In This Together

The vice captain's press conference

One week later, after India won the 1st ODI vs Bangladesh and was returning to the hotel, Virat got another call from the BCCI. He moved to the front of the bus to receive it and talk with Khanna. When he came back to his seat beside Rohit, the latter asked, "Who was it?"

Virat waved a hand casually.

"Anushka?" guessed Rohit.

"You know she's abroad for her shoot," said Virat.

"Oh...yes. Then who could it have been?" wondered Rohit aloud.

"Drop it, will you?" said Virat more snappily than he had intended.

"Ok, ok, just joking!" said Rohit hastily.

Hardik leaned into their seats from behind and said, "You two are coming too, right?"

"Where?" asked Rohit. "Sorry, we weren't listening."

"We're going to the light show of the fort near our hotel," said Rahul.

"I've got to go somewhere in the evening," said Virat. "You guys go."

Rohit looked at Virat sternly.

Virat glared at him. "Can you please give me a little privacy?" he said fiercely.

"All right, you can have your privacy!" said Rohit, hurt and offended. He walked over to where Jinks and Ash were sitting and sat down after removing Bhuvi from the adjacent seat.

"Have you two fought again?" asked Jinks delicately.

"He wants privacy," said Rohit loudly enough for Virat to hear.

Virat didn't react; he was sitting silently and alone, his head bent. Bhuvi went to sit beside him and touched his arm.

"If there's anything you want to talk about, we're here," said Bhuvi.

"I know you're all here, Bhuvi. It's just that--" Virat stopped. "I don't know what's going to--"

"Something has been bothering you for over a week, Virat," said Bhuvi. "Why are you keeping it all to yourself?"

"I'll tell you everything tonight. I've got to go to a meeting at around 7."

"Ok," said Bhuvi at once.

"--goes into one of his moods randomly and starts snapping at anything and everything under the sun--" Rohit was telling Jinks, still loudly.

"At least you don't badger people when they don't want to talk, Bhuvi!" said Virat even more loudly. "At least you can respect the privacy of a person! So can Jinks, so can Ash, so can Shikhar-- even Jassi and KulCha have that much decency--"

Bhuvi and Jinks exchanged an amused glance, and within minutes, Rohit and Virat's rants had everyone in a fit of helpless laughter, which served, as usual, to anger the two of them further.

____________

The first thing Bhuvi remembered on waking up the next morning was that he had fallen asleep before talking to Virat last night.

And something was clearly on Virat's mind, and it was necessary to know what.

It was not even 7, but Virat was like a robot as far as discipline was concerned (exactly the opposite of his best friend), so hoping that Virat was already up, Bhuvi went to look for him.

Virat's room was unlocked and Bhuvi immediately felt that it looked too-- empty. There was nothing at all on the table or floor to suggest that it was being lived in.