when 77 met 32 [ishman ff] [shubish]

2022

"shubmannnnn you have a call from hardik bhai." It was my sister that was currently yelling at the foot of my bathroom door. My ringing phone in her hand. "receive the call. Tell him I'll call back in sometime." I told her, hoping for her to not fuck anything up.

"hello, yes bhai, shubman is in bathroom right now. He'll......" and then her voice faded in the background and all I could here was the honking of vehicles outside of my window. I was currently in Mumbai along with my sister who came to visit me a week ago. It is not this loud back in Punjab.

I came out of the washroom approximately after 10 minutes. I changed in my clean clothes and went out of my room. Searching for my sister who currently had my phone and a message from my teammate.

"shahneel diii" I yelled as loud as I could. No answer. "diiiiiiiiiiii" "what are you shouting that loud for, I can hear you just fine." "insaan ko jawab dena hota hai." I deadpanned. She gave me the eyes before handing my phone over to me.

"what did he say?" "nothing. He asked you to call him back." "okay..." I dialled hardik bhai's number "hello bhai. You called?" "yeah. I wanted to ask you about your plans on 17, 18, 19 and 20th July."

"umm.. why?" I asked because it was ishan's birthday on 18th and there is no way I was missing his birthday this time. We were never in the same place during our birthdays all these years and back in 2018 when we were together indeed, we weren't that close. Now, I wanted to be there with Ishan for his birthday and nothing could stop me from doing that. Not even hardik bhai's brilliant outing plans.

"Learn to answer the question kid." "I am not free on 18th" I told him hoping for him to not question me any further. "why? apart from ishan's birthday what is so special for you to not be free?" okay what the hell. I mean I knew Ishan was close with the team members and they would definitely know his birthday but I was not expecting that reply.

"that.... Actually....i...." "yeah keep your stuttering to yourself and meet me at the address I texted you today at 5." And he just ended the call with that. Okay I am the official joker guys. I don't know if I am surrounded by too many psychics or if I am too easy to read. And what is the deal with this meeting anyways. Honestly that wasn't even the strangest part.

Because Ishan had called me at 3 and we were casually talking to each other. And I was avoiding mentioning that meet with Hardik bhai because I did not want to repeat my conversation with him and alert Ishan that I did remember his birthday. so, I just tried to keep quiet about it, but then I had assumed that Ishan would be invited to whatever meeting there was.

Hardik bhai always invited Ishan. He was family at this point. So, the strangest part comes here. Ishan asked me if I was free in the evening. Specifically, at maybe 4:30 or 5:00 and I was shocked speechless because if this guy new about the meeting with hardik bhai he would have gushed on about it. About what he thought it would be about, about what he would wear, about what he wanted to eat, about what prank he wanted to pull today and the list goes on. But Ishan mentioned none of it, of course, he didn't know about it. I am an idiot.

Hardik bhai would eat me alive if I told him. I would be six feet under I could feel it in my bones. I had to lie. And was it hard? Hell yes. I was just starting to make up lies when shahneel dii shouted from the background. "are you talking to Ishan?" she asked "yes. I am" I yelled back at her. "don't make any plans with him today. We have to go to my friend's house remember."

Okay, what the fuck. I remember none of that bullshit. What friend? What house? But I decided to go with it since I was in a desperate need of a lie. Later when I thought about it, I came to a conclusion that maybe my sister was a psychic or we had an easy solution also, maybe hardik bhai told my sister about the meeting already? But the fact that she spoke up from the other room at the exact time I needed her is still a mystery.