Beloved

1. (Hamza's POV)

'How is it there? Did you eat? Is the place okay?' She asked question after questions.

'Mama...it's not the first time I have gone away from home' I reminded her.

'It's different this time' She sounded hurt. She didn't want me to leave.

'Where is Dad?' I asked her to give the phone to him.

'Hello, all good?' Dad asked. Unlike Mama, he was a lot more practical and understood why I took this decision. He knew I needed this time.

'Yeah...thanks...hey listen, just take of Mama for me? I tried to tell her why I am doing this but she doesn't get it...she thinks I am angry and I am doing this out of rage but it's not like that. I can't explain it but I just need to get away from everything for some time' I said to him.

'I know...don't worry, she'll understand. You know how she is, she cares too much. I'll talk to her, maybe we'll come over there in a few weeks to see you.' He assured me.

'Okay...I am going to go and sleep now. Talk to you later, tell Mama I'll take care of myself and will call her. Bye Dad' We ended the call and I took my half-eaten cup of noodles and a fresh cup of coffee to finish outside on the balcony. Even in the middle of July, the nights here were quite chilly, but the cold was still comfortable. Away from all the city noises, this silence felt serene. I finished the food while enjoying this beautiful silence before heading inside and falling asleep.

The next day I woke up fresh. A feeling that I forgot existed for a long time. Instead of lying awake, anxiously trying to get some rest, last night I easily fell asleep. Maybe because I was completely exhausted from all the traveling or maybe because a change of scenery was helping me. Either way, I was thankful.

I took a cold shower, changed my clothes and went out to pick up some stuff I needed. Most of the shops were open and the stuff that I needed was quite easy to find. Most people spoke in Urdu and rest spoke in other regional languages but mostly understood Urdu. I walked around some more and interacted with a lot of tourists and locals who were living their best simple lives. Despite of all the things they didn't have, they still looked happy. Maybe my problems weren't as important as theirs. Maybe my problems weren't even actual problems.

'Excuse me' I heard a voice coming from behind. I turned around and saw a girl. She was dressed in a plain navy suit and her head was covered with a shawl.

'I need to go in the shop' She cleared her throat and I realized I had been shamelessly staring her.

'Sorry' I moved out of her way and she went inside the general department store. I also went inside to get the stuff I needed for the kitchen. The noodles I had weren't going to last long, I need some actual food. The girl ahead of me looked around and started ordering stuff, she looked somewhat familiar.

'I feel like I have seen you somewhere' I told her when the shop owner went to the other side of the store to get something for her.

She looked at my dryly but didn't say anything. Well okay then.

I continued to wait and once she picked up her stuff, I went ahead to order the stuff I wanted to get.

'Oh sister, you forgot this...sister' The shop owner picked up a bag of salt from the counter and called out the girl who was had just left the store.

'I'll go give this to her, you get my order ready' He handed me the bag of salt and I went after the girl.

'Excuse me...miss, you forgot this...miss' I kept calling her but she didn't stop.

'Hey...blue' I yelled and she finally stopped. Her eyes went a little wide and her mouth slightly opened in surprised. I walked up to her and handed over the bag she had left behind in the store.

'You forgot this in the store' I told her.

'You didn't have to yell' She told me instead. What was wrong with this girl?

'Excuse me?' Was she serious? A thank you would have been nicer?

'This isn't your big city, you can't just go around calling people names, especially girls.' She firmly said before turning around to leave.

'You are right, this isn't my big city but I thought people from small cities also knew the meaning of kindness and gratitude but I guess I was wrong' I said loudly.

'There is a difference between being kind and being clever' She stopped and turned her head to the side.

'You need help' I looked at her pathetically, what did she think of herself?

'Ayat...' I heard someone call out her name. The girl in the navy suit quickly walked over to a fruit stall that was parked on the other side of the road and met with another girl who kind of looked like her. Maybe they were sisters.

'Ayat' So that was her name. This name also rang a bell, why? I didn't know.

'Sir...your order is ready' The shop owner called out my name from few blocks behind and I went back inside the store.

I picked up my bag and went back to my place. I made breakfast and again sat outside on the balcony to enjoy the stunning view. I still had some time before heading to the campus to attend the orientation so I decided to review all the candidates' profile once again to get their name right. The last time I checked this was over a month ago so I needed a refresher.

I checked every profile one by one. The first candidate was Akram Khalil, specializing in Marketing, second was Umiar Zakir specializing in Finance, third was Junaid Akhtar specializing in Management, fourth was Hadia Imran specializing in Management and the last one was Ayat Amir specializing in Non-profit Management. Ayat? The girl that I saw this morning? No. It can't be. Besides, the girl that I saw this morning, looked a bit young to be a fourth-year university student. This Ayat Amir was someone else, someone smart, someone who had better people's skills, unlike the ill-mannered girl I saw this morning.

At last, it was time for me to go and meet the students I'll be working with for the next three months. I had never done anything like this before so I was excited but also nervous. I gathered my stuff, locked the door behind and made my way to the campus, hoping everything goes as planned.

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Hello friends!

I hope everyone is doing well. I am sorry it took me so long to get started on this story but I just needed some time off. I hope it was worth the wait.

This story is going to be different from Preloved so please don't compare the two. It took me some time to develop these characters, I wanted to these characters to be completely different from the characters I have written in the past and that was the biggest challenge for me.

I don't want to give too much away, just want to guys to read this story with an open mind and see if you like it.  I will try to update every week, I have yet to decide the day, but most likely it will be every Wednesday (same as before). 

That's all for now! Thank you and welcome to this story. <3