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๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ| ๐๐‘๐Ž๐‹๐Ž๐†๐”๐„

D E D I C A T I O Nย 

To everyone waiting for the moment the country's golden boy cricketer finally stops teasing his favorite radio jockeyย who argue like the world is watching, pulls her away from the cameras, and gives her a reason to completely lose her mind andย love like nobody else matters....

โ€”yeah, this one's yours.ย Grab your headphones and stadium seats. It's time to play.

P R O L O G U Eย 

"ABHI! ABHI! ABHI! ABHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Cheers rolled through the stadium in great, unbroken waves, laughter threading between them like silver through dark cloth. The crowd had come mad with anticipation, straining for a single glimpse of the man the whole internet could not stop talking about, the most eligible bachelor in the country, captain of the Banglore team, the boy who at twenty-five had already achieved what most men could not dream of in a lifetime.

The stands were restless with him. His name rose from every corner in fragments, chanted, whispered, screamed, long before the match was due to begin. Girls leaned over railings hoping the big screen might catch them, might somehow deliver them into the plot of a film where the hero looks up and falls in love at first sight. Some of them meant it sincerely; they had spent money they could not spare simply to watch him play. The boys, for their part, had come to worship differently, to study his stance, his aura, the impossible calm of his performance, already certain in their hearts that whatever they had wagered on him would return twice over. And scattered among them, small and forgotten, children cried quietly in the corners of the stadium, their parents too consumed by their own borrowed hero to notice.

It was plain, if anyone had cared to look, that every soul in that stadium had come because of him. They had paid thousands for tickets that would mean nothing tomorrow, for an experience that existed only in the burning present, and still they came, because a feeling like that, however brief, was worth buying.

The match was minutes from beginning. Every bone in that stadium seemed to hum with the same anticipation.

And yet, in another part of the ground entirely, the mood could not have been more different. There, the air was heavy and grey, thick with a dread no one quite knew how to name. Every person in that room was mourning, in their own quiet way, the match that had not yet been lost, because the golden boy of Indian cricket, the rising star the whole country adored, was nowhere to be found.

His teammates could not understand it. It was unlike him, he who guarded his image so fiercely, who had suffered so much and sacrificed so willingly to arrive at this exact moment. Everyone knew what this match meant to him. It was the first real test that could carve the shape of his career, the one that might finally open the door to the national team. It had sat, unmoved, at the very top of his priorities for years.

But priorities, it turns out, are not carved into stone. They are only ever written in pencil, waiting for the right hand to come along and rewrite them.

So while his teammates paced and his coach fumed and the crowd outside grew only louder and more electric, there was one person in that room who was smiling, smiling helplessly, in fact, because his best friend, the happiest, most furious, most impossible man he knew, had simply turned and run. Not toward the pitch. Toward a girl. An ordinary girl, safe and whole and very much alive, and yet somehow the only thing that mattered to him in that entire moment.

He was not afraid for his friend, and he was not worried about the match. Cricket, he knew, was oxygen to that man, had been for as long as anyone could remember. But oxygen means very little when your heart, your mind, your soul, and your whole reckless body have already gone somewhere else.

That was the strange thing about his friend, and he had watched it happen with his own eyes: on the field, the man was nothing but control, composed, calculating, immovable, the kind of captain crowds built religions around. But strip the pads and the discipline away, and underneath was someone else entirely. A drunkard. A man who could master an entire stadium and still lose himself completely the moment his one addiction slipped out of reach.

โœฆ . ใ€€โบ ใ€€ . โœฆ . ใ€€โบ ใ€€ . โœฆ

He was tearing through the corridors of the city hospital like a drunkard who had lost his last bottle and could not bear the thought of going without it, desperate, reckless, chasing the one escape that had ever truly claimed him. He stopped outside a small clinical room, pushed through the door without pausing to knock, and the moment he saw her, he crossed the distance in two strides and pulled her into a hug so fierce it nearly lifted her off her feet.

It was the kind of hug a drunkard allows himself only when he finally finds the bottle he thought he'd lost forever, the kind that holds on like letting go might mean losing it all over again.

He breathed her in, that soft scent of melted caramel and rose, and it went straight to his head, more intoxicating than any nasha he had ever known.

At last, the drunkard had his nasha, his one true addiction, back in his arms, and just the nearness of her was enough to leave him drunk. God only knew what would become of him if he ever let himself drink her in completely.

He drew back just enough to look at her face. Her expression was soft, worried, utterly bewildered, she hadn't found her voice yet, too stunned by his sudden appearance, too shaken by the force of his embrace to do anything but stare.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she recovered first, pushing lightly against his chest.

"Have you lost your mind?" she said. "You have the biggest match of your life happening right now, and you're here? What is this supposed to prove? Cricket was your first love, wasn't it, so why are you standing in a hospital room instead of on that field?"

He looked at her the way a drunkard looks at the very first sip of his favourite drink, slow, reverent, savouring it like a man who has waited far too long to taste it again. His arm slid around her waist, drawing her fully against his chest, her hands caught between them, resting lightly over his heart.

"Duniya ki parwah nahi hai mujhe," he murmured, voice low, almost reverent. "Cricket ko chhodna koi kurbani nahi thi meri jaan, jab tumhara khayal aaya, toh paon khud hi is taraf mud gaye. Tum meri ibaadat ho, koi ehsaan nahi."

[I don't care about the world. Leaving cricket wasn't some sacrifice, my love, the moment you crossed my mind, my feet just turned this way on their own. You're my devotion, not a favour I'm doing you.]

"Twenty-five minutes," he added. "That's still enough time to get back. But first, my clumsy girlfriend was going to land herself in one more accident before she even got to watch my first official match against her brother, so I had to see her safe with my own eyes."

The word girlfriend did something to her breathing. And the mention of her brother did something worse.

She pushed against him again, it didn't move him an inch, and settled instead for jabbing a finger into his chest.

"Why do you keep calling me your girlfriend? I am not your girlfriend. Get that through your head. And stay away from me."

He only smiled, leaning down until his breath brushed the shell of her ear, close enough that she felt her spine straighten on instinct, felt the goosebumps rise along her arm before she could stop them.

"Aren't you my friend?" he said. "We only became friends twenty-four hours ago, and I think that already makes you a girlโ€”friend."

"Besharam," she muttered.

[Shameless.]

He tilted his head, his mouth still hovering near her ear, and when he spoke again his voice had dropped low and warm, edged with a smile he didn't bother hiding.

"Tumhara besharam... seรฑorita."

[Your shameless one... seรฑorita.]

C O P Y R I G H T

ยฉ 2026 LIYA. All Rights Reserved.

This story is an original work by the author. All characters, plot, dialogues, and creative content belong solely to the author. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental. No part of this story may be copied, reproduced, translated, adapted, or reposted without the author's permission. All images, covers, aesthetics, and other visual materials used belong to their respective owners. Full credit goes to the original creators.

Thank you for respecting and supporting original work.


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