almost, Always.

A Shubman Gill fanfiction

There are some people you never really get over. Not because you still love them-sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. But because what happened between you and them carved something so deep, even time walks around it carefully.

For Rhea Merchant, Shubman Gill was that person.

They weren't just college sweethearts-they were gravity. He was the rising cricket star with charm, ambition, and the world at his feet. She was the fiercely intelligent psychology major who saw past his fame and into the boy beneath. Their love was built in libraries, whispered during bus rides to outstation matches, and sealed under moonlit rooftops in Delhi. The kind of love people wrote poetry about.

Until it broke.

Until a scandal exploded that nearly destroyed Shubman's career, and all the evidence pointed to the one person he trusted most: Rhea.

She didn't defend herself.
He didn't ask twice.

Six years passed like strangers walking in opposite directions on a crowded street-close enough to remember, far enough to forget.

Now, their paths collide again in South Africa, where Shubman is vice-captain of Team India and Rhea is flown in last-minute as a sports psychologist to manage rising anxiety cases within the squad.

They meet in a hotel hallway.

A glance. A pause. And then-

She walks past like he's air.
He doesn't even flinch.

But beneath the surface, memories smolder. The silence between them is not absence-it's tension, bruised trust, and unsaid apologies wrapped in ego.

As they're forced into shared spaces, media storms, and high-stakes matches, old wounds crack open. Rhea discovers the truth behind the betrayal she never cleared. And Shubman realizes the weight of the silence he never broke.

They say time heals everything.

But time never healed them.
Because what they had wasn't just love.
It was almost. Always.