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Rohit: Hey Jinks, we have a complaint

Rahane: HAHAHA

Rohit: Oh it's you Jad. That makes things easier. Is Jinks sleeping?

Rahane: Yes I indeed am

Virat: What the devil is going on?

Rohit removed Rahane

Jassi: Have you gone mad, Rohit bhaiya?

Virat: How dare you?

Jaddu: Whoa whoa, why're you removing Jinks, it was I who sent the HAHAHA

Jaddu: HAHAHA

Hardik: HEHEHE

Jaddu: HAHAHA

Hardik: HEHEHE

Rohit: Uff it's not because of you Jad

Kuldeep: What did Jinks bhai do that you're removing him, Rohit bhai?

Yuzi: If it's because he bashed MI, it's really quite mean y'know

Shikhar: Ooops

Shreyas: Bashed MI? 🙂

Virat: I repeat

Virat: HOW DARE YOU

Rohit: SILENCE

Jaddu: Whoops

Ash: Yep, whoops. 

Ash: Captain's angry

Rohit: You buffoons, I was actually going to be generous and fair but since you're all wastrels, I'll give the good news to Jinks all my myself

Rohit: (You two are not wastrels, Kuliya, Jass)

Virat: What good news?

Pujji: Did I miss something?

Ash: Why are you always late?

Shikhar: Why are you always early?

Rohit: Goodbye blokes

Virat: WHAT GOOD NEWS

Virat: ROHIT WAIT WHAT GOOD NEWS??

Rohit: ...

Virat: Damn it

Shikhar: What did he mean, d'you think?

Jaddu: Ah Rohit's calling on Jinksy's phone. Lemme snoop

Virat: 😭😭

***

"Hello Jinks." Rohit's voice was shaking.

"Hello Ro," said Jaddu in his best Jinks-imitation.

"Jad," said Rohit, exasperated. "Wake Jinks up and give him the phone!"

"How'd you know it's me?"

"Was I supposed to think that sarcastic wastrel of a voice belongs to Jinks?"

"What is this wastrel thing you keep calling us and our voices?"

Rohit's ears blew steam. "Jad--if--you--don't--give the phone to Jinks right now--"

***

ICT WhatsApp Group

<Virat throwing an almighty tantrum>

Ash: Calm down Vi

Ash: How about you call Jaddu's number and ask him to add us on conference

<Virat still throwing a tantrum>

<Bhuvi comes online and quickly reads the messages>

***

Jaddu's phone rang. Bhuvi, it said.

"Hold on a sec, Ro--" Jaddu put aside Jinks' phone and received Bhuvi's call.

"What is the big news, Jaddu? Virat's going mad," said Bhuvi anxiously.

"Rohit still hasn't divulged it," wailed Jaddu. "He keeps calling us wastrels."

"Well, you are a bit of a wastrel," Bhuvi pointed out gently.

"What is a wast--"

Bhuvi broke in with command. "Add us all on conference call, please. And make sure you add Virat first of all."

"I will if you tell me the meaning of wast--"

"I don't want to hear another word about wastrels," said Bhuvi firmly, and disconnected.

***

Conference call, ICT

"So there's a good news," began Rohit, who was still impatient, shaking, a mess of emotions and furious at being kept from contacting Jinks by a wastrel of a phone hijacker. "A good news the sort of which none of you've considered--"

"Something to do with my best friend," said Virat in a tremendous voice. "And if you try to keep me in suspense for one second more, Rohit Sharma--"

"Where's Mahi bhai?" asked Rohit.

"Outside," said Jaddu. "Unavailable to take calls."

"ROHIT--" This time it was both Virat and Shikhar who yelled.

"Jinks is going to the WTC final," blurted out Rohit.

Silence.

Then someone cheered. Possibly Hardik. Kuldeep and Yuzi joined in. Jaddu whooped and jumped up on the bed so high he almost hit the ceiling fan.

Jinks blinked up sleepily. "What are you doing, Jaddu?"

"YES," shrieked Jaddu. "YES!"

Jinks, figuring Jaddu was up to one of his usual annoying sprees, covered his ears with his pillow, turned over and closed his eyes again.

"JINKS BHAIYA IS GOING TO THE FINAL," screeched Jassi. They were redundant words, but he could be forgiven for them, because Jinks bhaiya was Jassi's star. "JINKS BHAIYA IS GOING TO THE FINAL, JINKS BHAIYA IS GOING TO THE FINAL--"

"You convinced them," said Pujji, voice unusually loud with emotion. "I wasn't sure the selectors were ready to consider him again--Rohit, you're a genius--"

"And Jinks," said Ash in a funny tone. "He did his best to help Rohit along in the Ranji and the IPL, didn't he?"

"He did," said Shikhar. "He did."

"Have you told him, Jaddu bhai?" Kuldeep shouted.

"HE IS PRETENDING TO SLEEP AHAHA!"

"I'm a bit tired, Jad," said Jinks politely. "If you could please continue this yelling and jumping an hour later..."

There was one person who had been suspiciously silent all along.

"Virat?" said Bhuvi. "Virat, are you there?"

"Rohit," whispered Virat. "What--what did you say?"

For a while, Rohit was silent, fighting tears. He had barely controlled himself, barely managed to keep a neutral expression in the online selection meet. But the way his friends were reacting was the exact way he'd wanted to react.

Maybe because he'd been forced to bottle such a powerful wave inside, he'd gone emotionally dead.

"Jinks," he said in a dull sort of voice. "Our Jinks--"

And he could not go on.

Virat burst into noisy tears.

***

"LOOK AT YOU, TRYING TO SLEEP!"

Jinks groaned and pushed the pillow upon his ear harder. Jaddu sprang from the couch onto the bed, landing precariously close to the edge.

"Heavens, Jad," said Jinks, forced to sit up in concern. "You'll injure yourself--"

Jaddu, suddenly drained out with all the jumping, fell to his knees on the bed beside Jinks.

"Who are you talking to on my phone?" asked Jinks with sudden suspicion.

"All of them," said Jaddu.

Jinks smiled. "Put it on speaker--"

Jaddu simply handed over the phone. His head had started to feel all funny. Dizzy, of sorts. What was wrong with him?

Jinks put the call on speaker. Virat and Rohit's bone-chilling sobs made him freeze.

"Ro, Vi--what happened?" Jinks shouted into the phone.

The pair was howling so loud, however, that he wasn't heard. He looked up at Jaddu, alarmed. 

"Jaddu, what--?"

And then Jinks saw the most stunning sight of his life.

There were tears in Jaddu's eyes. Actual, shivering tears, a moment away from falling down his cheeks.

Recalling his jumping and dancing, Jinks suddenly felt scared. Had Jaddu received such bad news that it had rendered him momentarily crazy?

Wait, that couldn't be, since he was already crazy.

Jinks reached for Jaddu's hands and gripped them firmly.

In the phone, Ash and Bhuvi were speaking in unison, practically shouting to get themselves heard.

"It's all right, Virat, Rohit..." Bhuvi sounded strange. "Calm down and let it sink in."

"Where the hell is Jinks, Jaddu?" Ash asked. "Wake him and give him the phone, he's the only one who can calm these two wastrels--"

"I'm here," said Jinks quickly. "I'm awake."

"Jinks!" "Jinks bhai!" "Ajju bhaiya!"

A dozen voices deafened him. And then all the voices--including the one beside him--fought to get out a sentence before the others, so all Jinks heard was an indistinct jumble of words.

"You--"

"Rohit won over the selectors--"

"Test Championship--"

"THE WTC FINAL."

"WE LOVE YOU, JINKS BHAIYA." The last was, of course, from Jassi.

In Jinks' defence, he'd just woken up, and he had actually been quite tired to begin with, and he did not deserve so many voices yelling at him, and he was not expected to make sense out of it.

"What?" he said, making the lamest response of all times.

"We love you, Jinks bhaiya," Jassi repeated.

Jaddu put a strangling arm around his neck. "You're going to England for the final. And you are going to kill Australia."

"Me?" said Jinks, stunned.

"Oh, yes, why you? It's not like you're one of the best Test players India has ever had," said Shikhar with droll sarcasm. "It's not like you've been in smashing form from the Ranji Trophy and continued it into the IPL."

"Oh," said Jinks. "That's--that's--"

"Overwhelming?" suggested Ash. "Wouldn't be surprised. Your best friends have also been overwhelmed into hysterical crying, as you can see."

"Jinksy," said Virat in between sobs. "I'm so--so proud. And Ro, I'm so proud of you."

"Why me?" asked Rohit, too astonished for a while to cry.

"Jinks," said Bhuvi. "Jinks, can you hear me?"

"Um, yes," said Jinks, whose brain was still frozen.

"You're going to ace it, you'll see," said Bhuvi simply. "You've already shown it at Lord's--and this--this chance--" Then his voice shook out of control, and he was forced to stop.

Too confused, Jinks chose to focus on the guy clinging on to him, face hidden in his shoulder in a most uncharacteristic gesture for Sir Ravindra Jadeja.

"Jad?" whispered Jinks. "Are you crying?"

Jaddu couldn't say yes, because it would be silly, and he couldn't say no, because it'd be even sillier, because he quite clearly was crying and he had no idea why.

So he went with, "I don't know," which was also silly because he knew he was crying. "It's just--I'm so happy, Jinksy. Is it normal to cry when you're happy?"

It was not the news of his own comeback that had made Jinks cry. It was Jaddu's tears that did.

"Oh, yes," said Jinks mildly, hastily wiping his eyes. "I wouldn't call you normal, but this act is quite normal. There's even a phrase for it...tears of happiness."

"I can't believe that wastrel is capable of a normal thing as crying," said Rohit.

"What is a wastrel?" demanded Jaddu as Jinks ruffled his hair with hopeless affection, he was so touched that Jaddu would cry for him. "What is a wastrel, Jinks?"

"I dunno," admitted Jinks. "But if I had to guess, I'd go with a wasted scoundrel."

Everyone including Jaddu dissolved into uproarious laughter.

"Bhuvi was right," Jaddu conceded.

"Jassi seems suspiciously silent," Bhuvi observed suddenly.

"Oh, I removed him," said Shikhar airily. "He was spoiling the mood with his declarations of love."

"Shikh!" said Jinks. "He's going to be so hurt!"

"Don't worry, I removed most of them to avoid accusations of partiality," said Shikhar.

"Why?" demanded Ash.

"Thought it should be just us for a bit."

'Us' fell silent.

"Well," said Virat, "all right. All right then--THREE CHEERS FOR JINKSY!"

"HIP HIP HURRAY!" Jaddu's shout almost burst Jinks' ears.

"Eurgh," said Rohit.

"Three cheers are so last century," said Shikhar.

"They are, a bit," Bhuvi agreed.

"THEN LET'S GO WITH--"

"Jaddu, please," begged Jinks. "Keep it just a little low."

"EAST OR WEST--" prompted Jaddu.

"JINKSY IS THE BEST!" obliged Virat, who, now that his tears had dried, was full of beans.

"That's enough," Jinks was forced to say. "It's great news and--and it's great that you're all so happy--but--there's no need to--" He'd intended to say 'there's no need to overreact this much,' but he found himself saying instead, "I love you. I love you guys so much."

"Now you're becoming Jassi," complained Shikhar.

"Be quiet," said Virat and Ash together.

After that, they spent quite a few minutes telling each other how much they loved each other, proving Jassi was in reality the wisest of them all.

They eventually had to end the call owing to the millions of calls coming from Jinks' well-wishers, and Jaddu had to skip out for a moment because an agitated Deepak was urgently calling him from the door.

In the end, for a brief while, it was just Virat, Rohit and Jinks.

"You two are my stars," said Virat with quite a bit of overdrama. "You deserve this comeback more than anyone, Jinksy. And you, Ro--you've gotten quite the fighter. You are a champion."

Jinks hid a smile. He could get used to Virat showering such praises upon Rohit a lot oftener. It would make his job easier. 

"Fighter? How many times have you two fought for me?" Rohit breathed. "I will fight for you both with my last breath, Virat, Jinks."

"So will I," said Jinks, and, "So will I," said Virat.

And so they would.

***

A/N: Your smile brightens my whole world, Jinks. Please always keep smiling.

To my friends and readers--here I am, back after Jinks' comeback. I felt this one wasn't as good as when I used to write earlier but well, I'm so out of practice from ICT stories. And since Mishi gave me the best news of the year, this is dedicated to her Mishu_Rocks as well as every Jinks fan in the universe.

Cheers, Neha