when 77 met 32 [ishman ff] [shubish]

2023

"Kisse baat karra hai?" Ishan asked, coming inside their shared room, when he saw Shubman on a call with someone. "Sara," Shubman replied. These days, Shubman talked with Sara a lot, so much so that the people who knew that it was a PR stunt started to think that they were actually dating.

Shubman, on the other hand, was fed up with all the emotions inside of him acting up together, and he wanted to talk with someone. Sara, being the amazing friend that she was, took the initiative. It was not like anybody else did not try to speak with Shubman; it was just that he did not want to talk with anyone who was professionally in cricket.

Sara, as she grew closer to Shubman and their span of conversation increased, realized that the problem was not that big. Shubman was dispassionate about accepting it. Sara believed that whatever this was about, Shubman was well aware of it. He knew it deep in his heart; he was just afraid to accept the reality.

She urged Shubman to speak about various aspects of his life just so she could identify the core issue and maybe they could work on it. She noticed that their conversations somehow always started and ended with the mention of Ishan. She could confidently say that she knew Ishan better than she knew Shubman now.

The spark in Shubman's eyes when he spoke about Ishan's favorite movie, that one funny incident they shared some time in the past, or even about his sleeping habits, was unmatched. She did not want to jump to conclusions, but she wasn't blind either. She could see the enthusiasm leaving Shubman's body when the topic of the conversation wasn't cricket or Ishan.

Shubman liked to say that he was most passionate about cricket and that no other topic could he speak about with that much interest. But Sara realized that Shubman might not have seen his face while talking about Ishan, if he had thought like that. Honestly, anybody who knew Shubman would say the same thing. But to Sara, this wasn't as easy as it seemed to be.

To her, this wasn't just some friendly adoration. This wasn't a brotherly adoration either. She has had friends; she knows what friends are and what friendship is. At first, she thought that the bond that they shared was different from the common friendship stereotype and that what they had was a special kind of friendship. Now, she wasn't so sure about that thought of hers either.

Every time they met, there was this huge urge inside of her, she wanted to sit with a mirror in front of Shubman. She wanted to force open his eyes, if possible. She was starting to like Shubman romantically. But she was not going to let her feelings take hold of her and destroy lives. She has this mission at hand to make Shubman look, and she will do it no matter what. With this resolve, Sara left the restaurant that day.

The next time they met was after the current series was completed. Shubman had come to Mumbai, and so, they met. Today, Sara came prepared. She felt very much like a personal therapist to Shubman right now, and if she could just open his eyes, she wouldn't be too disappointed with the title.

"Hello, shubaman.." She greeted me a bit too enthusiastically. "What?" Shubman asked, confused. "I didn't say anything; I just said hello." She replied. "No, it's not the sentence; it's the way you said it." "How so?" "Well, let it be." "Alright then, how did the series go?" She questioned him, knowing damn well how his sentence would start, and sure enough, he didn't disappoint her theories.

"Ishan fought with Rishabh, you know." "Wow, that is so new." She said it sarcastically, but Shubman was in no mood to accept the sarcasm right now. "rightttt. You should have seen his face. He was so annoyed." "Shubman, can I ask you something?" Sara questioned him, looking directly at him.

"Yeah, why so serious?" "What do you think of Ishan?" she said. Suhbman's smile instantly dropped. "What is that supposed to mean?" he counter-questioned. "I need an answer, not another question." "He is my best friend. One of the most important people in my life, Sara, what do you mean by what I think of him?" Okay, now he was speaking.

"I know you have noticed this too; you just don't want to accept it." "noticed what?" "Well, the way you look at him is not very.....friendly." She added at the loss of words. Then she continued, "Don't you feel numbness whenever he speaks about Aditi? You like her, sure, but do you like her with him?"

Shubman's frown deepened with every sentence of hers. "Don't you feel giddy every time he remembers something about you, every time he chooses you over other people and prioritizes you? Do you feel nothing when he calls you with endearing terms?" "What do you want to say?" Shubman couldn't deny any of her claims, because, at the end of the day, they were all true.

"Shubman, tell me, isn't this whole turmoil about Ishan and Ishan only?" She looked like she wanted answers, but she also looked like she didn't need any answers. She knew that she was right; she didn't need Shubman to conform. "What the fuck are you even on about?" Shubman stood up to leave; Sara, on the other hand, did not plan on letting him go that easily.

"You came to me because you needed someone to hear you??? Who are you even kidding, Shubman? You came to me because you couldn't face the reality. You came to me with the hopes that maybe just maybe spending time with me would make you forget about Ishan. make you forget about those stupid theories that your brain made up."

"But tell me, Shubman, are those theories really that stupid? Can you forget Ishan? Do you want to?" That sentence left Shubman numb. He couldn't. He didn't want to forget Ishan at all, but wasn't Sara, right? He did come to her in the hopes of forgetting about everything else for the time being. But when has he forgotten about Ishan, even when he was with Sara?

He looked at Sara with pleading eyes. He knew where this conversation was going, but he wasn't prepared to face it yet. "Tell me, Shubman, why is Ishan the only person you talk about? No matter what question I ask, why is the answer always Ishan? say it." "I don't know. I don't know." Shubman said, falling back into his seat.

"Should I say it for you then?" Sara said, making Shubman look at her. Her eyes held pure intent in them. She was trying to help him, and he realized it. She didn't want to demean him at all. but was he ready to face it? "Shubman Gill, you are in love with Ishan Kishan." Her sentence was so simple. So simple, but still so hard to believe. Or maybe Shubman just didn't want to believe it.

Shubman hibernated for the next few days. He didn't talk to anyone. Didn't meet anyone. He was just rotting in his bed, trying to escape the reality of it all. The reality is not easy for everyone to accept now, is it? How could he be in love with his own best friend? A man? What would the world think? ...what would Ishan think?

Shubman was scared. He was scared of a lot of things, and he could see the possibility of all of it happening because of this stupid feeling. After a few days of giving Shubman his personal space to cope, Sara stormed into his house at the crack of dawn. Shubman grudgingly got up to open the door for her. He thought that it was the milkman, but it was Sara instead.

"What are you doing here?" Shubman asked, clearly pissed. "Shubman, if you die here, people will blame me for it. After all, I was the last person you met." Shubman just rolled his eyes at that and took a seat beside her on the sofa. "Why are you here?" "You know how many people called me to know what was wrong with you? You have no idea how many calls I received because a certain someone couldn't accept the reality of it all."

Shubman felt a bit bad about it, but listening to Sara say it, he decided to continue acting like a brat. "I thought that maybe you needed some time alone to think it through, but you know when my resolve broke?" "I don't want to know." "But you would have to. It was when Ishan called me. That boy is worried, okay? Are you nuts? Why would you ignore him?"

"Don't tell me, Shubman, that this is part of your grand strategy, to avoid Ishan, I swear, I'll personally punch you if you even think about it." She looked quite scary while threatening. "You know I can't live without talking to him, don't you? I can either die or live with the reality of Ishan being my best friend. There is no in-between." Shubman smiled at Sara.

Sara smiled back. She was happy that he had accepted it, but she also knew that he was hurting. Of course, he was. Sara couldn't imagine the amount of pain that he was going through. She didn't want to.