I am sitting in front of my therapist, who is smiling joyfully as if she found Ishan for me.

"Mr. Shubman, good news. I have found your Ishan."

Wait, what? Did she actually?

"You did? Please don’t joke about such sensitive matters," I said sternly.

"Of course, I am not joking. Tell me one thing, Mr. Shubman, what was your boyfriend Ishan's last name?"

"Last name... Shit, I don't know his last name!"

The therapist smiled again. She has a pretty smile, Shubman noticed.

"I thought so," she said.

"How do you not know the last name of your three-year boyfriend, with whom you've been living together?"

"I never needed to, actually."

"In passports, important files, never struck your eye?"

"Well, Ishan always liked to do everything by himself. So I never needed to."

"A bit unusual, don’t you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Mr. Shubman, that you don’t know Ishan's last name because there wasn’t any last name written in that locket. Ishan doesn’t exist; you made him up."

"I know you are a therapist and you get all types of patients regularly, but you don’t need to spice up my story. Ishan exists. I can show you the locket and video if you want."

"Of course, Mr. Shubman. I am not saying that you lied about the locket. Let's go through this one by one, okay?

What I think happened was, after you got cheated and defamed, you were sad and lonely, you needed company but you didn’t want it because you couldn't trust anyone anymore!

After that locket, you really found the boy in the video beautiful and you got an instant crush on him, and then your subconscious mind made him up."

"Bullshit," Shubman scoffed.

"You tell me, did you go anywhere with Ishan that you hadn't already seen or knew before? Ishan took you to an art exhibition which you already heard about, you guys went to a sushi place you already knew about.

In these whole three years, did you meet anyone from Ishan's side? In that art gallery, Ishan's friend didn’t come to meet you because Ishan didn’t exist.

Do you think it's easy to guess the flight time of an unknown person that easily? And what are the odds that without contact, you met him just at the airport gate? How could he guess you could go one hour early, two hours early?"

Shubman listened silently.

"During the start of IPL, you were so busy making the team and celebrating joy that you didn't need Ishan. Just when you lost, you felt sad and your mind immediately made up Ishan and he came to your door. Do you really think, Mr. Gill, that a random person can get access to crucial information like room numbers in such a big hotel?

You said Ishan used to tell you by sign what moves to take or what DRS to use, and he never got caught on camera? Ishan knew such deep knowledge about cricket because you know cricket. And Ishan is only in your mind. So it was your subconscious telling you to take DRS or position, in the form of Ishan.

Why doesn't Ishan want to come in front of anyone? Because he doesn’t exist; that's why you don't have any photos of him."

Shubman couldn’t speak. He hated that all those things sounded so logical to his eyes.

"And the more days passed, your conscious mind was getting to know that Ishan is a made-up person. That's why your subconscious mind made up all those fights just to vanish this character from your life. You are suffering from 'Solipsism Syndrome' (where a person makes their own reality)."

"But, but... I have Ishan's phone number. He used to call me regularly."

"Yeah? Let's call him then from my number."

Shubman handed the phone to the therapist like a machine. When his therapist called the number, it said, "The number you are calling doesn’t exist."

"Shubman, it's not a big disease, or you are not mad. When people go through severe depression, they tend to make their own world to stay happy, but some people’s minds take it to an excessive extent. It's okay. I am prescribing some medicine. You will be just fine."

It's been a month since the therapist incident. Shubman actually feels cheerful now; her medicine is working. And by the ear rounds, it's the time of IPL again. They are all gathered in GT's hotel and having a party.

"Hey Shubman, meet our new owner of GT," Ashish Nehra gestured to a suited man and a lady.

When Shubman turned around to that man, Shubman's heart threatened to stop. It can be serious.

It's Ishan. But today's one doesn’t seem made up.

"Hi, I am Ishan Kishan. And this is my fiancée, Aditi."

[Okay, so here is my take on this story. Let me know how it was.What do you guys think of the ending?

At first, I thought of writing more about what Shubman would do after seeing a real Ishan. But I think this one-sided love turning into two sides, there are too many fanfics already out there about this. So I am ending it here, leaving the rest to the readers' imagination.

I published it all at once for you guys. ❤️

Do you guys want a Part 2?]