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

Third time Ishan realized something's not right

Two months before the World Cup

The third time Ishan realized something was not right, he'd flown to Punjab with his family to visit some relatives and naturally dropped by to visit Shubman.

"Hi, Ish," Shahneel Di greeted at the door. "Shub should be coming back anytime, want a drink?"

"Where's he gone?" asked Ishan.

"Amristar, at Abhishek's place," said Shahneel, pulling him in and relieving him off his suitcase. "If you didn't know, it's a lucky coincidence his return's today."

Ishan hadn't known, and he felt a slight of twinge of envy at the thought of Shubman staying over at someone else's place.

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

Ishan did not mind the three hour wait, because he was extremely comfortable with Shubman's family and all three of them were quite fond of him. Shubman's mother often told him to do something about Shubman's reckless attitude that might land him in serious trouble someday, but Ishan protested it was impossible to reign such a wild horse.

Overall, he did not mind the wait, but the way his heart sank whenever he thought of Shubman was starting to unnerve him.

The fact that when Shubman did return, after three hours, Abhishek was accompanying him, did not help Ishan's mood.

However Shubman dropped his bags and came flying at Ishan when he saw him.

"What a sweet surprise, sweetheart," he shouted at the top of his voice, making both Abhishek and Shahneel roll their eyes. "I love you, I love you!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Ishan squeezed him back, his annoyance melting away, leaving him warm and glowing. "Love you too."

Shubman's presence was honestly enough to make anyone's worries go.

"Hi." Abhishek beamed at Ishan and pulled him into a hug when Shubman had finally let Ishan go.

But Ishan could not fully return the warmth with Abhishek, which started to unnerve him again.

Abhishek was his friend, he couldn't be an illogical jerk and let his pointless jealousy affect his behaviour towards a friend.

The three of them went out that evening, and in spite of his best efforts, every time Shubman and Abhishek laughed together and even spoke to each other and especially when they bumped shoulders or put their arms around each other, Ishan felt those irritating stabs of envy that made him feel something was not right. 

It's all right, Ishan said to himself. Rohit bhai gets jealous of AB sometimes. Often. All the time. The stories were famous!

So if Rohit bhai got possessive of Virat bhai-his best friend-that must be perfectly normal.

Perfectly.

But, a truthful voice piped up in his ear. I never get jealous. I have never got jealous of anything.

People who had not got jealous of anything in their life feeling green-sick with envy because their best friend had been staying over with another of his friends was not....

It was not perfectly normal.

It was not normal at all.

"Ish!" called Shubman. "You up for a visit to the arcade this weekend?"

"Who's us?" asked Ishan, stupidly.

"You and me and Abhishek, oh and Nisha's saying she might join."

"Your childhood friend Nisha?" asked Ishan. "With whom you went to the movies last week and crossed the just-friends-line?"

Abhishek laughed.

"Um, yeah, that Nisha," said Shubman.

"You're always crossing lines," said Ishan grumpily.

"But you love me anyway," said Shubman, jumping over to give Ishan another hug. "And besides, I've kind of liked Nisha for ages. Before, you know...."

"Sara happened," said Ishan.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Was he starting to get jealous of Sara and Nisha too?

Why could Shubman not just stay within the friends limit? Why did he have to sleep with every girl who consented to sleep with him-which was a lot-like, A LOT. And why did he go over to stay at random people's-um, friend's-places, friends who were not Ishan?

"Are you turning into a zombie?" Shubman broke in obnoxiously. "Is that why you're staring into space like that?"

Ishan tried to clear his head, but it wasn't much good.

Things didn't feel right. Far from it.

What was wrong with him?

He plastered a broad smirk on his face and told Shubman, "Of course I'll come to the arcade, and beat you every round."