"Oh my gawd, give me some kind of reaction, idiot," Ishan hit Shubman's arm again.

When once again, there was no response and just nonchalant walking, the former let out a frustrated sigh.

"What are you made of?" He gave up trying to annoy the younger one first thing in the morning. "Bran?"

"Pure muscle," Yashasvi whispered as he walked alongside them.

"Yashu, has this big idiot corrupted you too?" He looked worried. "Why're you lying like that?"

"Ishu, you know he's speaking the truth," Shubman held on to the strap of his kitbag as the team walked to the field.

He continued as he turned his head back.

"Yashu would never lie-"

He paused on his words, halted on his steps. Abruptly so.

Shubman's hand was raised in half a wave as he looked over to the stands, not finding you there.

He looked around briefly, wondering if you were somewhere else.

Were you running late?

That's... weird.

You're never late.

It was like an unwritten fixed routine for you. And him.

Come on, he even told you that your smile really gives him the energy to practice all day.

It was so radiating, your eyes, when you looked at him.

But that wasn't a big deal.

Ishan's doe eyes will outshine anything.

Yeah, it wasn't that big of a deal.

"Oi," his best friend hit the back of his head.

"Huh?" Shubman looked back again, once again not reacting enough to the smack.

"Where're you looking at? Let's go."

He nodded but couldn't help steal a few more fleeting glances.

There!

You were standing near a few others from the support staff, your back facing him.

Finally, Shubman thought as he almost let out a sigh of relief.

But you didn't turn around.

Not even when he yelled so loudly to greet Virat and totally not you.

-

"Wait, that's not how you do it," you said as Ishan moved one of the pieces over the chessboard.

"That's how you do it," he said positively.

"Then-" You paused and did a little observation, holding the chess piece in your hand. "How's that supposed to go?"

You've been hanging out with these fellows for two months now.

So when you saw the grin on Ishan's face, you knew he was up to some mischief.

No, you needed backup right now.

"Shahneel," you called. "I think Ishu is trying to deceive me."

"Let me search for my slippers first," she yelled from her brother's guest bedroom. "Not to hit him," she added. "They're missing and- Found them!"

While you waited for her to come over, you felt a presence behind you.

You caught a whiff of Shubman's scent as he leaned forward.

One of his hands was placed on the chair behind you, almost touching your back, and the other was on the table.

You tried not to freeze as his face was so close to yours, despite not looking at each other.

"This," you barely heard his voice as his hand moved to touch yours that was still holding the chess piece.

Shubman guided your hand across the chessboard, and you felt your heartbeat elevating.

His touch... it just did something to you.

You couldn't comprehend what was happening.

"Moves here," he said and made your fingers place the piece back on the chessboard.

It felt oddly nice.

To be this close to Shubman.

And you were quick to give a mental slap to the back of your head.

That's weird, right?

"There," he smiled, dimples on full display as the two of you turned to look at each other. "Provides a solid defense."

He was so close.

So close that his hair was touching yours, enough to drive electricity into you.

A solid defense in the game but not for you.

When Shubman finally pulled back and walked away, you let out the breath you didn't know you were holding as you wondered.

What just happened?

-

"Are you asking her today?" Ishan asked.

Shubman avoided his best friend's gaze, nipping at his lower lip as he nodded.

"Okay," was all the older one said before walking away.

They knew nothing about what happened last week.

All they knew was that suddenly you didn't have the time to hang out or even say a word or two.

Ishan was talking randomly about asking for it himself but Shubman beat him to it.

It's been one week since your confession and you'd been avoiding any sorts of communication whatsoever with him religiously.

He didn't want you both to grow apart.

Because you were friends.

Right?

The others knew nothing about it, and he didn't tell anyone either because you surely didn't verbally consent to it.

Every single day that followed, you couldn't hang out. Your excuse? Too busy ahead of the series with the Kiwis.

But you knew the reason. Shubman knew the reason.

The two of you didn't talk about it.

Well, you weren't even talking to each other.

Initially, he understood that you needed time away from him to move on.

But that didn't stop him from anticipating your morning greeting.

Every time Shubman turned around, he wished you were facing him.

Right now, you were packing your things, ready to leave.

You'd been assisting your mentor like any other day.

With assessment functions, recording the injured players' progress, and assessing equipment sustainability when-

You felt a presence behind you.

There was an initial state of tense in your body, as you wished it was not him.

Not for now.

Not when you knew you couldn't look at him without getting your heart broken over and over again.

Shubman stood behind you, rather too awkwardly, and looked back at Ishan who gave him a 'what?' look.

Releasing a deep breath, he stared at your hair for a few seconds.

As if that will make you turn around.

So he tried first by clearing his already clear throat, adding after a few seconds. "Y/n."

Shubman saw you visibly freeze at his voice, before you composed yourself and turned around.

You blinked once, like that was asking him what he wanted to say.

"Hey," he said first and you mumbled the same thing back.

You really didn't want to do this right now.

"Are you free tomorrow?" He asked before you could think of anything. "Di is returning from Canada, also Ishan and I have a free schedule."

Any other time, it'd be a typical Tuesday.

But right now, you didn't want it.

Just for a while. Until your feelings subsided.

"You know, we could hang out," Shubman added. "For old times' sake."

And he bit his tongue as soon as the words slipped out.

Either he sounded like you were friends from middle school or he was referring to the obvious communication gap after you confessed.

It could be only one thing since you both weren't friends from middle school.

You don't blame anyone else. You're the one who initiated the distance.

"Oh," you said under your breath. "Uh, I'm kind of busy this week."

His shoulders slumped a little and Ishan who was watching at a distance understood the signal.

What he didn't understand though, was why Shubman appeared so nervous.

It was the turn of the cricketer in front of you to say 'oh.'

"Maybe next week then," he said and you nodded, glancing around before pointing to your things you were packing.

"Bye," you finished the conversation and turned around to your bag.

"Bye," he let his eyes linger at you one last time before leaving.

Later, Shubman who was fresh out of the shower and just dressed in the locker room, was cornered by his best friend who demanded the truth.