MEETING YOU WAS A DREAM

5. A NEW FRIEND

 SHEIZA pov

Days passed by in the blink of an eye and now it is already my fifth day in my one-week internship, I met a new friend named Zainab in my internship class, she is a bubbly and lovable girl, and I adore her. She is so good to be around and a nice friend. We met in the local Masjid here and exchanged contacts because we happened to be in the same internship. So far all five days have been so thrilling and full of surprises, the best one being meeting Ahmad obviously but I can't get over the regret of not sharing any contact details with him anyways life goes on and things like these happen and obviously if I meet him again I am not going to part without exchanging contact details.

I came back to the hotel I was staying in and decided to watch some animes to chill and relax after the internship classes, I wanted to hang out with Zainab but it turns out she had plans with her brother so I couldn't go out with her, so I thought of relaxing by watching some anime and then go to bed. 

The anime mentions something about Yakuzas and the Japanese high school gangs, it got me thrilled and I wanted to know more about them I am not going to talk to any gang members or Yakuzas, because obviously, I don't want to poke my nose into stuff that can get me in trouble, also it's just two days left to my one-week internship and I want to head back home safe and sound, for curious scary cats like me we have something called Google, so obviously I searched about these gangs and stuff, I loved the 70s girl gangs in Tokyo, they were so cool and all. As I was looking through all this info, an article caught my eye, the heading was "Ex-gang leader wakes up from comma, decides to live a quiet life", I read the article and came to know about a gang leader who is half Turkish and half Japanese, he came from a Muslim family and is believed to have been a Muslim, but he later got into all the gang stuff and he was fighting a rival gang and a member of the rival gang stabs him with a knife, he then goes into a comma for like 2 months or so and then wakes up with gratitude and decides to live his life as a dedicated Muslim man and he is seeking Islamic knowledge and ever since has been living a quiet life. Reading this article reminded me of a verse in the Qur'an, "Allah guides whom he wills" and I felt goosebumps, I wish there were photos of this man, but I can understand they obviously won't do that because it can cause trouble to him as he is an ex-gang member, but when I scrolled down the article they did have pictures of him in his gang uniform, his face was blurred for obvious reasons, the gang fit looked cool on him. I have heard that there are many Turkish-Japanese people in Japan as well as Russian-Japanese, reminded me of Zainab, she is half Turkish and half Japanese. Mixed people look cool as well, she is also really pretty.

After my long search and reading articles it was time for me to get to bed, I have to attend the classes tomorrow early morning as well. Zainab promised to hang out with me after the classes tomorrow, she told me about this really cute cafe that sells amazing deserts and boba milk tea, I am excited about it. 

AHMAD pov

It has been five days since I met her, I absolutely regret not asking for her contact details, I really should have done it, meeting her made me happy and it felt so unreal and it's intriguing how we talked about it like it was just anything else, pretty sure we both felt surreal and confused, but it was one of the best things that happened since I woke up that day, although I was restricted from walking around for the first few days, staying at home got me so bored and I decided to go to the convenience store nearby, the best decision ever made, I am happy I met her. The day I woke up, I decided to live my life as a faithful servant of Allah. I decided to be grateful for everything and everybody in my life and spend quality time with the people I love. I have a sister, I never had any special bond with her, we always fought as we were very different from each other, when I was leading a path of arrogance and filth, she was on the right path, in the path of peace and righteousness, I truly believe a part of the reason Allah guided me was the earnest and sincere duas of my sister. I decided to hang out with her today, this is my first day taking her out ever since I woke up. I want to thank her for her duas and the efforts she put in for me even when I was never grateful for it. 

'Did you wait very long?', my sister asked when she got off the bus,

'Kind of, but what took you this much time?' I asked her, although she wasn't that late.

'Well, I was with a friend I met during the internship, she wanted to hang out but then I had to call it off because I had plans with you, I had to buy her coffee as a compromise and promised to hang out with her tomorrow' she replied.

'Haa, so you have friends?', I asked her to irritate her.

'Well it is hard to make real friends but I kind of like her a lot and she is fun to be around', she replied in a very cheerful and bubbly manner. I have never seen her talking like that about anyone, it was always hard for her to make friends here in Japan because of how she led a life that was culturally very different and made it difficult for her to connect with anyone, she was bullied throughout high school, I was always worried about her, but during that time instead of supporting her to be herself, I often asked her to be like others, I am sorry for that, but she never lost herself to fit in unlike me, which is why I am happy she made friends who like her as she is later on in life.

'I want to meet this friend of yours if she can make you feel all cheerful like this Zainab', I told her in a bit of a protective tone as if I doubted her friend.

'Well, you will like her she is nice', she replied

'Tell me more about this friend', I told her. I want to talk with her and spend time with my sister. I would spend how much time she wants with conversations that would make her smile, that is the least I could do for all the things she did for me.