the flashing lights (shubman gill × ishan kishan)

rush hours

the sky was clear and blue. the sun shone bright despite being only 9 in the morning. a young woman made her way to the well crafted building, the one that stood the tallest out of its neighboring ones.

with a calm aura and a bold strut, she marched inside the building. a file & stash of freshly printed papers indicated that she was headed to deliver an important news or maybe had a meeting to attend.

as she settled in her office, a cup of freshly brewed coffee was served to her by her colleague.

"your black coffee with a pinch of love in it." the colleague winked.

the woman rolled her eyes at that statement.

"okay priyam thank you."

"wow, not even a good morning? you know how my mornings go when you don't wish me :("

"oh i am so sorry for that. here let me make it better. gooodd morninggggg priyam bhaiyaaaaaa" the woman said in a high pitched voice.

"ugh ananya, why are you always like this?"

"aab mein kya karu priyam bhaiya, mein eisii hi hu." the woman made a sad face.

"abhii bol lo jo bhi bolna he. ye bhaiya se saiyaa tak ka safar toh ham zaroor complete karenge. woh bhi soon ;)"

"well, best of wishes to you then, dear priyam bhaiya."

ananya checked the time. it was 9:39.
she put an end to the conversation by quickly making her way to the 7th floor, where the meeting would take place.

as she made her way to the lift, she was greeted by an oh-so full lift of people, all ready to ascend to the higher floors.

just as she was about to enter, she saw a 5'6 young boy getting inside the lift as well. they both looked at each other and the boy greeted.

"please go inside ma'am. you seem to rush off to a meeting. judging by the little crowd, i assume you should get inside first. i will use the lift when it comes back down."

the woman was slightly taken aback by the generous behavior of the boy that stood in front of her.

"what's your name, young man? thank you very much."

"i'm ishan kishan. nice to meet you."

"well, i just wante-"

"CaN We gO nOw? iF yOu'Re DoNe wIth wHateVeR tHiS iS?" someone yelled from inside and she could very well see that it was priyam.

"i'm sorry about that. i'm ananya. hope to see you around ig? i gotta rush now. byeee!"

with this, she rushed off into the lift where she slightly pinched her colleague to which he shoved her hands away with an annoyed face. she glared at him and he showed her his perfect straight teeth.

ishan laughed at the encounter.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

the entire room was filled with well-dressed individuals with a mature and calm sense to themselves. she entered the room and sat in her seat.

everyone stood up upon the arrival of the chairpersons.

"thank you everyone for your kind presence. the meeting may start now." one of the 3 chairpersons said.

"i'm sure you all have an idea of why we're all present here."

everyone nodded.

"well, there has been a significant drop in the number of our viewers in the past few months. the survey shows that only 20% of the crowd engages with our shows on a daily or weekly basis. the other 80% however scrolls around through different shows, only to leave the app shortly. can i get an answer as to why this is happening?"

"i would like to take a view from an younger generation as to why they think such a problem is arising? anyone who would like to share their opinion?"

a hand was raised at the question. it was ananya.

"yes, miss ananya. please share your thoughts with us."

the woman began: ever as confident.

"sir, as the HR manager of the company, i could assure you that there have been no lack of hardwork from the workforce. rather i would like to believe that it's the quality of the shows that has dropped much significantly."

"i see. what do you propose on solving the matter?"

"sir, allow me."

"you may."

the lady set up her presentation and began her speech.

"entertainment."

"we all love a good show, don't we?
something to watch as we munch on several delicacies."

"we, netflix, the ultimate entertainment hub. providing the world with shows ranging from romance to thriller. some informative while others interesting. in other words, a billion dollar business."

"in a country like India, where people of various essence resides, it requires different variety of shows to keep every generation intact and engrossed in our market. from paparazzis oogling after celebrities to intense reality shows, we could say people do quite take a lot of interest in "spicy news' regarding others life."

"that being said, let's talk about a very famous sport in india, cricket, which is considered a religion in the vast nation.
everyone ranging from children to old people, loves the sport and the players."

"cricket and netflix.
hmm, both the words, together, have a nice ring to it." one of the chairpersons chided.

"so why don't we make a show regarding it then?" she exclaimed.

"what do you mean, miss ananya?"

"a show unfolding the life of the players, their life, on and off the fields, their likes, dislikes, silly little fights, their journey towards their current success. i truly believe such a show could bring a revolution here may be not but hey look on the bright side, we'll be profiting a lot."

"very well. that is an idea worth pondering upon. thank you for your presentation, miss ananya. we appreciate it."

"the meeting is over for now. we shall quickly put forward our discussion and thoughts regarding this matter. thank you everyone for your time. you may go out."

little did they know, they missed "romance" out in that list of activities they were about to dwell upon.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°

A/N

this is highly inspired from "MI daily".
watching their interactions and practicing in the nets, made me feel like "arey, yk what it's missing a journalist or maybe a sports reporter who would be present with them all day long, a perfect chance for falling in love with a player." also just like how jassi bhaiya fell for sanjana, i needed to see how the story would turn out if that was ishman in their place. but ofc, with twist, drama and spice.