Muntaha | ✔

Chapter 3

strive not to be of
success,
but to be of value.

~

"I missed you so much!"

As soon as Muntaha stepped in the university's sports ground, she was attacked in a bear hug by her dramatic bestfriend Hadiya Jabar.

"We met yesterday, you drama queen." Muntaha said patting Hadiya's back to which she just laughed in return.

"Humain tou koi mu bhi nhi lagata yahan." (No one even bothers to notice me here.) Safi pretended to be hurt by Hadiya's ignorance.

"Oh! Safi Bhai, I am so sorry I didn't see you there." Hadiya said when she saw Safi standing behind Muntaha.

"Hayye! Bhai hi bol diya, Zalim Larki." (Oh you cruel beauty! You called me brother.) Safi exclaimed placing his hand over his heart and scrunching his eyes closed, acting like it actually pierced his heart.

"Then what should I call you, Safi Bhayi?" Hadiya asked dragging the endearment and batting her eyelashes at Safi.

"Well you can call me alot of things other than that cruel word, darling or sweatheart or better yet Jaanu." Safi replied giving her his heart-stopping dimpled cheeky smile and a wink.

Hadiya's cheek burned a crimson red and she lowered her gaze.

"I am still present here, you guys!" huffed Muntaha. "You came here to drop me, not to flirt with your crush. So, go away!" Muntaha said asking Safi to leave.

"I actually came her to meet my friend since I couldn't meet him during the whole past week." Safi said rolling his eyes acting as if Muntaha didn't mention anything about Hadiya being his all-time crush.

"Really? Your friend studies here?" asked Muntaha suddenly curious.

"Yeah. He's actually the topper here you know." Safi replied trying to show off his friend's intelligence.

"Oh, I thought all your friends were like you." Muntaha said, teasing Safi and doing a perfect hair flip. A sassy Muntaha was a rare occurence but a never-miss sight.

"What are you trying to say? That I am an idiot?" Safi narrowed his eyes at Muntaha.

"I don't need to say that. Your report card says it all." Mantaha and Hadiya laughed at Safi's expence.

"Has lo, has lo. Tum dono ko tou mai baad mai dekhta hun." (Laugh all you want. I'll teach you both a lesson.) Safi was about to give them a come-back but stopped when he recieved a call from his friend.

"Faris! Yeah, I am just coming." Safi started walking away towards the canteen, waving goodbye at Muntaha. "I'll see you later." Safi mouthed.

"Faris." repeated Muntaha. That name made her heart skip a beat. She didn't understand why. Maybe she was intimidated by Safi's boasting about his bestfriend or maybe it was something else.

"Muntaha, why did Safi come to drop you?" Hadiya asked still a bit flustered due to Safi's open flirting.

"Yeh to apko pta ho, Janab. Kya chal raha hai kher se?" (You tell me that. What's going on?) Muntaha teased Hadiya wiggling her eyebrows.

"Fazool batain hi karna tum tou." (Just speak rubbish all the time.) Hadiya rolled her eyes at Muntaha's teasing trying to be nonchalant about the situation.

"Let's go to the main hall. The orientation lecture is about to start soon." Hadiya said and they both started walking towards the entrance of the university building.

●~●

"Safi, over here!"

Safi looked to his right. There stood a guy around Safi's age, 6'1" tall, his dark brown-almost black- hair styled back and beard trimmed to a neat stuble. He was leaning back against the side wall of the canteen, talking to a group of boys, with his hands inside the pockets of his black Levi's jeans paired with a black Lacoste sweatshirt and white trainers.

Safi went over to his bestfriend and they both gave each other a man-hug and greeted each other with wide smiles.

"Salam, bhai. Kesa hai?" (Salam, bro. How are you?) Safi said to Faris going forward to hug him.

"Dill to kr raha hai salam ka jawab tere mu pr du. I have been back since a week and you're coming now only to meet me. That too in my university." Faris complained giving Safi a glare after hugging him back. Faris had come back from his trip to London since a week and Safi was busy throughout the week so he couldn't come to meet him.

"Yaar, I was really busy as I had to submit all of my pending assignments and take Muntaha around for shopping." Safi explained.

"Muntaha." Faris repeated under his breath. That name tugged at his heart-strings in a weird way.

"Yeah. She's my cousin, Taya Saleem's daughter. Actually, she is also going to attend this university." Safi said nonchalantly.

"Achha tu yeh sab chhor. Be a good host and khana khila mujhe. Those sandwiches look so good." (Just leave all this. Be a good host and feed me something.) Safi said smirking and dragging Faris towards the canteen counter with his arm around Faris' neck.

"Joote na khilau tujhe." (I should feed you some beating, no?) Faris rolled his eyes at his bestfriend's bhukarpana but still a smile escaped his lips.

Faris bin Zayyad Khan, son of Zayyad Khan and Aqsa Zayyad. Zayyad Khan is a famous, respected and successful business-man, owner of Khan Enterprises, one of the top pharmaceutical industries of Pakistan. Faris was the second born child with an elder sister Aiman binte Zayyad and a younger brother Abdullah bin Zayyad.

Faris is the male version of beauty with brains with a shining academic career and an IQ of 153 and a very attractive personality with the Pakhtoon inherited looks. Sharp grey eyes that could look through your soul, head full of dark brown hair that looked almost golden in sunlight, lashes that girls would be jealous of, thin lips almost always set in a straight line and his Pathan genes being shown off in his physique with a tall height and broad shoulders with all the gym hours showing off through the outline of muscles that could be seen through his fitted clothes. He was almost perfect. Almost.

Kehte hain na, Chaand par bhi dhaag hota hai.

(It is said that even the moon has blemishes.)

The problem was his attitude. If you see Faris smiling, you must be either dreaming or very lucky. Faris was a tough nut to crack with a cocky attitude and witty comebacks. But once he started caring for you, you'd see a whole new side of him, the real one. And what is Pakhtoon without his temper? Faris once broke his classroom's window glass with his bare hand because he lost his temper. But then took his saved pocket-money and payed for its repairing.

What will happen when the bubbly out-spoken but shy Muntaha meets the hard-headed alpha male Faris?

Author's Note
Dun,dun,dun! Faris is finally here! Are you liking the story so far?
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