Happy birthday to a reader that has always been there from the beginning  Don_chizzy ❤️✨ love you just a tiny winy bit sha 😒

So if you're in my group, you'll notice that I changed the title of this chapter, this isn't the title I sent to the group earlier this week. What was going to lead up to that title didn't end up happening in this chapter so I'm saving that title for the chapter where it'll finally happen.

And to everyone that was guessing the couple from the excerpts I sent to the group, well, I hate to break it to you but you guys are all wrong because

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*ALFRED BAMIDELE*
(Surprised? I was shocked too 😂 not Alfred going all poetic and romantic on Nadia 😂😭 God abeg oo😂🙏🏾)

"Hey buddy," I greeted as I flopped down on the bed, school uniform and all, with a loud thud that some of the clothes on the bed jumped and fell to the ground. My bag was discarded in one corner and I was sure as hell that I'd spend an hour looking for my shoes tomorrow morning because I just flung them in one corner.

Or two different corners.

"How're you? Did you miss me?"

I got no reply as expected.

"What am I even saying? I'm sure you missed me. I missed you too, I miss you so much I wish I can just ditch school and be staying here with you but I can't do that, I love school just as much as I love you so we have to make do with these erhm... what's it called again? I can't seem to remember the word, buddy but whatever, I'm sure you understand, don't worry, we'll soon have all the time in the world to be together so just trust me, trust the process, and... yeeeeeeeeee."

I screamed at the sudden force that slammed into my head, incinerating everything in my head except a deep-rooted migraine that sprung up because of the pain.

I jumped up, ready to defend myself from the earthquake or tsunami that I was sure was happening behind me but there was no natural disaster.

It was just Mummy.

And it was her hand that did that to my head.

"Mummy," I whined, "I just came back from school since morning, you cannot even be romantic and..."

"Gbe gbo gbo enu e dake jhare," keep you mouth shut, She retorted, "what did I tell you about talking to yourself again?"

"Mummy, I'm not talking to myself, I'm talking to..."

"An inanimate object that can not reply to you so tell me, wise one, what is the difference between that and talking to yourself?"

"Mummy, they're different oo, and I've told you countless times that I've been advised to always say my thoughts out loud to anything, be it animals, objects, anything because I don't, my head might burst from keeping so much information in it."

She sighed and closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and she looked like she was contemplating between slapping sense into my head or locking me up forever. I made sure to plaster my perfect cute and gentlemanly smile on her face, knowing fully well that it was capable of melting her heart until she looked away from me to look around the room.

The smile wiped itself off my face and without anyone telling me, I stylishly bent down to pick my bag from the bed but that did little to lessen the damage that I'd done to the room.

I managed to scatter everything within just two minutes after I arrived, there were clothes littered on the floor now from how hard I jumped on the bed, and the bedspread had come undone from where mom had tightly tucked the edges in.

I backed away from her slowly, knowing that I deserve another brain-incinerating slap or knock or àbàrá even though my head was still feeling the aftereffects of the previous one.

She slowly turned back to me and I raised my hand in surrender as I backed further away from her, "Mummy Kitan, I'm really sorry Ma, it's not my fault, I was just too tired when I came back and I just jumped on the bed, I didn't know that the clothes will fall on the floor, I'll pack everything now and..."

I started packing the clothes while I kept my eyes on her so I'll be to defend myself in case she decides to attack me out of the blue but Mummy just kept looking at me like... like something I don't even know.

I finished packing the clothes and I started to tuck the edges of the bedsheet in while I still kept my eyes trained on her. I finished doing that and...

"Why is your tie on the floor?" She pointed to where my tie was lying in reckless abandon on the floor and I quickly jumped to pick it up.

"It fell Ma."

"I'm sure that your fell on that chair too, abi?" I followed her eyes to see one of my shoes on the chair and I dashed to pick it up.

"It slipped Ma."

"Of course, it did," her tone was just as dry as how she was looking at me, "so where is your other shoe?"

"Uhmmm, it's..." I looked around the room for the shoe as if it would miraculously show up to bail me out but it remained nowhere to be found. I couldn't even be sure it was in the room. Maybe I took it off outside or something.

"It's uhmmm, it's outside Ma, I took it off outside."

"Are you sure? Did you even leave school with your shoes on?"

She asked in a very straight and serious voice and it made me burst into laughter.

"Haba now, Mummy, how'll I now come home wearing just one shoe?"

"Well, is it not you? Nothing is impossible with you and let this be the last time I'll remind you to always clean up and be tidy."

"I'm not that worse Ma and you don't have to worry about my untidiness, it's a sign of being a genius."

She looked like she was about to slap my head again.

"Mummy, I'm serious, I know you don't believe these things but all those geniuses like Einstein, Newton, and the like, they were all untidy because for geniuses, our brains tend to work better in untidy environments so you don't have anything to worry about," I winked at her, "it just means your son is a spec."

Her face morphed into her typical inikinni look and I smirked.

"The only thing that it means is that you're begging to get slapped," she stated as a matter of fact and the smirk wiped itself off my face.

"If you're untidy, it doesn't mean that you're a genius, it means you're a dirty person, elédà, a pig and if you continue like this, you won't get a wife oo, no girl will marry a dirty man."

I stretched to my fullest height and wore my most charming smile. Even at 15, I was a complete spec and I know it, "Mummy, I beg to differ oo, with this height, this face, this physique, which girl in her right thinking sense would want me? I mean, just look at me, mom, I'm a spee... yeeeeee!"

She slapped my forehead this time around and the pain was enough to wipe out any form of intellectualism that might be growing in my brain.

"Mummyyyy, with the way you're always hitting my head sef, all the genius kinni would have disappeared."

She looked like she was a step from hitting me again,  "Gbenu dake jhare, àfi ejó saaa, sé wón fi se é ni?" Shut up, are you cursed with talking?

"Mummmyyyy."

"Shut up jhare," she sat on the bed and she started refolding the clothes, "just try to be cleaner ehn because I won't always be there to clean up after you."

I flopped down on the bed and threw my hands around her shoulders, "don't worry mom, you're always going to be here."

"Oda," she didn't attempt to shrug my hands off even though it was affecting how she was folding the clothes, "you'll tell me if my own mother is here now."

"Doesn't matter, I sha trust that you'll always be here with me."

Mom lied about a lot of things to me, in fact, she lied about everything but if there was one thing she was truthful about, it was that statement, that she won't always be there to clean up after me. Even though I knew that statement was the truth then, I thought it was going to be in some 50 or uncountable years in the future, not this soon, definitely not this soon.

I walked through the automated doors of the hospital, feeling that familiar heavy weight settle in the pit of my stomach and wrapping itself so tightly around my heart. It was too heavy I felt it was going to drag me down and pummel me to the ground with each step I was taking from the main reception to the rows of elevators.

This hospital like most hospitals was an embodiment of never-ending pain and grief, pain wrapped in getting diagnosed with a disease you always thought would always be just something foreign to you, in watching your loved ones fight for their lives till they wither away while attached to machines and tubes, in watching people become ghosts of themselves till they silently pray for that permanent relief.

And grief was shrouded in that final and abrupt goodbye that was hanging in the four corners of hospitals. The moments of beauty and new beginnings in hospitals were so minute that it doesn't even compare to the ugly side.

We were barely in the second week of December but the reception was already lined with Christmas trees and there were some kids dressed in hospital gowns playing around them and having the time of their lives judging from the boisterous laughter and high-pitched shrieks.

I've been in the hospital well enough to know that they were just having one of those moments when their bodies were on their sides and they could really live even if it's just in brief moments because they spend most of their lives in unbearable pain that even pain killers stopped lessening their pains.

They were just kids for fuck's sake, no one deserved to live their lives in excruciating pain, least of all kids that haven't even gotten around to living at all. And that was one of the things I'd never understand about life; how some people's bodies can just crumble and fail them and make them live the major parts of their lives on sick beds and in excruciating pain while some people hardly ever even use common pain-killers.

It doesn't make any sense, the sheer imbalance of it but really, life is just one unbalanced scale.

I was about to press the button on the elevator when I caught sight of an oddly familiar face rounding a corner down the hallway from the side of my eyes but before I could even turn, whoever it was already disappeared, leaving me to wonder if I really saw someone or if it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

Definitely my mind playing tricks on me.

I entered the elevator and I busied my thoughts with other stuff so I won't end up thinking about that one thing that was at the top of my mind but it was a futile task anyway.

My steps faltered when I stepped out of the elevator and I started to walk toward Mummy's room. I always thought I was prepared, that years of living with her sickness had in a way made me kind of used to our reality but it always takes coming to the hospital, it always takes these steps to her room, to her frail, dying body to remind me that I wasn't prepared, that I was nowhere near prepared.

My hands faltered around the door knob but I took calming breaths and pushed the door open anyway. She was asleep, I could tell right away. She was lying on her back, even though she had always hated sleeping on her back but that was the only posture she could sleep in now.

She had a ventilator on because she could hardly breathe on her own again, a series of monitoring equipment to monitor her heart rate and all, and an IV. I thought I was used to seeing her attached to all her these but seeing her like this again always reminds me of how agile she used to be and how she was now a complete shadow of her real self.

I looked away from her serene face to the heart monitor to the whole machines that were surrounding her before walking to the window to open it to allow fresh air in but it was already opened even though it hardly was since she moved to this new room.

I kept my eyes on the hospital's garage, trying my best to distract myself from turning around and focusing on the woman on the bed, trying harder to ignore the soft gasps from her mouth whenever she breathes.

My mind distinctly went back to the last time I was at the hospital and had a one-on-one chat with her attending doctor.

He didn't say it directly or at least, he didn't try to be that explicit about it but then, he had said it in no unclear terms that the best thing we could do for mom right now was to euthanize her. He wanted me to understand that she was living in so much pain and we were only prolonging her pain by keeping her alive when it wasn't like there was any hope of her cancer going away.

It was stage 4 and there could be only one end to that stage and that was death.

He told me there were lots of patients who could benefit from the funds that were going into keeping her alive but it was my call to make.

As if I could actually make that kind of call as if I could actually tell them to turn the machine off and allow her to die. I understand where he was completely from, I understand that mom was in too much pain and the best thing we could do for her was to take away that pain but there was no way I'd allow them to euthanize her.

I can't do that to her, to our memories, it's just... It just wasn't possible.

I would never be able to do that.

I heaved a tired sigh as memories from when everything started going awry started playing out in my mind and my eyes fluttered close at the intensity of them.

My eyes fluttered open almost immediately when a sound distracted me. I looked around but there was no one in the room and mom was still lying on the bed, fast asleep.

Must have been my mind, I thought to myself and I started to turn to the window when I heard that sound again and this time, it sounded like it was coming from the door like someone was trying their hardest to break down the door without making any noise.

What's that?

I walked to the door in fast strides and I yanked the door open. Whatever I wanted to say, whatever I wanted to think or was even thinking in the first place suddenly became incinerated leaving only the stunning surprise of seeing the least expected person here again.

She froze in her attempt to open the door with her hand overflowing with a tray full of edibles and drinkables and her eyes widened with the same surprise I was sure was on my face.

"You," she gulped audibly, "what are you doing here?"

I really should be the one asking that question.

"Good afternoon to you too," I replied, ignoring her question and waiting for her to realize her mistake of being in front of the wrong room but that didn't happen.

What happened was in fact that she entered the room with the familiarity of someone that wasn't entering it for the first time and she didn't even look around, she just walked straight to the mini fridge, knelt in front of it, and started to arrange the edibles she just brought in inside it while I leaned against the door, watching the drama unfold.

What. Is. Going. On?

She finished arranging them and she stood up to look at me again and for the briefest minute, I had the same reaction when I saw her outside the door, the one where every other thing got incinerated for a while, and this time, it wasn't because of the shock of seeing her when and where I least expected to.

It was because my brain was busy picking out the intricate details of her face, picking out how everything was in perfect symmetry to form the Art that was her face.

I forced my eyes off her face.

"You've not answered my question," she challenged, drawing my eyes to her face once again, "what are you doing here?"

"That's my mom," I tilted my head towards the woman that was lying on the bed and her mouth parted into a small surprised O at the realization as she followed my glance.

"Ohh," she met my eyes again, eyes full of concern and worry that made me feel something that I didn't even want to process because it was her.

"I'm sorry I didn't... I was just... There's this NGO that I volunteer with and I was assigned to her," her lips stretched into a thin smile, "who would have thought I was going to get assigned to your mom? From her first meeting to how you ended up being my brother's best friend and now, I'll be working with your mom for the next couple of months, it's just... I guess coincidences are really a thing then."

NGO, volunteer, assigned to work with my mom... Those were the three things that registered in my mind and like a whiplash, I remembered how her nurse had mentioned to me weeks back that some NGO was running a happiness program where they assign volunteers to terminally ill people to sort of keep their companies will their last days and brighten their days by running joint fun activities and games.

You know, just to keep the hospital lively and make it into something that it isn't; a place radiating with hope.

"Why?"

"Why what?" she asked, her face contorting into a frown.

I started to reply to her but a sharp gasp from behind her interrupted me and we both turned to the bed to see mom moving slightly.

"I think we're disturbing her sleep," she turned back to me, "I think we should just go and stay outside."

I wanted to tell her that there was no reason for us to go outside together because we didn't have anything to continue talking about but she was already walking out of the door so I didn't have an option but to follow her.

"Do you want?" I looked up to see her stretching a cup of what looked like a Chapman or one of those liquid drinks to me while she already had the straw from the other cup in between her lips and was already sipping from it.

I must have hesitated because she went on to say; "I can just drink it if you don't want."

I collected it from her, my fingers slightly brushing over hers in the process.

She took her seat beside me on the nearest bench on a balcony that we found after we left mom's room and she instantly excused herself only to return with these two drinks.

For a split second, after she already left my front to sit beside me, I was still frozen in place, my hand suspended in the air with the cup from where I'd raised it to collect it from her before I remembered to call myself back to order.

I cleared my throat.

"Were you really going to drink it if I didn't want it?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Because you're already drinking one?"

She chuckled slightly, "that doesn't mean a thing, I can drink ten cups if I'm allowed to."

Ehn ehn?

"Why do you look so surprised?" She probed after seeing the expression on my face, "isn't it normal for all food and cooks to love to eat?"

"Well, I guess I'm an exception then, I love to cook but I don't think that much of eating. Maybe it's because I'm always trying out new recipes, always spending my days in the kitchen so I guess the process is more filling than the end result for me."

"Aaah, you're the first chef that'd say this. Personally, I cook for the end result because that's the most important thing, I want to eat good food."

Wasn't that a highlight of how starkly different we were? Cooking wasn't a hobby I picked up because I wanted to enjoy good food, it was the only skill that came in handy when I needed it the most, and it was the only skill I could monetize when I needed money the most.

"But how did you become that much of a good chef?" She probed further, surprising me because the three times that I've been with her, she was never this vocal, at least not with me. Our first encounter was her seeing me at my absolute lowest which was something I'd go back and undo if I could and while she wasn't as reserved as she was during our two other encounters, she wasn't this vocal too.

"You're like the best one I've seen and I'm not even joking, you'll give all those popular Abuja chefs a run down for their money so how? Where do you learn from?"

She adjusted on the bench so she could see me properly and for a split second, I almost lost my train of thought because fuck, she was too pretty.

She was a sight for sore eyes and

Why is she this pretty?

I exhaled loudly before forcing my eyes off her face because I was sure there was no way I'd be able to think and converse properly while looking at that face.

While staring into those eyes.

"My mom was a chef," I told her, myriads of memories that include me watching mom in the kitchen, helping her, laughing with her, and throwing flours on her; something that earned me slaps, knocks, and abaras of course, filled my mind, choked me and almost brought tears to my eyes.

"So I grew up watching her cook because that's all she was always doing, I didn't even know I was that good at it until I had to put it into practice."

"Oh wow," her lips parted into that small surprised O, "that's impressive, one would think you actually got tutored in all these reputable and world-renowned cuisine schools."

I don't know why but her words brought a flicker of a smile to my lips, "I guess Mom was just as good as those schools then."

"I'm telling you," she replied in all sincerity even though I only meant it as a joke, "I wish I had met her when she wasn't..." she trailed off abruptly, probably realizing that I wouldn't want us to talk about her.

"I'm sorry about your mom," she continued, voice subdued, "it's just... oh wow!" She suddenly beamed, her voice, a sharp contrast to how it sounded earlier, "now it's clicking, you're the son she has been talking about since I met her."

A hard lump lodged itself in my throat, "she talked about me?"

"That would mean she only talked about you once or thrice but you're all she has been talking about since I met her, she's always infusing you into all our conversations. It's always my son is this, my son is that he did this when he was this age and all that. She believes we'd be good friends because we share the same hobby and all. I can't imagine how surprised she'd be when I tell her we've actually met before."

"You guys must have..." I cleared the hoarseness away, "you guys must have talked about me a lot."

She adjusted the pink scarf that was draped over her shoulders and my eyes subconsciously followed the movement, "it's impossible not to, you're all she wants to talk about. It's obvious..." she met my eyes, her gaze piercing, and sharp as if she needed me to understand her next words, "it's obvious that she really loves you."

Of course, I've never for once doubted that she loves me, that I was all she has, just like she was all I have but sometimes, I just feel like I was an indirect cause of how everything started going awry in her life, that because she had to consider me, she couldn't make the best decisions for herself and hence, these lives that we were both living.

"I know that," I replied simply, not wanting to go further with talking about mom with her. I felt like I was crossing a line by sitting here with her, talking with her, and enjoying our random conversation more than I've enjoyed anything in recent times.

"Are you not going to drink that?" She asked, nodding her head towards the forgotten cup in my hand. I swirled the cup around in my hand and before I could even blink or raise it to my mouth, the cup was being eased out of my hand.

I blinked and the straw was already in her mouth.

"You don't look like you were going to drink it and it's going to waste if it should become lukewarm," she volunteered an explanation for the robbery she just committed.

"I was going to drink it."

"You don't look like it," she countered, not even looking apologetic about her crime.

I guessed she and Nouman really do have one thing in common then.

I should leave, I should put an end to this conversation that I didn't want but was enjoying. It was bad enough I'd have to see her every now and then at the hospital and in Nouman's place but enjoying her company like this, was a luxury I couldn't afford.

I should leave...

I should leave...

I should find a way to put an end to our conversation but...

"So why are you volunteering here?" I asked the irrational part of me that wanted to drag on the conversation winning, "there are lots of other places where you could have enjoyed volunteering."

She did not say anything for a while, she just kept staring with those big venust doe eyes of hers before she blinked and looked away.

"Working in the hospital has always been my childhood dream sha," she started, surprising me before I concluded that it was just one of those things we all experienced as kids.

As kids, everybody wanted to become a medical doctor and the kids that didn't want to become medical practitioners wanted to become lawyers, Engineers, or Architects, nothing like all the professions most people grew into as teenagers.

"And it all started because of all these medical Korean series that I watched with my siblings when I was a child, I wanted to be like the doctors and nurses and you know, because their profession makes the world a much more beautiful place but my mom didn't even allow me to go to science class so my dreams of becoming a medical professional were quashed and volunteering here became the closest thing I could do."

That was... it was unexpected because she looked... she looked like a fragile girl, like an innocent softie that hasn't dealt with any harsh reality of life and wasn't supposed to deal with any harsh reality of life.

Working in a hospital environment could make a hard man cave in and break. I've seen lots of people die, watched lots of mom's room partners die, and seen their families break the second they realized that their loved ones would never hold their hands again.

I wasn't sure I wanted her to experience that shit-hell at all.

But she was here now and she was going to go through all that whether directly or remotely.

"I've just always wanted to work in the hospital," she wrapped her hands around herself, her eyes lighting up as if literal lights just came on within them, "I just wanted to do my best to spread sunshine and make people happy."

I've not even gotten to know her that much but I knew she was literally that; a ball of sunshine and contagious positive energy that lights up the room with even just the tiniest smile on her lips.

She was all that and more; a luxury I couldn't afford.

I forced myself to my feet, "I should return now, it's getting late."

It was, I briefly glanced at my wristwatch, and the hours we'd spent together in that short time threatened to make my head split with an intense headache.

"Ohhh wait," her hand darted out to hold my forearm, to stop me from walking away. I looked at where her hand was touching mine before looking up at her face, brow quirked.

She dropped her hand.

"I want to ask you something."

My reply was only a brief nod, a silent gesture for her to go on.

"Uhmmm, hmmmm, so, has my brother... has he..." she trailed off and I couldn't help but wonder why she was stammering when she wanted to ask about Nouman.

"Has Nouman what?"

"Has he ever had a girlfriend?" She asked in all sincerity, eyes blinking repeatedly like a child's that was requesting something completely innocent from her mother.

My first reaction was bleakness because it took me more than a second to process the question and when it finally sink in, my second reaction was a subconscious one because I chuckled and the chuckle blossomed into short laughter, a short but genuine and entertained laughter.

"Why are you asking me that? You can just easily ask him."

"He always finds a way to evade my questions and make me feel like eight years old."

"But why do you even want to know? Does Nouman not look like someone that has had several girlfriends in the past?"

"No, he doesn't, the only thing Oppa looks like is someone hell-bent on becoming a Reverend Father."

A what? Another chuckle escaped from my lips and I found myself leaning against the opposite wall, hands crossed on my chest.

"Well, that's true to an extent, there are moments when I've had to wonder if he wasn't interested in girls but my worries have been put to rest now."

"Really?" Her face lighted with that familiar glint of happiness, that one that looked like a brighter light was switched on in her already too-bright eyes, and her lips stretched into that contagious smile of hers and when she spoke again, her voice was low as if we were sharing a deep secret, "is there a girl in the picture now?"

"Looks like it."

"Did he tell you?"

"Not yet," I was pretty sure he'd still come to me in a few weeks to ask for tips, "he didn't tell me directly but a special and locked picture of a particular girl did."

"Ohhh," she deflated, "if it's that, it might be for an assignment he has been doing for a couple of weeks now.

"Nah, trust me, it's more than that."

"And how are you so sure?"

"Because it's Nouman and I know him more than he even knows himself."

"Even more than I do?" She challenged, pouting and it transformed her face in a way I didn't want to process.

"Sadly," I joked, my voice sounding like it, and pushed myself off the wall, "I already know him more than you do, don't be jealous."

"I'm already jealous oo," she stood to her feet, the smile on her face deepening, "maybe you should start unknowing him oo."

Unknowing him? Her choice of words made me chuckle again and for a minute, we just stood there with big smiles on our faces.

"I should go," I said, nodding my head toward the direction of the administrative block. I was supposed to go back to mom's room but I knew that she was going back there and I wasn't... I didn't want to spend another minute with her.

"Oh yeah, sure," she started skipping towards the end of the balcony, "see you around."

"Yeah," She flashed me a smile before she disappeared into a corridor and it was only after she was out of my sight completely that I exhaled loudly.

Jesus Christ, what's going on?

Hours later, after she had left and I had spent some minutes with mom that was barely conscious, I was walking out of the hospital with that thought that had been at the back of my mind since I discovered that she was mom's assistant and I was going to have to see her in the hospital, in Nouman's house, and even in Cakes and Creams.

I wasn't... I didn't want to spend that much time in her company.

I wanted to spend that much time and even more in her company.

I exhaled and inhaled, my steps faltering as I neared the main door and before I could even think, I was retracing my steps back to the reception desk.

Aunty Kathy's lips stretched into a smile when she lifted her head from the computer and saw me approaching.

"This one that the almighty Kitan decided to leave his mom's side and grace us with his presence."

"Aunty Kathy, you know it's not like that."

"Of course, it's never like that, it's just that you're a mummy's boy pro max."

My lips stretched into a smile and I exchanged pleasantries with the others on the desk before going back to Aunty Kathy.

"So, about this NGO volunteering with terminally ill patients..." I started, drumming my fingers on the reception desk out of nervousness wrecking my body.

"Yeah, what about it? Have you met the girl that was assigned to your mom? She's such a delight and a cheerful girl to have around, barely a week since she started coming here and she had already woven her way into the hearts of many people around her."

"Yeah, I know but..." I trailed off again and her brow quirked questioningly.

"But what?"

"Is it possible to like... change them? Can I get someone else assigned to mom?"

***********
NADIA

It was the next day after the preliminaries that ended in a way no one saw coming and the student's reactions to it, to say the least, have been overwhelming.

More than 80% of the students didn't see it coming, according to the pole that was conducted by Eniola and her team but almost 40% had warmed up to the fact that Seyi had won.

I haven't even had the time to get myself directly invested in the whole thing because sports news has always been boring to me so I allowed Eniola and her team to do the whole work. Not like they've been really able to get anything done.

Seyi was still basking and gloating at his win. Yesterday, there was that split second when he couldn't believe that he had actually won from the stunned expression on his face before it finally dawned on him that he was a step closer to actualizing his dreams.

Nearly all his teammates had run to the field to congratulate him, to carry him on their shoulders and throw him into the sky.

David, on the other hand, has simply disappeared from the field. One minute, he was running closely behind Seyi, and the next, he was just... he wasn't anywhere to be found.

And just between yesterday and now, with barely 18 hours in between, some students have started a movement that they termed Respecting David Doyle's legacy; they've gone ahead to write out all the medals and awards David has single-handedly won for CSA's track team, all the medals he had won for the country and they were demanding that the organizers ignore the results of the preliminary and use their, both David's and Seyi's personal records, experience, and medals to pick a representative to represent the country.

They've even gone ahead to create a poll for David and so far, in less than 24 hours, more than 6000 students out of the barely above 10,000 students of CSA already signed it.

I never knew that many students were watching David, that many students were rooting for him, and that he has that kind of standing army behind him.

But all their efforts weren't going to amount to anything, the result was final, Seyi had won and he was going to represent the country and probably bring back home the trophy.

Nothing was going to change that fact, not all their efforts, not even the fact that they've talked about it so much on Twitter that CSA's Track Team was now trending with African Championship Preliminaries.

And I was currently reading some of the tweets and in 10 tweets, 9 would be in support of David, and 1 would be otherwise.

The idea of a preliminary for the African Championship has always been ridiculous, everyone knows that David Doyle rightfully deserves to represent the country.

How can they even decide to use a single performance to determine who'll represent the country?

I'm telling you! What happened to their standing records?

How can someone that hasn't even won half of the competitions that David won be picked over him to represent the country? Ko make sense na.

Justice for David Doyle! It's not fair if they really allow Seyi to represent the country after everything that David has done for the Country's Track.

And how did Seyi Anifowose get that fast to the point of being faster than David? Shouldn't he be investigated?

Well, all is fair in love and fair, Seyi won fairly and so he deserves to represent the country. I don't even understand all this noise.

I heard a movement and I looked up to see Wale strolling in to the study room like he owned it even though he was showing up more than 30 minutes late to our meeting. He was the one who scheduled the meeting just last night to my surprise because I thought he was going to be too busy with the whole thing with David and besides, we could easily meet up any other time next week.

And when he was running late, I was starting to think he already bailed but here he was, walking in casually more than 30 minutes after and I expected my usual anger at the fact that he didn't even have the common decency to look apologetic but instead of feeling angry, a part of my brain was busy picking up how he was dressed.

How his rolled-up sleeves looked good on him and how the whole of his arms looked like something that was held together by tightly bound muscles and...

Ahusubillahi!

I mentally slapped senses into myself as I readjusted myself on the seat and I looked away from him.

Surely, I must be developing some sort of mental problem or at worse, Dunni and Tania were in some sort of way infecting me with their chronic madness because that was the only way to explain this.

I could blame that brief moment that happened in our mock court on the fact I just finished listening to Dunni go on and on about his physical attributes so maybe what happened that day was normal. It was just because I had been listening to Dunni.

But there were days after that day and I was still here, noticing his rolled-up sleeves for goodness sake!

Surely, I must be descending into some sort of madness.

"Hi," he greeted, taking his seat opposite me and dropping his bag on the table, "sorry I came late, had an impromptu."

Uhh? He was apologizing? Was the world about to end?

"Never knew you were capable of apologizing," I bit out, partly out of annoyance at myself for feeling the way I was feeling and partly at him for just being him.

He looked up from the notepad he was flickering through and for a second, I thought he was going to say something in reply but he was Wale Kukoyi, the absolute best in ignoring whatever he wants to ignore.

And yeah, he completely ignored my words.

Asshole.

"So, I started on with the list of cases that you compiled and for the first one, I think we should just..." he was going on and on and while a part of my brain was listening to him, the other one was doing that one thing that I shouldn't be doing.

Wouldn't be doing it if I didn't know two girls called Tania and Dunni.

I found my eyes straying at intervals to look at the finger he was drumming lightly on the table as he speaks, to the watch on his wrist, to the...

I stopped myself only for my eyes to stray back and further than the first time only to stop myself again and repeat and...

I was really going to need to get rid of Dunni and Tania.

And I really needed to do something about the sudden heat in the fully conditioned room.

And my suddenly patched mouth and throat.

He stretched a bottled water I hasn't noticed at me and my brows quirked in both irritation and confusion.

"What for?" I snapped, angry at him even though he wasn't doing anything wrong.

He didn't even blink, the only change in his expression was the faintest, almost teasing smile tugging at the corners of his lips, "you've been staring at it for a while now."

I have? I was sure I hadn't even noticed that there was a bottled water anywhere in the room.

I didn't collect it immediately even though the only thing I wanted at that moment was to drown the entire content and quench the entire ravaging thirst that I was feeling. I just kept staring at him, wondering what his deal was. He didn't even like me and here he was, offering me his bottled water just because I was staring at it.

It's just bottle water, Nana, it's not a million dollars.

But still... I had to double-check to be sure but he didn't look like he was up to anything, safe for that small smile that made him look like he was amused by something.

"It's not poisoned," he volunteered as he tossed the water in my direction and it landed on the spot directly in front of me on the table.

"Sure," I replied sarcastically, wanting to bring our conversation back to normalcy since it seemed that was the only way my eyes and thoughts would stop straying off, "why are you here by the way?"

The frown that immediately formed on his face made his smile dissipate, "why shouldn't I be here?"

"Maybe you should be with David instead of fixing a meeting for today when the meeting can as well held next week or any other time."

"So? What are you hinting at?"

"For someone whose best friend just lost a major competition and childhood dream, you're doing a very good job of being unfazed by it."

And he was. I couldn't imagine Tania losing something she had always wanted her whole life and I'd be acting the way that he was.

He seemed almost like he wasn't worried that David had lost.

He didn't blink, didn't show an iota of reaction, just kept staring at me in that blank way of his. I half expected him to go back to explaining what he was explaining earlier because that was his forte, best in ignoring everything and everyone.

"He'll be fine," he said simply, dismissively and I wasn't sure if flat-out ignoring my words would have been any worse than this.

And this is who Dunni could write an essay about how good he is?

How funny!

Hours later, hours that I had to tame the annoyance that only Wale could bring out in me, we were finally done and I was out of his sight.

One minute, I'd think we were progressing positively in our conversations but just one look, one dismissive tone, or one dismissive word from him and he was dragging us further back into the abyss of everything negative.

God! I couldn't bear to stand the sight of him.

It was on a Sunday so the library and its environs were deserted except for a few students that were milling around. I started to walk towards Moremi Hostel even though the distance was quite a bit, the rides didn't run till evening on Sundays and Imran Sulaiman disappeared with my car once again.

Just one of the major benefits of attending the same school with your favorite cousin.

I stepped into a deserted pathway between two long buildings where there was no single soul everywhere was so quiet that my footsteps echoed so loudly it'd have been scary if it was dark.

Until it actually started to get scary.

I could hear footsteps walking almost quietly behind me as if whoever it was didn't want to alert me of their movements.

I turned back sharply but there was no one, not even... Something jumped out of nowhere with a loud thud and I shrieked.

But it was only a rodent.

A rodent! God! I placed my hand over my chest as if that'd calm my sudden erratic heart.

I exhaled as I resumed my walk, concluding that it must be my mind playing tricks on me.

But I had not even taken 5 steps when I felt the movement behind me again and this time around, it felt like the person increased pace and was now about to catch up with me...

Goosebumps, not the beautiful kind broke out on my skin and my heartbeats increased pace as I quickened my steps to get out of the deserted pathway.

The faster I walked, the farther the end became, and the closer whoever was walking behind me was getting to me.

And the more my heart felt like it was going to burst out of its ribcage.

I heard laughter and excited talks from the end of the pathway I was walking towards at the same time a group came into view and that was when I was able to turn around sharply.

I turned around, expecting to come face to face with someone or something but there was no one, not even a single sign that anyone had been walking behind me.

I exhaled and I broke into a fit of cough at the suppressed force of the breaths that I'd been holding.

Only two things were certain now.

I was either losing my mind or someone was really in the pathway with me.

What do you think?

Maybe Nadia is running mad or someone was really with her.

Well, someone was watching her and it has nothing to do with Romance or love. Guess who??

Dunni and Tania have sha destroyed Nadia like this because there's no way she'd see Wale and not really see him 😂 and it looks like he already knows what she is doing

Alfred and Nazeera though 🥹❤️ my two cute pumpkins 😩

Till Nouman sees a glimpse of Alfred's thoughts about his baby sister 😂❤️

See you in the next chapter, it's David's POV and it's <<<

Till then, saranghea❤️❤️