when 77 met 32 [ishman ff] [shubish]

2023

The meeting with Sara was fantastic. Ishan liked her quite a lot, and he also had the impression that she had feelings for Shubman, even if she wasn't willing to admit it. It could be just friendly adoration and nothing too deep, but it was there. Ishan instantly grew close to her, and they exchanged numbers. Even Aditi exchanged numbers with her, and with the promise of meeting again, they left.

Shubman's life for the next few days was not smooth at all. The anxiety about an unknown force was eating him from within, and it was all so stupid that he couldn't even tell anyone about it. When Shubman tried to think about it, it all pointed towards Ishan. However, he was unaware of the specific nature of the situation. Or maybe he was just trying his best to deceive his heart.

This year, Ishan was with Shubman in almost all of the tournaments. They shared the hotel room and talked about things just like they always did, but there was something that had changed in Shubman, and he couldn't understand what it was. When he talked with Shahneel a few days ago, she instantly caught up with his inner turmoil. She went as far as suggesting he date someone or at least have a one-night stand.

Imagine your sister giving you advice like that. Barbarous. Shubman decided not to take her words very seriously. He never did anyway. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to stay in the same room as Ishan and be normal. He was desperately trying his best so that Ishan didn't catch on with his thoughts. He wouldn't be able to lie to him at all. He might as well say what is wrong (something that he hasn't realized yet.)

Their conversations remained the same. The amount of time they spent together increased. On the days that Ishan went out with Aditi, Shubman would feel different emotions; he would be happy for them, but he would also feel numb. He wanted to speak about it with someone, and since that someone couldn't be Ishan, he just decided not to speak at all.

"Is there something wrong with Shubman?" Aditi asked Ishan when they met on a lunch date. "what?" "I asked if something was wrong with Shubman." She repeated, "I think yes, there is, but I also feel like he is deliberately trying to avoid discussing it with me." He said while concentrating on the food again. "Can't you ask him?" "I can, but he doesn't want to tell me, and he would if I asked. He can't lie for his life."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Aditi said, clearly looking concerned. Ishan just smiled at that. "For the most part, it is. But I want Shubman to figure out whatever it is himself and then say it to me himself. I don't want to force anything out of him." Aditi just nodded, thinking that they knew each other better, so if Ishan was this calm, it probably wasn't anything that serious.

"Ishannn bhaiiii, welcome back." Ishan was greeted by a drunk Rishabh when he entered the hotel. He looked at the members for an explanation. "He fought with his imaginary girlfriend," Virat explained. "Imaginary?" Ishan questioned. "yeah, imaginary." Rohit repeated Virat's words and went on to continue doing his work.

Ishan took a seat next to Shubman, who looked very lost. Staring at the flower vase in front of him, it didn't seem like he even noticed Ishan's arrival. Ishan wanted to shake him awake to the reality of a drunk Rishabh, but Virat said, "Koi faida nahi hai. He has been staring at that same place for the past 30 minutes. We have tried getting his attention, but he won't budge."

Virat looked quite strained. He looked just like a father who was completely done with his children's antics but also loved the children to the moon and back. Ishan smiled at the thought of it. "Shubi." Ishan still decided to try one last time. Shaking Shubman's shoulders and calling his name. and sure enough, he was successful in grabbing his attention. "When did you get back?" was the first thing Shubman said.

Ishan looked at Virat, shocked and confused. Virat and Rohit simultaneously looked at each other when they heard Shubman say that. They both looked mortified and betrayed at the same time. They wanted to say something but decided not to. Ishan, on the other hand, wanted to laugh when he recovered from the initial shock of it all.

"Kabse aaya hu main toh. Tera dhiyaan hi nahi hai." Ishan said, faking his best-hurt expression. It seemed to have worked because Shubman's face instantly changed. "Nahi nahi, woh main....sorry." At the end of the day, it was always sorry that was successful in saving the day, and so Shubman decided to go with it at the loss of words. And Ishan was laughing his ass off.

They had the same interaction on and off the field. Everybody who knew them knew exactly how they acted with each other. Some people even teased them, referring to them as a couple. It never bothered either of them too much. They even teased each other along with the members sometimes.

However, the increasing interaction on the field led to them bagging a lot of loyal fans. These fans weren't just fans of Shubman or Ishan as individuals; rather, they were fans of Shubman and Ishan together. When Shubman first came across it on social media, it warmed his heart.

These little reels and posts about their friendship soon turned into a literal ship. There were edits about it all over the internet. Shubman was blissfully unaware of it all until Shahneel decided to break his bubble and present to him these posts via message. He sometimes really hated being the younger brother. It all felt very much like bullying to him. Whenever Shaheel sent something to him, Shubman would just avoid it like a plague until Shahneel forced him to watch them.

These posts were all the same. Shubman avoided watching them for the first few days, but when he opened the chat, the thumbnail of all of these posts had a picture of either him, Ishan, or both of them together. The curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to watch the videos and go through the posts.

People were shipping them, was the conclusion he got from these posts. They were shipping them in a very non-friendly manner, and it did not feel like a joke anymore. At first, it was just his sister who annoyed him by sending those reels; later, he started getting them from literally everyone.

Some of them were beyond adorable. They were so cute. All of these, he realized, were actual interactions between them. The edits also had moments like 't-shirt hatake paseena chatega' and 'pagal wagal hai kya?'. He smiled when he saw it. He remembered that one test match where he went wild and the joke that was supposed to be between the teams was said to all on the stump.

The people liked it quite a lot. It was just a joke, to be honest, but looking at it from this perspective, it did seem a bit vulgar. The smile that all of these videos brought soon turned into confusion. The videos shouldn't have bothered him as much as they did. Ishan was no stranger to this news. But he took it all quite sportingly; there were even several suggestive reels that he had liked on Instagram.

Shubman's confusion soon turned into irritation. He wanted people to stop doing this. It was starting to bother him, and the fact that he was the only one bothered by it felt very wrong. Everybody else seemed to have no problem with any of it. It felt very normal. But it wasn't; the way he looked at Ishan was not very normal, and it was starting to mess with his head.

Shubman did listen to Shahneel's advice after all. He started to get close to Sara. He started to spend more time with her, just to keep his mind off things that he shouldn't be thinking about. Sara was quite happy with this new arrangement. The gram instantly shifted to shubsara again, and things started to feel normal again.

People were still shipping them, of course, but the intensity with which they shipped before got diluted in the sea of shubsara. This was what he wanted when Shubman decided to interact with Sara more; this was exactly what he wanted. He felt like everything would be normal again if he just made it seem that he was dating Sara. But nothing got normal for him.

Instead of forgetting about it, he started to think about it all more than before. The span of his concentration was reduced quite a lot. Of course, the members noticed. They all tried their best to ask Shubman about it, but what could he tell them? He had no idea about it himself.

Ishan looked more concerned than anyone else. He wanted to speak with Shubman, but something always disrupted it. Today, he decided to have a conversation with him no matter what. So, he did. "Shubh...kya hua hai? Is everything okay?" he asked in the softest tone possible.

"Kuch nahi." Shubman did not want to speak about it at all. Especially to Ishan. "Woh is shipping waali baat se upset hai kya? Tu avoid karra hai meko." Ishan not only got the core reason correct, but he also sounded hurt, and Shubman couldn't bear it. "Tu pagal hai kya? Tujhe kyun avoid karunga main?" "Sachi??"

Ishan asked innocently as if scared that Shubman would break their friendship over something so silly and stupid. Little did he know that it wasn't silly or stupid to Shubman at all. "Sachi." Subman said looking in his eyes.