first greets and last meets

match 1, day 3 & 4

(day 3, contd.)

That night, after having a semi-decent dinner with his teammates on the same table as him, jokes flying all around them even though his participation had been barely there, Shubman felt somewhat better than he had last night.

Sometime during the rest of their meet, Coach had somehow (very deliberately, as he told Shubman later) let it slip that this grilling session they were having had been postponed from day two to day three at the constant and persistent nagging of Shubman to not have their team be scolded so soon, and something about that slip up had effectively... helped him. In some ways.

For example, Basil, one of the '93 liners, had approached Shubman after the meet to willingly discuss some strategy pointers coach had pointed out for him during the meet, Anmolpreet had accompanied him to his room and had actually freshened up there during the small break they had been given before dinner, and Ashutosh had an arm slung around Shubman's shoulders all the while they had been in the elevator to go down to the hall, while everybody talked and jeered around him as though he were, not invisible, but just not participating for the time being.

If he felt a lack of the previously sharp glances and glares bordering dangerous from his teammates during the semi-decent dinner, Shubman refused to feel any pride at that. He still had a long way to go. But all of these changes from just a generic mistake from their coach made him feel optimistic that maybe his teammates really were just a bunch of man-children.

Currently, though, he was standing in front of the lounge room their hotel had situated on the second floor, and looking at, or actually, stalking a very unaware Ishan.

Shubman might not have felt some of the previous animosity from his team after the dreaded all-team meet had happened, but what he did feel was the transfer of those pointed glances from them to his only friend here, Ishan Kishan. And somehow, these glances seemed to bother him more than his team's had.

Ishan hadn't out rightly stared at him, no, not really. The glances had been so precariously timed that Shubman had only felt them when he was sure no one around him was focused on him, as though Ishan knew that having his scrutiny coupled with someone else's was something Shubman couldn't handle and hence, he had gone out of his way to make sure that when he stared at Shubman, it was only him the latter noticed.

This preciseness was so... so... Ishan that Shubman felt a big mountain of guilt and regret fall on his shoulders every time he felt that gaze.

He had meant to talk to the other then, apologize and maybe get some very important facts straight between them because while his outburst on both days had been completely uncalled for, Shubman knew enough to know a lot of it was just misplaced communication between the two boys. Some of it from his side sure, but some of it from his friend's side too.

It was all the sole reason why he was standing here now, waiting for Ishan to finish up whatever nightly bonding session he was having with members from all the teams present, giddily laughing and jumping around with the players, no animosity in his gaze now, whatsoever.

Shubman knew he could have gone in himself. After all, he was a player too and his team was somewhat okay with him now, so it wouldn't have been a big deal. A part of him thought it was cowardly, that despite so many reasons of going in he was still staring at Ishan from the outside like some creep, afraid to go there and face whatever side of him it was that his friend would give him, though a larger part of him knew the real reason, the part which effectively made his feet stay rooted to the ground as he continued staring at Ishan from the outside like a friend.

The sight in front of him was familiar and yet so different that Shubman just didn't want to go inside and disrupt the natural environment Ishan was flourishing in at that instant, because for some reason, he seemed to have forgotten in these last nine and half months of them not meeting in a setting with mutual friends or people around them, that Ishan thrived in social interactions.