Did You Know Me? (Shubman Gill x Ishan Kishan)

The journey starts

Present

The day before the first warm up match of the WC, Nisha was packing up.

"Wish you didn't have to go," said Shubman.

"Yeah, well, I have to return to office. Plus the tournament is starting, I don't think it's good for me to hang around anymore."

"But you're a good distraction."

"Shut up."

Outside, Ishan's voice called Shubman's name loudly.

"SHUBI, ROHIT BHAI IS CALLING YOU, WHEN ON EARTH ARE YOU GOING TO COME FOR LUNCH?"

"FIVE-NO, TEN MINUTES."

"God," said Nisha. "I've never known two people with such strong lungs."

Shubman grinned cockily. Ishan looked in.

"Hey, Nisha. Oh, are you leaving?"

"Yeah," said Nisha. "Your tournament starts tomorrow."

"So what?" asked Ishan. "You could even travel with us the whole tournament if you want...."

"Yes, she can!" said Shubman. "Can't she? Rohit bhai won't say anything, will he, Ishan? Can you wheedle him into letting Nisha travel with me?"

"There's no reason to say no," said Ishan. "Wives and girlfriends are allowed to travel by the board."

"I'm not his-" went Nisha.

"We can settle that later," said Shubman impatiently. "It'll be awesome if you travel with us, I would love to have you see the matches live at the stadiums!"

Ishan looked at Nisha, who cleared her throat.

"Isn't Sara, um, travelling for the most part?"

"Yes, she said so," said Shubman, oblivious as always.

Ishan glared at him. Then it dawned on Shubman.

"But she-she's not-we're not-" Shubman struggled for some hasty damage control. "Look, it doesn't matter if she is," he said firmly at last. "If you come, we'll have heaps of fun, Nish, it's the World Cup!"

"I know...."

"But only if you can take the leaves, though," Shubman added. "No risking the job of your dreams."

Nisha couldn't help smiling.

"I'll try to come by next month. I'll work extra hard so that my boss lets me have those leaves. Make sure you guys get to the semi finals, okay?"

"Definitely," said Shubman and Ishan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ishan did not play very well in the two warm up matches against England and Netherlands. And try as he might not to think about it, Shreyas did.

"What's up?" Shreyas asked a couple of days before their first proper match against Australia, once they had landed in Chennai. "Why such a long face, Ish?"

The concern in his friend's voice made Ishan ashamed he had even regarded Shreyas' knocks with anything but pure happiness. Only....

"Dunno," said Ishan. "Do you feel weird? About our first World Cup?"

Shreyas laughed. "You have no idea! I mean, no, I guess you do have an idea, because it's your first WC, too. It's completely surreal-"

"What's completely surreal?" asked Virat bhai, who was passing by.

"Virat bhai," Shreyas cried eagerly. "Tell us how you felt before your first WC match!"

Virat smiled and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "You hit the right word, Shreya. Surreal."

Shreyas laughed again and offered Ishan a fist bump. Ishan obliged, feeling weirder and guiltier than ever.

Later, over dinner, Shubman of course could not fail to notice Ishan's unusual silence. Nor the way he kept looking over at Rohit bhai and Shreyas on the other end of the room.

Shubman waved a hand in front of Ishan's eyes.

"Hey, Ishan."

Ishan gave no response.

"HEY, ISHAN?"

Ishan looked up quickly. "What?"

"What is bothering you? Why are you acting all weird?"

"If I wish I'm in the playing eleven day after tomorrow, I'm also wishing Shreyas isn't," said Ishan slowly. "Don't you think that makes me a terrible friend?"

Shubman, who from the very beginning of his career had been brilliant enough to never have faced his position in question, had been spared of the complications of such thoughts. So this had never struck him at all.

"No," he said thoughtfully. "I don't think it makes you a terrible friend at all. I mean, then I could say if you wished you weren't in the playing 11, it would make you anti national."

"How so?" asked Ishan, amazed.

"If you think you shouldn't be in the playing 11, you believe you shouldn't be in the squad at all, then you should have stepped down if you cared for the national team-"

Ishan looked dazed.

"But that's not it," said Shubman quickly before he confused his friend too far. "That's not it. You believe you have something to offer to the team, so of course you wish you play."

"Right," said Ishan, looking over at Rohit bhai and Shreyas again. "Right. That means I'm not anti national."

"Yes, you're not. And I have a confession," said Shubman, leaning in to whisper.

"What?" asked Ishan.

"I wish you play more than anyone too," said Shubman, "because you're my favourite, darling."

"Sod off," said Ishan, but despite his best efforts, he could not keep himself from smiling.