Scent of a Man (Ishman/Shubish/Ishdik/Shubman Gill x Ishan Kishan)

Scent of Secrets

Notes:
Don't mind me, I am just dropping the 4th chap!

Special mention to the first critic of this chapter, my dearest bff, Ms.SB Heelshire; love you babe 🫶

Anyway, happy reading! ✨️

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Chapter Summary:

Do you truly know who you are? Are you ready to accept who you are?

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Chapter 4: Scent of Secrets

There was a knock at the door.

Shub was lying down with his face buried in the pillow. The pillow was wet from all the crying he had been doing since morning.
He was feeling like a mess inside. Ishu's words kept playing on repeat in his head, like a broken record. He could never imagine even in his wildest dreams that those vile words could come out of Ishu's mouth! How could he! Ishu knew him better than anyone, then how could he say something so disgusting about Shub? He felt fury boiling inside him again at this thought. It was not just anger; it was this deep sense of betrayal that cut him to the core.
He still didn't understand why Ishu acted like that. Yes, it was an embarrassing scene for sure, shocking even, but why would Ishu accuse him of sleeping around? It was Hardik Pandya for god's sake! Not a girl or anything!
Still, deep in his heart, somehow he felt like he knew the answer. He knew why Ishu acted like that, he felt Ishu's words were justified. He even felt Ishu didn't deserve that slap. He shouldn't have slapped him. But why did he, of all people, was feeling like this? He didn't have to explain anything to Ishu, so then, why did he go to him for explaining what had happened at night? He had no obligation to do that! But he knew, in his heart, that Ishu deserved an explanation for everything. As if...as if...

"Shub, andar hain na tu?", a familiar voice interrupted his flow of thoughts.

He bolted upright in the bed. This call needed to be answered.

When Rohit Sharma came into his room, Shub had already kind of adjusted his clothes and smoothened his hair, making himself somewhat presentable. But still, his swollen, puffy and red eyes were easily giving away what he had been doing in his room for so long.

Rohit took a quick but insightful look at Shub before asking, "Thik to hain na tu?"

"Haan...", his voice cracked, thanks to the long weeping session, "haan bhaiya", he managed to utter these words somehow.

"Hmm", Rohit replied in a worried tone. "Dekh, sidhe sidhe baat karna mujhe pasand hain, to main tujhe koi jhutmut ki baatein nehi kehne wala hu", he cleared his throat.

Rohit always had a soft corner for Shub. Even though he never showed it like Virat did, participating in their silly pranks and stuffs, but he still adored Shubman from afar. Shub reminded him of his own younger brother, Vishal. Both of them had the same vibe, a bit shy around strangers yet the most energetic around their loved ones. Maybe that's a reason why he always wanted to protect Shub, like an elder brother.

After the practice today, Girish Dongre, the team manager, himself had called Virat and Rohit for a talk. Turned out, some fans present at the stadium had recorded a video of Shub and Ishan's heated argument along with the slapping incident and posted it on social media. Thank heavens they were so faraway that the camera couldn't catch anything any of them said. But the video got viral in minutes after posting and had single handedly caused a huge fight among fans. Some were asking for Shub's suspension whereas some were claiming the video to be fake or a prank.
Girish was not at all happy with this as expected. The ODI series was going to start in a week. And the opponent was not some trashy team, it was fucking Australia! How could anyone be happy at their own players fighting just before such a crucial series?
The manager wanted explanations and answers which neither of Virat or Rohit had. The last question Girish asked was, "What to do now?"
Virat was already furious at both of Ishan and Shub, so before he could say anything, or worse, ask for their suspension, Rohit interrupted, "Dekhiye, yeh dono ladke player achhe hain, we need them in the upcoming series. So, suspend nahi kar sakte, aur agar fine kya to fans ke allegations sach saabit ho jayenge, aur iska buri asar puri team par aa sakti hain. I don't think we need that negative publicity just before this series. Mujhe lagta hain hume pehle ek team meeting bulake unki baat puri sunna chahiye ki huya kya tha, woh dono toh bohot achhe dost hain so yeh thappor-wappor thoda ajeeb ho gaya hain. Aur phir woh dono agar ek sath milke, woh kya kehte hain na," he thought for a moment,"Haan, instagram live or something, mujhe thik se pata nahi, par jo bhi ho agar woh karke bol de ki yeh bas un dono ka ek prank tha to phir mujhe to lagta hain log maan jayenge. Kyunki yeh dono to famous hain hi yeh sab masti majaak ke liye."