"Gill mere bhai, aaj toh tune kamaal kar diya. That short arm jab was a beauty Oh my god." Abhishek and Aditya screamed and celebrated as they held Shubman by his shoulder and offered their appreciation.

"Yaar tu uncle auntie ko bol na tujhe allow kare school team ke liye khelne ke liye." Abhishek said softly as Aditya bid his farewell.

"Pata toh hai tujhe Abhi, they wan't me to focus on studies only."

"I understand. Thank God Ish bhaiyya ne mana liya mere mummy papa ko nahi toh woh bhi nahi mante"

"You mean your khadoos brother convinced uncle and aunty?"

"He is definitely a spoilsport in general but mummy papa like him very much toh maan gaye"

"Tere toh maze hai beta, main uss khadoos se tution ke chakkar mein fass gaya"

"Ke tumse tution leke hum, tabah ho gaye" Abhishek teased Shubman.

The boys chatted away casually as they licked on their ice creams only to choke

"Khadoos, haan?"

Both Abhishek and Shubman both choked on their ice creams as they heard Ishan's voice. Are they hearing things now? Looking back, they found Ishan in all his glory standing with his arms crossed on his chest, and eyebrows raised.

"Bha-bhaiyya? Kitna suna apne?"

"Yahi ki main khadoos hoon aur koi aur tabah ho raha hai issi wajah se"

Bach gaye usse pehle kuch nahi suna. Abhishek thought in his head.

"Haan so toh hai" Shubman said out of the blue only to get a glare from the older boy. But Shubman couldn't care less, he continued eating his ice cream minutes after he deadpanned.

"Ghar chalo tum, and you meet me at the library at 2 sharp"

"It was you who was late, I'm always on time rest assured" Shubman challenged.

"Good for you, sorry for making you wait today though." Ishan stated as he picked up Abhishek's cricket bat and signaled him to come.

Shubman stared at their moving form and regretted being rude. Ishan was supposed to be full of attitude and not so accountable and right. Perhaps, he's just pretending to be in Mishra's good books, Huh. He soon concluded.

"Sin theta is equal to one minus sin square theta not one plus sin square theta"

"Plus minus, sin cos ne zindagi barbaad karke rakh diya hai, why is this so complicated arghhh" Shubman said frustratedly but soon realized he wasn't alone. Just as he was about to sass out Ishan, Ishan beat him to it and said

"Okay, lets try understanding this once again from the beginning, shall we? It's not that hard, you'll get it."

Shubman wanted to believe he was pretending but he couldn't. Something had changed, in the past two weeks. Deep inside he regretted judging Ishan so early but he was too adamant to accept it. True to his words, Ishan has been on time every single day since that day. He wasn't that bad. He didn't make fun of me for getting sums wrong, he patiently explained me things despite the rude ass I was to him at times. But he was doing all of that so that he stays in the teacher's good books right? Yes. He's that egoistic topper after all who spoke to none, rejected everyone who proposed to him and was unbothered to everything around him. Huh, who does he think he is?

Ishan right from his childhood had been a loner. The only person he fully opened to was his mother but when he lost her to cancer at the age of 7, he became even quieter. As years went by he found solace in books and cricket. With time, his relationship with his father strained due to his father's alcohol abuse. Abhishek's father who was his mother's brother along with Abhishek's mother who was a close friend of his mother have told him about a hundred times to move in with them but Ishan didn't want to be a burden on someone so he politely rejected the idea. His father, once a very responsible and loving man was shattered after his wife's untimely death and took refuge in alcohol which led to his son going away from him. The boy at the age of eighteen was matured than most boys of his age. His only aim was to do well in studies and secure a smooth future for himself. Although his self confidence, firmness and introverted nature was often perceived as ego, attitude and entitlement, but he didn't care. It's not like he didn't try to make friends in the past but it just didn't work out. He just couldn't open up enough and now the boy had isolated himself. He was happy with himself, his studies, his grades, his cricket and his achievements. And Shubman like everyone else judged him too quick and judged him wrongly. Only if he knew!

A/N :

Highly unedited.
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