All characters is in story are hypothetical. Any resemblance to real life characters is purely coincidental and deeply regretted 😟

The Indian team had defeated SL in the 1st Test before tea on the 3rd day. The 2nd Test was scheduled at the same venue 7 days later, so the entire team was in a highly relaxed mood that evening.

Somehow Rohit had got the biggest room in the hotel, so practically the entire team was squished into it. Yuzi was conducting his biggest ever 'Chahal. TV' episode. The rest were all trying to annoy him, but except during early mornings, it was always impossible to annoy Yuzi, the most good tempered member in the team.

Virat, Rahul and Hardik were sitting in a corner on the floor, fooling around about something, when the intercom phone near them rang.

"ROHIT! YOUR PHONE!" yelled Virat across the room.

Yuzi, who was interviewing Rohit and Shikhar, shushed Virat.

Virat answered the phone himself.

"Hello?"

"Hi... Rohit?' said a female voice.

"Who's this?"

"Rohit... it's me," said the voice in a--rather inappropriate tone, Virat thought, because it obviously wasn't Ritika.

"Who are you?" demanded Virat.

"Who is it?" shouted Rohit over the din in the room, making his way towards Virat.

"I'm, as you very well know, Sofia Hayat," said the voice finally.

Virat froze.

Not that witch.

If she was calling on the intercom, it must mean that she was staying at their hotel too.

Rohit had reached Virat.

"Sofia who?" said Virat in a deliberately loud voice.

"You're not Rohit!" she said accusingly.

"I know I'm not," said Virat.

"Tell Rohit it's Sofia Hayat!"

"Rohit, do you know any Sofia Hayat?" shouted Virat, though Rohit was standing right next to him.

The entire room fell silent at once.

Rohit looked horrified.

Pretend you don't know her, Virat mimed at Rohit.

Rohit obliged.

"Who the hell is Sofia Hayat?" he asked loudly near the mouthpiece of the phone.

"Tell him to meet me at the reception immediately!" shouted the voice, finally losing its cool.

"Meet her at the reception immediately!" yelled Virat, and banged down the phone.

"Have you gone mad?" demanded Rohit in a low, fierce voice. "I'm not going to meet that witch!"

Virat pushed Rohit down to make him sit on the bed and stood up himself, his eyes flashing.

"I've had enough of Sofia Hayat," he said coolly. He looked around at Yuzi, Kuldeep, Jassi, Hardik and Rahul, who were all relatively new to the team. "Do you know the entire issue?"

They shook their heads.

"Tell them, Rohit," said Virat.

"Can't we just ignore her?" asked Rohit in a pleading voice.

"We can, but we won't," said Virat firmly. "Tell them at once!"

Rohit looked down at his feet, his cheeks burning, because he knew everyone in the room was well aware of what the media had cooked up about him and Sofia Hayat. The seniors knew his side of the story, of course, but the kids didn't.

Virat nudged Rohit.

"In 2009, she met the team at a hotel," began Rohit. "She came up to me, told me she's a big fan of mine, and could we have a photo together? You've all seen that photo...how clingy she was--and that's the only photo we have together. The media obviously blew it up into something big, but honestly, I've never even spoken to her since that day."

Rohit looked up at his junior teammates, who were all staring at him in awe.

"And she's been saying such a lot of crap about you all these years, Rohit bhai!" said Kuldeep, suddenly feeling indignant on Rohit's behalf.

"You're right, Kuliya. Not just normal crap, she's made up more and more innovative crap every single damn time," said Virat, clenching his fists. "The only thing I know about Sofia Hayat is that she wants Rohit really bad. And when she realised she couldn't have him, she started trying to defame Rohit--and Ritika bhabi too," added Virat, which drew a smile from everyone, including Rohit. "She has made lots of idiots believe in a fake persona of our Rohit--and I, personally, have had enough of her crap."

"What d'you plan to do, Virat?" asked Jinks, and his voice held a surprising amount of hatred for that woman too.

"I plan to teach her a lesson she'll never forget," said Virat, his face lighting up with a truly evil grin. He set his hand on the table, palm upwards, and asked, "Who's going to help me?"

Every single person in the room dashed towards Virat to put their hands on top of each other's; the only exception was Rohit himself, who was looking at them in confusion.

"Are you going to help us, Rohit?" asked Virat politely.

"Yeah--yes, of course," said Rohit, grinning suddenly, as he slapped his hand on top of the pile of hands.

"You touch one of us--" began Virat.

"--you touch all of us," finished Jinks.

"Sofia Hayat won't know what's hit her," said Hardik gleefully.