This is one of the two fictional stories that serves as a prologue to the new series called Stories from Mayotte, like as its title says, are actually a combination of recollections of true stories that happened in my home island and mostly fictional stories based on my own world of anime-inspired characters. This time, it's about our protagonist Yara's dream, where she's an university student in her early 20s, travelling to Denmark as part of her 6-month-long Erasmus+ project, which escalated to her meeting fellow student Niels, also on the same boat as her, through a dating app.
Please note that some parts of the story has been edited out due to the nature of this blog.
August 25th, 2028.
One day, Yara was on a plane heading to Denmark as a part of the Erasmus program.
As soon as she came out of the airport in Copenhagen, she started searching for nearby apartments in the area to stay in throughout the semester, until she found a cheap one in Aalborg, where her new school was located, and started living there, where she recorded a video of said apartment, sharing it with her family in France via a group chat and on her Snapchat stories, before going to bed that night.
The following day, she headed to school, and it was there that she began studying English while at the same time, learning Danish.
Later that afternoon, after she was done with her lectures, she headed back home and studied in her room, before going to the living room to watch TV and afterwards, returned to her room to study and sleep.
The next day, after she finished her lectures on that day, she got bored and decided to give her try on a dating app that afternoon.
Just as she was about to delete her account on the app for good, she matched with a guy, 2 years her senior, who swiped right on her profile.
During their conversation, they both introduced and sent pictures of each other for the first time and made plans to meet each other at a nearby café that she’s interested in on the evening.
Later that evening, upon walking to the café, she saw him sitting next to the table and waving at her before sitting next to him, and the two of them ordered coffee to drink, before introducing each other for real.
As everything was starting to get dark, he tells her “On continue ailleurs ? (Shall we keep going elsewhere?)” in French, to which she nodded to him, and after paying their bills, they walked out of the café and were now headed towards her house.
While in the living room, Yara poured apple juice for her and Niels to drink.
By the time they were done drinking the juice, she tells him that she’s there for a student exchange program for 6 months, and it turns out, despite him being from Norway, he’s also on the same program as her, studying to get his bachelor’s degree.
After everything settled down, she said to him “Alright Niels, I’ll show you what it’s like to Netflix and chill.”, before walking him towards her room, where they were now in her bed.
“Now, it’s my turn.”, he told her.
A few hours later, it was all over.
Yara sat on the other side of her bed and suddenly began to feel ashamed of what she had done with him, who then calmed her down by reassuring her and then, they looked at each other for the last time.
“Can we exchange some snaps?”, she asked him.
“Of course.”, he replied, and they exchanged their snaps, before she led him to the entrance door of her house and accompanied him all the way to his house, before leaving for her house on her own.
The next morning, she wakes up, only to receive a message from Niels, saying “Wow, you were great last night… I can’t wait to see you at school!”, before responding to his message with “Same.” and minding her own business as usual.
After eating her breakfast, she studied for a few minutes, before dressing up, packing her things in her bag and getting ready for school.
After doing everything in the house, she grabbed the keys and went outside of her house, locking the door with the keys and putting them in her bag, before heading to school for her first lecture, which was at 11:30 AM.
Later, during her last lecture at 2PM, which focused on social media, one of her professors, Gunnar, challenged his students to film his last presentation so that he can dismiss the class, and one of her colleagues, Leif, who was studying game design as his major, recorded the last few minutes of lecture on his phone and posted it on social media, which went viral within a matter of seconds.
After leaving the lecture room, she and her other colleagues Mynte, Yvonne, Torben and Najm, went to the meeting room, where they sat at one of the chairs and completed their group work, which was a game, due in 5 days on time.
After they were all done with the group work, the group of five headed towards Torben’s house, where they had a party, and after the party was over, everyone went home as they all had a busy schedule.
Later that evening, Yara was on a phone call with Niels, who asked her to go out on a date with him to a concert hall opposite her school, where Joakim’s concert was being held.
While at his concert, the two of them were excited to see Joakim appear, and within a few minutes, he began to sing one of his new songs, “Sang Helsing”.
After the end of the song, the audience gave him applause, and two songs later, it was time for him to sing his last song: “Gothic Angel”, as everybody sang alongside him until the very end.
Outside of the concert hall, just as everybody went home after the fan meet-and-greets and autograph signing events, it was just the two of them and Joakim standing outside of the concert hall.
“Hey Yara, hvem er fyren ved siden af dig? (who’s that guy next to you?)”, the latter asked her in Danish.
“He’s Niels.”, she responded.
“Oh, I see. Ok.”, he said, before signing their autographs and leaving the scene.
“Now that it’s just the two of us, shall we have some Netflix and chill, this time at my place?”, Niels said to her, who agreed to join him at his house, where she ended up with him again.
The cycle repeats itself for a few weekends, until the day they became an official couple, on October 19th, 2028, a mere 2 days before his 23rd birthday.
4 days later, on October 23rd, during a lecture on English literature, one of the professors, Mr. Howard told his students that there will be a new student joining them today and her name was Noura.
Upon hearing that the new student was from the Comoros, Yara thought to herself “What is she doing here in Denmark even though we have 4 months left before we return back home?” before facing the teacher.
A few minutes later, after the lecture was over, it was now lunch break, as everybody headed for the cafeteria to eat lunch.
While at the cafeteria, Yara was eating her lunch as usual with Niels, when Robyn went to a separate table to eat some of her expensive lunchbox and looked down on people who she deemed as “poor”.
Bruno walked up to her, telling her that one of the menus at the cafeteria is going viral throughout the school, and gave her two plates of curry to eat instead of the lunchboxes.
However, instead of being grateful towards him for giving her the food, she looked down on him, to the point where she threw the first plate to the trash and got into a fight with Maël, who politely told her to stop, in front of everyone around them, who were understandably pissed off and recorded everything with their phones, until the police came and took Robyn away.
After the lunch break was over, Yara was now back at her last lecture of the day, which focused on romance novels, and during the last few minutes, just as the professor, Mrs. Khalid, was about to finish the lecture, she asked the students to explain everything that happened during lunch break.
Just as everybody tried to raise their hands, Mrs. Khalid chose Njord as a witness.
According to him, while he was grabbing his lunch and walking towards a place to eat, they saw Robyn looking down on Bruno and getting into a fight with Maël over the curry that was being served at the cafeteria and wanted to protect the former in time, but the former of the three was taken away by the police.
After Njord explained his side of the story, Mrs. Khalid told him to sit back in his chair and after the lecture was over, everyone left the room and called it a day.
Meanwhile, Robyn and her parents were summoned to the principal’s office, where the principal was also infuriated with her behavior at the cafeteria, and resulted in her suspension for 2 weeks.
The next day, Yara and Niels went for a walk throughout town, as if nothing happened between the two of them.
Later in the afternoon, they went to the concert hall, where they saw Joakim at the entrance of the hall, who gave them tickets to his upcoming concert that’ll be held in the evening for free, before they all left the scene.
Meanwhile, they were hanging out at the café where they first met and later that evening, they paid the bills and headed for the concert hall, where Joakim’s concert was being held.
During the concert, Yara and Niels were happy to see Joakim again, this time performing his new song in collaboration with a rock band, in both English and Danish.
After his new song was over, everyone applauded him and the band, before they all left the stage.
One month after the Robyn incident, it was Yara’s 21st birthday.
As soon as she woke up, she received a call from her family and friends in France, who all gave her birthday wishes, before moving on to getting ready for school.
After their last lecture of the day and they finished the group work, she held her birthday party in the meeting room with her colleagues Mynte, Yvonne, Torben and Najm, who she worked with 2 months prior, before parting ways with them upon leaving campus grounds.
Later that evening, she returned to her apartment and after a while, she received a text message from Niels, telling her that he was right in front of the door of her house.
As she came over and opened the door, he hugged her and said to her in Norwegian “Gratulerer med dagen, min kjære! (Happy birthday, my darling!)”
“Thank you, Niels.”, she replied to him, before sitting him down with her on the couch, where he would give her some of the kvikk lunsj he bought on his own as a birthday gift, and the two of them ate them, before going to her room to study together.
After they were done studying together, she called her mother through video call, only for them to get shocked, and her mother asked her “Yara, c'est qui ce mzoungou à-côté de toi? (who is that mzungu next to you?)” in French.
“Well, he’s my boyfriend Niels.”, she responded.
“Oh, ok… I hope you don’t get hurt and see you later, Yara!”, Yara’s mom replied, before hanging up on the call.
It was then that Yara and Niels began making out on her bed, and soon, they had the best time of their lives.
After everything was over, the two were now lying on her bed, with him facing her.
“Can I kiss you?”, he asks her, who nodded, only for him to kiss her and soon, they fell asleep cuddling each other.
The next morning, she got up and went to the bathroom, and after she got out of the bathroom, the two bowls of cereal were waiting for the two of them, who ate it in time.
2 months later, it was January 17th, 2029, a mere several weeks after the Christmas holidays ended, and 2 weeks until the end of her exchange semester.
While at the library, she was minding her own business, reading some books and finishing her final project that she’ll have to present on February 1st.
Several days passed, and it was now February 1st, 2029, which was her last day of school.
During her final lectures of the day, she and her colleagues Mynte, Yvonne, Torben and Najm presented the group project that they had been working on 5 months prior.
After the lecture ended, everybody went home.
The next day, while on their day off from school, Bruno came over to help Yara move out of her apartment and together, within less than a day, all of her belongings were gone, as most of them had been put in his father’s car, as they both went to the car in order to bring her back to the airport in Copenhagen.
While at the entrance of the airport, just as she was about to head there, she looked behind and saw Niels with tears of joy, wanting her to hug him.
She then immediately hugged him, before facing him for the last time.
“I love you, Yara.”, he said to her for the last time, until he kissed her for a few minutes before accompanying her throughout the airport.
After he saw her heading to the plane back to Paris, he waved the Norwegian flag, before heading back to his house and upon realizing that his semester was about to end around the same as hers, he decided to move out of his own apartment as well and headed back to his home country.
2 weeks later, Yara returned home.
“Until the time we meet again.”, she said, before heading to her university for her second semester.
To be continued...
