when 77 met 32 [ishman ff] [shubish]

New Year's Eve

After that talk with Mayank, the air in ICT became more tense than before. Shubman told Ishan everything that had happened when he called him that night. Ishan was shocked by the revelation. Of course, he was. The reason for all of this was so stupid. Imagine ruining other people's lives because you weren't talented enough to make yours worthwhile.

Their lives moved on just like it would any other day, but this time they had the burden of secrets on their shoulders. Every interaction with the management made them go mad out of rage. Shubman was not allowed in any of these interactions. They couldn't trust him to have a check on his nerves.

After a few days of this revelation, Suhani disappeared, to a place nobody knew of. They tried to search for her, but it was all fruitless. They asked the management about her whereabouts, but they said that they weren't able to reach her either. She had just disappeared with no footprints to mark her back.

They tried everything they could, then they realized that they knew absolutely nothing about her. Her family, friends, birthdate, and birthplace were all unknown to them. Even her employers had no information to track her steps. They had a phone number, but that was it. They had a name, but they weren't sure if it was even real.

Mayank kept telling them to trust suhani, but could he be trusted? They felt like they had the fog clear their eyes for a moment before blurring it again. Nothing could be differentiated anymore—all black and white, seemingly the same. "We can't be sitting around, waiting for something to happen," Shubman said one evening.

"What do you want us to do? Fight the management alone." Rohit retorted. "We are influential too," Hardik said, looking determined. "We are influential, yes, but cricket is not because of us; we are because of cricket."

"Just because we choose to leave it and stand up for injustice doesn't mean that our voices will be heard for more than a few months. We have no proof against him." Virat said, looking between Hardik and Shubman. "What if we could collect some proof?" Shubman asked.

"What do you want to do?" Rishabh asked, looking at Shubman. "I want to do anything other than sit around and waste our time like this when we could be helping Ishan instead." He completed. "Rishabh will get that call until January too. I am trying my best, but that is all I can do." Mayank said, looking at them.

"Alright, we will discuss what to do tomorrow," Virat said. "Please don't do anything stupid, okay? We will speak tomorrow." Rohit said, his eyes pleading the unknown. Later that day, they had a party that they needed to attend. So, they went to get themselves mentally ready to face the management.

"Come back to the hotel." Shubman, who was left at the hotel, had called Rishabh, sounding anxious. "What is wrong? Did he say something?" Abhishek asked Rishabh when he had managed to gather all of the members. "He was just calling us back; that is all he said." He said he was looking at Abhishek.

The ride back to the hotel was not comfortable at all. They all had to feed different lies to the people back at the party about leaving it so early. "I swear to God if he is just being stupid again." Hardik cursed while driving back to their hotel as fast as he could without getting into an accident.

"What is wrong?" Virat asked, worried, the moment they entered his room. Shubman looked at them, got up from where he was sitting on the bed, and handed them all an envelope. The envelope was simple, with brown-colored paper. There was no address written on it. They looked at Shubman, confused.

"It came in an hour after you'd left. I read mine and had a really strong feeling that you might have gotten one too. You'll did. Read it." Shubman said, sounding very serious. There was a letter addressed to each one of them. The entire envelope was blank with just a single name on it. The recipient's name. They looked at each other one last time before opening the envelope.

'hello people,

I hope that this made it to you just fine. Some of you might have already guessed who I might be, but yes, it is Suhani here. I am sorry I had to go. I did not forget anything at all; I am working on it. There is not much progress yet, but I have a positive feeling about my work. Please don't do anything stupid and increase my workload. I beg you. Just stay put for some time.

I am reaching out to you because I want to invite you to a party. I secretly have one, of course. The venue and the timing are written on the back of this letter. It's the New Year's party, so it is definitely on the 31st. Don't miss out. Now that I think about it, we should have had some kind of secret code amongst ourselves. I know you are not believing a word of this letter, but please just come, okay?

Alright then, adios.'

"Should we believe this nonsense?" Hardik asked, almost laughing at the stupidity of the situation. "Did Kartik send this letter?" Virat asked Mayank. "No. Even if he had known about this, that is not just his style. I am positive it isn't him." Mayank answered.

"Did Ishan get a letter like that?" Rishabh asked Shubman. "I don't know; we will have to wait until the sun sets," Shubman replied. "Wow, this is just amazing. Are we stuck in some kind of game or something?" Hardik said more to himself than anyone else.

They realized that not only themselves but other members of the ICT got a letter like that too. It was not so complex. The wordings of their letter was different from what they had received. It was a simple invitation letter. They were quite happy to have received word from Suhani after not being able to contact her for so long.

When Ishan called that night, he said that he had received a letter like that too, and that he would definitely join them at the party. There were too many questions in their heads, but they decided to let it all go and concentrate on how this unfolded.

Finally, the 31st arrived and so did the anxiety. They got themselves ready for what might come staring them in the face at the party, but there was nothing unusual at all about it. Everything seemed a bit too normal. Apart from the fact that the host was not present at the party, everything else was normal.

When they reached the venue, they realized that their partners were also invited. Ishan's arrival had made a few of them go crazy. There were hoots of appreciation all over. Almost everyone present wanted to go and speak with him. They were all a bit too excited to have met him after so long.

"Everyone loves him," Aditi commented, looking at the crowd around Ishan, squeezing him. "He is lovable," Shubman replied, smiling. His smile looked serene. Aditi looked at him, wanting to say something, but then decided not to. She brought her attention back to what Sara was saying earlier.

"hellooooo," Ishan said, he was hugging Rishabh when he managed to make it out of that death hug earlier. "Kaisa hai?" Rishabh asked, looking equally excited. Their chirping started. And Shubman was left admiring Ishan once again.

"Isn't all this a bit too normal?" Hardik commented out loud, not realizing his surroundings. "Were you expecting a terrorist attack?" Suraya said it with sarcasm. The atmosphere had not been this lively for quite some time now. After some time, even Rohit and Virat, who had been stiff all this time, loosened up a bit.

They all sat at the dining table, reminiscing. Some of them were drunk enough to have called their exes and cried. The clatter in the air mixed with the smell of the food and alcohol, creating a hue of momentary happiness.

There were stories all around; some of them were talking about some heartfelt experience they had had. Some were sharing a funny incident. Some were just thinking about the memories they had collected thus far, some happy, some sour. This is life, they realized.