, now looking at ishan," I know ishan, but I was young that time I was just 19, i didn't thought that time all this, and ishan please don't mistake it, I really love you I really do but, I can't ruin my career please understand" he cried.
"i understand shubi, but I won't regret anything, please let's give it a try, please shubi" ishan pleaded as shubman started with a soft and straight face, "ishan I can't do this please understand, I can't , I I don't want to disappoint my my parents ishan"
Ishan smiled slightly with tears still glowing in his eyes, "it's ok, I guess we should just move on then"
"It will be hard but theres no other choice Jaan" shubman said while looking up in the sky.
"Yeah"
Ishan chuckled, tears still glowing in his eyes as he looks up in the sky, not wanting shubman to notice his tears, " let's meet again on our next birth"
"Yeah let's do it" shuman smiled "let's still stay best friends"
"Offcourse" ishan smiled.
"Guysss!!! Break is over let's start the practice!!" The coach stated.
Shubman and ishan stood up smiling at eachother still tears glowing in there eyes.
The only thing ishan had in his mind after that night
was, "only if he was a girl"______________________________
Sad reality of some people belonging to LGBTQ+