Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi S2 EP1: Lies of Ashraf

Hello everyone and welcome back to Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi!

This time, it's the very first episode of Season 2, and like with the first episode of Season 1, which has posted on this blog 10 months ago, it'll be posted there in addition to being posted on its standalone blog so that anyone can read it either on this blog and the other one.

Previously on Season 2, while on campus, xyuro develops a short-lived crush on Ashraf only for her infatuation to fall apart upon finding out that Sahira and Ashraf himself managed to sabotage it for her, only for her and her friend Kamran to go on a date with each other at her house before ending with the story with Nahla, Talal and Reshma.

After getting out of campus, xyuro and Kamran arrived at the entrance door of her house.

"Phew, at least we made it here. At least I'm glad you're okay despite the Ashraf stuff going on that day.", he said to her. "Can I get inside of your house so that we can study together?"

She replied with "Yes, but can I tell you something back?"

He looked at her and said "Sure, go ahead."

She tells him that ever since he saved her from Ashraf, she had completely lost her feelings for him.

"I see. I don't care about whatever you feel about that guy, but I won't ask nor force you to choose me over other guys in your life.", he replied to her. "All I want is to see you happy and if someone hurts you like what Ashraf did to you, I'll always be there for you."

xyuro responded with "Thanks, that's so sweet."

Later, while at her house, they began studying random things including the hydrosphere, the water cycle, and many others.

Upon seeing what she was studying, Kamran said "Wait a sec... This was my first major upon arriving in Avignon before I changed majors to math 2 years ago."

She asked him "So, you were in Avignon before you changed majors there and transferred here last year?"

He nodded and said "Yeah, but it wasn't easy for me so that's where I am right now."

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door and one of xyuro's younger sisters asked her "Who's at the door?"

xyuro tells her "It's an another student from the same school as me." before heading towards the other side of the entrance door, and upon opening the door, she saw Ashraf who came all the way to apologize to her for what happened that day.

Turns out, he was faking his apology to make her regain her feelings and trust in him, which led to her becoming increasingly infuriated with him.

She yelled at him and told him "Ashraf, what are you doing here? This is not the place for you to be apologizing to me."

Suddenly, just as she was about to throw a shoe at him, one of her neighbors told Ashraf "Listen buddy, she won't forgive you that easily. Let's get out of here before she gets dangerous with you." before walking away with him.

Her parents showed up and thanked the neighbor for helping them deal with Ashraf on her behalf before said neighbor left with him.

After Ashraf and the neighbor left, xyuro and Kamran resumed their study session and after the study date was over, they thanked each other for the date, with him leaving for his house.

Not long after Kamran left, Torsten walked up to her house with his phone in hand.

xyuro opened the door and said to him "Hello there, Torsten! What brings you here to my house?"

He responded with "Hi, I came here because Khalil called me telling that people around the world have seen Sahira's Snapchat stories."

"People around the world? She can't be that stupid enough to share her dirty laundry online."

He shows her one of the several screenshots of the said stories that Khalil was talking about and had shared with him, which featured Sahira without her headscarf and in bed with Ashraf.

They both stared at each other in horror and silence.

"By the way, please watch out for that girl because she hasn't apologized to anyone on campus. Oh, and on top of that, she's comfortable getting away with posting some disgusting stuff online and bringing others down."

"See? I told you about her. You should reach out to your friends to let them know what she's up to so that she won't bring you down with her."

Meanwhile, while at a random apartment, Sahira was in her bed and scrolling through her phone, when she came across one of Kamran's stories featuring him and xyuro a few hours prior.

She thought to herself "If I can't have Ashraf, I'll make sure she won't have him either." before charging her phone on a nearby nightstand.

The next day, as soon as Sahira stepped foot on campus and headed to the patio, where everyone was staring at her over what she had shared online last night and she began to immediately panic, when someone pushes Ashraf next to her.

As soon as they both got the stares from everyone, the head of the university calls them into his office and tells them that he and his staff had seen everything and they're no longer welcome on campus starting from now.

Later that evening, Sahira posted a story in which she posted the one photo of her without her headscarf from the other day and with "I hate everyone" written on a black banner in Arabic to cover her eyes, before charging her phone next to a nightstand, only to get yelled at by her parents, who threw a letter from the university regarding her expulsion.

In the end, she got thrown out of her house with her phone and belongings, only for everyone to turn against her both online and offline and her to never return again.

The next day, upon arriving home from campus, xyuro received multiple messages and missed calls from Ashraf on her phone.

She texted him with "What the hell is wrong with you Ashraf? Why you spamming my phone at an hour like this?"

He responded with "I've been expelled from college all because of Sahira bringing me down with her disgusting behavior"

"So is that why you're sending me multiple messages just because Sahira brought you down?", she replied back. "To me, it seems that you both sound like you're a perfect match for each other."

Ashraf texted back with "We're not a perfect match, you and I are one!"

She replied with "No we are not Ashraf, stop lying for attention." before continuing with "If you don't leave me alone, I'm blocking you, so don't talk to me ever again."

He tried to persuade her from blocking him with a last text message before she blocked him from her phone and social media.

She then said "Phew... Now I can rest knowing that I won't be hearing the lies of Ashraf anymore."

Suddenly, Torsten showed up sitting in a chair next to her bedside.

xyuro then said to him "Hi there, what brings you here again?"

He told her "We've met a while ago. I came here because Ashraf has been bombarding me and your colleague Nizar with demands to tell him about your whereabouts multiple times, so I was wondering if you're okay after all of this."

She then replied to him "Thank you. I'm doing fine right now, but why is he bringing you and Nizar in his mess?"

He answered with "I don't know, but since you wanted nothing to do with him anymore, instead of moving on with his life, he resorted into bombarding our phones nonstop."

She got horrified and said "Wow, he's really unfixable beyond repair at this point."

He nodded to her and said "I agree.", before pausing for a moment and continuing with "Hold on, let me call Nizar first so that we can plan our revenge on Ash for what he had done to us together."

He decided to call Nizar, telling him about their revenge plan and to come join him at his house for more details before they hung up.

A few minutes later, Nizar showed up and he began discussing details of their revenge with xyuro and Torsten for a while.

While they were in the middle of discussing their revenge on Ashraf, Kamran came back to her house and asked the three of them in both English and Arabic if he can join them in their revenge plans since he has known Ashraf longer than them, to which they agreed.

And so, little did Ashraf knew, their revenge on him had just begun.

Will xyuro and her friends somehow manage to execute their planned revenge on Ashraf and put an end to his troublesome behavior towards them? Find out in the next episode of Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi Season 2!

To be continued...

The University of Mayhem

This story is loosely based on a true story and inspired by the beginning of my college years, which will serve as a prologue to Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi Season 2.

6 months later, now a student majoring in geography at a certain university, xyuro was minding her own business and scrolling through her phone on campus when she heard someone saying hi to her from behind.

"Hey, who is that guy greeting me out of nowhere?"

She looked back and saw Kamran waving at her, in which she said hi back to him before she headed to one of her classes.

There, the professor introduced a new student in their group and his name was none other than Ashraf.

Just as Ashraf introduced himself to the class, xyuro fell in love with him at first sight and during a break, she saw him playing table tennis with an another person.

Little did xyuro know, Sahira also fell in love with him to the point where she became obsessed with him.

Later, while at the patio, upon getting out of the bathroom, xyuro saw Ashraf dancing with Sahira and an another woman, before looking at Kamran who was standing next to her.

He told her, "xyuro, do you really like that dude?"

She then nodded yes to him and replied "Very much."

He whispered to her right ear in Persian "Listen, we shouldn't get along with these people. They're different from us and could've hurt us, especially that guy you have a crush on."

xyuro responded back with "I see. You know what? I won't give up on Ashraf that easily."

Upon hearing what she said, Kamran shrugged and said "Go ahead, I'll keep a watch on these people and make sure that he won't hurt your feelings. By the way, can I tell you a joke?"

She nodded and he told her a joke in which they both laughed before she walked away.

There, she saw Ashraf with Sahira, before the latter decided to purposely bully her at the cafeteria with the other woman, until one of her colleagues Nizar had caught them in the act.

He called Sahira out for bullying his colleague and she ended up being humiliated in front of the whole cafeteria.

Meanwhile, after Sahira left, the people were laughing at her, Ashraf looked at the whole scene while eating his food and laughing at the same time, before he sat next to xyuro.

"Hey, the way Nizar defended us against this crazy woman has really made me laugh.", he said to her. "By the way, can I tell you something?"

xyuro replied with "Of course."

Ashraf tells her "Yuro-chan, now that you're mine, no one will touch or hurt you in any way."

As soon as he ended his phrase, Kamran replied back with "Ashraf, that's my line! I wanted to say this to her before you did so!"

Upon hearing that Ashraf and Kamran were both about to argue with each other over her, xyuro left the cafeteria and removed her headscarf before putting it inside her bag, to everyone's surprise.

As soon as he saw her without the headscarf, Kamran thought to himself "Wow, she's so beautiful, even without the headscarf. Oh well, all I want is to see her happy."

However, while at the tree below the other buildings, Ashraf was attempting to disrespect xyuro's boundaries, when Kamran walked in front of them and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground and beating him up.

After beating Ashraf up for disrespecting her boundaries, Kamran asks her "xyuro, are you alright?"

She said back with "Yes, I'm okay. Thanks for looking out for me."

He answered with "You're welcome. By the way, can I spend time studying with you together by the time we get to your house?"

xyuro nodded and said "Of course, that's fine with me."

The scene switches to Nahla writing the rest of the story on her computer before taking a bathroom break.

Upon sitting down on the chair, Nahla started talking with Talal about her plans for the second season with different stories featuring other characters in addition to xyuro and Kamran's love story before she collapsed on the ground to his shock.

He panicked and yelled "Oh my god! Nahla... Can you hear me out? Are you okay?"

After his efforts of waking her up multiple times failed, Talal untied his long ponytail, revealing his long hair.

"Now that I've untied my ponytail, I want to tell the viewers something before Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi Season 2 begins as it's been over 6 months since Season 1 has ended.", he said to her, before pointing himself in front of the camera that was recording the whole time.

After Talal went back to waking his friend Nahla up, Reshma walked in the scene out of nowhere to pick up the torch from him to talk to the viewers.

Reshma then tells the viewers "Hey everybody, we'll have to end this prologue here because of what happened to our writer Nahla as Talal is trying his best to wake her up. By the way, rest assured everyone, Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi Season 2 will be coming soon, so stay tuned for it!"

She then ended with "Until then, see you all next time in Season 2, so goodbye everyone!" before turning off the camera.

Is this the beginning of xyuro and Kamran's love story in college despite all of these mysteries surrounding the urban legends of Mayotte and the eventual falling out between Sohrab and his colleagues that led to the dissolution of the Uchawi Alliance 3 months ago? Find out next time in Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi Season 2!

THE END

Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi EP1: Arid Tales

Hello everyone, and welcome to Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi! 

In this series, we'll be telling a variety of different stories from different parts of the world. 

This time, it's the very first episode of the series, which serves as the main frame story for the series itself, even though the rest of the series will be posted on a completely different blog due to the announcement of YunokiRoom's indefinite hiatus that'll be posted on a later date.

One day, while Yasmina was at a local library, she grabbed one of the books from the bookshelves and started reading the book.

Suddenly, when she was in the middle of reading the book, she suddenly got transported into the world of the book itself.

There, she found herself in an idyllic desert and saw a man dressed in blue before waking him up with hand gestures.

"Wait, where am I...?", he murmured to himself before looking at her face.

He then introduces to her as Ilham, before explaining to her that he was lost in the middle of nowhere after he lost his entire camel caravan in a sandstorm.

Upon her taking him to a village, everyone was frightened upon seeing him except for a woman who knows the man and his tribe before taking the two of them in.

While in the woman's house, Ilham explains to Yasmina about his culture when suddenly, the chieftain informed them about a beast wandering around the village and ordered everyone to stay indoors for their safety, except that his daughter found herself trapped by the beast while she was in the middle of gathering plants.

And so, Ilham sets out to save the chieftain's daughter by jumping and attacking the beast.

As a result for his heroic actions, the chieftain healed his wounds and allowed him to leave his village with Yasmina.

Upon arriving in his hometown, he was reunited with his family and thanked Yasmina for helping him out in his journey before giving her a necklace and a blue scarf before parting ways with each other.

After leaving Ilham's hometown, Yasmina found herself in the middle of the desert again, only to put the blue scarf on her head.

A few minutes later, she saw a local herdsman wandering with his camels and heading towards a faraway kingdom.

Upon seeing her with the blue scarf, the herdsman takes her on one of his camels before they headed on their way to a town.

While on their way, the herdsman tells Yasmina about a king who was scorned by his unfaithful wife to the point where he killed several women in the morning after sleeping with them the night before for 3 years until a storyteller came along to tell him a variety of different stories for 1001 nights before he made her his queen for the rest of his life.

By the time he told her the story, they have already arrived at the entrance of the town and jumped off from their camels, before heading towards the entrance of the town.

Later that evening, while standing at one of the stalls of the vibrant night market, Yasmina received a ring and a mysterious oil lamp from a merchant, who was heading to his house in a hurry after he was done selling all of his products for the day.

She inserted the ring in her left ring finger and held the lamp in her arms.

"What is that lamp doing in my hands? Let me try rubbing it to see if this actually works or not."

She rubbed the lamp, only for the lamp to summon a djinn in front of her.

"What is happening here?! Why is there a demon in front of me?!", she panicked.

"Hey, calm down Yasmina, please, I'm not a demon!", the djinn said.

"Ah I see, my bad, so you're what then?", she replied.

"I'm a normal human just like you!", the djinn responded, to her shock.

By then, it was already too late, as everyone saw what was going on and ran away from the scene upon hearing the djinn from the lamp telling her that he's a normal human being, leaving just the two of them behind.

Upon seeing unconscious, the djinn was horrified and tried to wake her up but to no avail.

"Oh no, what have I done to scare everyone away?"

Soon, a few minutes later, she woke up and got up from the ground.

"Alright Yasmina, so since you don't know who I am, let me introduce myself. My name is Zuhair and nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Zuhair. Why are you trapped inside a lamp?"

"It's because of Shaytan's friend who killed people in Al-Thalj and despite all this, he manipulated others into believing his lies about me when in fact he's in the wrong."

"Wow, I want nothing to do with him anymore."

"Me neither. By the way, Yasmina, since you have three wishes left, what is your first wish?"

"My first wish is to become a princess."

Her first wish was granted, and now Yasmina became a lovely princess under the name of Princess Karima.

Upon seeing her as Princess Karima, Sinan, the prince of the faraway kingdom, fell in love with her at first sight, only for her to tell him that Zuhair made her a princess, but the prince didn't mind and was genuinely interested by her experience in said world.

Later that night, after having her second wish of having a flying carpet granted, Yasmina and Sinan flew on a magic carpet and looked at the stars.

After returning to the balcony through the carpet, Sinan confessed his feelings before proposing to Yasmina, to which she agreed.

Afterwards, she told Zuhair about her final wish, which was to turn him into a human and to return to the human world.

Zuhair granted her last wish, turning himself into a human and summoning a portal to the human world.

"After all this time, it was nice seeing you. I never thought you'd be my husband in this world, but I have something important to tell you." Yasmina said to Sinan.

"What is it about?", the latter asked.

"Since I don't have much time left in this world, I need to go back to the human world to live a normal life just like others."

"Wait, can I join you there?"

"No, you can't."

"Ah, that's sad. It'll be great if we can still be together in the human world in an another life.", he responded.

The two of them kissed and hugged each other goodbyes before Yasmina left for the human world through the portal.

A few days later, Yasmina was now back in the outside world, hanging out with her friends Yara, Lael, Bruno and Yatomi at a local café.

"So Yasmina, how was your trip?", Bruno asked.

"It went great, It felt like that I was living my best life in the Sahara when in fact it's a completely different world." Yasmina responded.

"Wow, I would love to go there!", Yara said.

"Me too!", Lael responded.

"That's amazing!", Yatomi said.

After everyone had a good time at the café, they were all on their way home, when they came across a strange car stopping in front of them in a grocery store.

"Hey, what is that car doing here?", Lael said.

The car's left window opened, revealing the driver, who was none other than a man wearing a kofia and a thobe.

The man in the thobe greeted them in Arabic, to which Yara, Yasmina, Bruno and Yatomi greeted back.

"Guys, who is that strange man?", Lael asked.

Yara then explains to Lael that the strange man is a known celebrity in this town and his name was Wahid, but people call him Zama Shingo (Uncle Salt in the Shimaoré language) because he loved putting salt in the food he makes and eating salty food.

"I see. Thanks for letting me know about him.", Lael said to Yara.

"Zama Shingo, can you please drive me and my friends home?", Yatomi asked Wahid.

"Of course I can, Yatomi.", he answered before letting the four of them in his car.

While in the car, Yasmina saw a picture of Sinan on the bottom of the rearview mirror and said to Yara and Lael "Wait, is that the man who proposed to me in an another world?"

"Yes, that's my great-great-granduncle. He had a wife that looked just like you and her name was Karima, and together they had 5 kids.", Wahid responded.

"Ah, I see, so that means I'm your great-great-grandaunt-in-law?", said in complete shock.

"No, you just look like her.", Wahid laughed while teasing her.

After the conversation, Yara, Lael, Bruno and Yatomi got out of the car and waved goodbye to Wahid before heading to their homes, leaving their friend Yasmina behind.

Later, while in the car, Wahid and Yasmina were talking about the latter's adventures in the book, even after he took Imran in.

Just as the three of them stopped in front of Yasmina's house, after she left the car, Wahid started falling in love with her before touching her pink hair, only to be caught red-handed by Imran.

"Wallahi, what the hell are you doing with a young girl's hair?! You're 20 and she's only 3 years younger than you!", Imran yelled at him before beating him up with his shoes and leaving the car as well.

2 months later, Imran and Wahid found themselves in court with their lawyers present.

After their lawyers argued and Yasmina's testimony, the judge ruled in favor of Imran and sentenced Wahid to prison.

A few days later, Yasmina decided to sleep over at a shared apartment.

There, she saw Imran waving at her, telling her to join her friends who have been waiting for her to start the adventure through the globe.

Upon arriving at where her friends were, Yasmina saw Yara, Nate, Bruno and Yatomi sitting and cornering an interactive globe and a magical crayon.

"What is this globe doing here?", she said.

"We're waiting for you to decide on which country we should go to.", Bruno told her.

"Hey, where did Lael go?", Imran asked.

Yara showed him a text message from Lael saying that he returned to Finland on his own to serve his military service along with a selfie of him in Helsinki.

"Hetkinen, onko kuvassa oleva mies poikaystäväsi? (Wait, is the man in the photo your boyfriend?)", Nate said to her in Finnish while looking at the selfie.

"Yes, he's my boyfriend.", she responded back.

"Alright everyone, what place should we go to?", Yara said to the people in the room and grabbed the magical crayon.

After everyone all agreed on going to Egypt, the scene switches to Xyuro typing and concluding the rest of the story on her computer while doing her homework.

She looked behind and saw Nate's younger brother waving with one of her letters.

"Hey! About your response to my brother's letter... How many postcards?", he asked her

"Who are you? Are you Nate's brother?", Xyuro responded.

"Yes, I'm his brother. My name is Ingvar.", Ingvar told her.

Ingvar then proceeds to tell his story to Xyuro about how his father had lied to him and his mother for years about his past to the point where he reached out to Nate on Instagram after he ended one of his VTuber livestreams.

"Ah, I see. Let me call your brother first.", Xyuro replied back.

She then calls Nate to tell him that his brother was at her house and to come over at her house.

He then came over to her house in a rush and said "Xyuro, what's the matter?"

"Your brother Ingvar came over to bring the envelope containing the response to your letter.", she responded.

"Is that so? Well, let me explain to you about my family."

After explaining to her about his family, Nate tells Ingvar to come with him at his house and waved her goodbye, saying to her "Thanks for looking out for my brother!" before leaving her house to bring his brother back to his mother.

The next day, Xyuro received a call from a panicked Niels telling her that he stumbled upon a leaked video of a random man cosplaying as Nate's VTuber avatar.

"Well, listen sweetie, you won't believe what I've seen last night, but I think that the man on the video looks like someone who you might know."

"No way. I don't think he looks like Nate. I called him yesterday about his brother, so there's no way it can be him.", she said.

"Ah, I see. I called Nate earlier this morning and he told me it wasn't him but rather some random guy from Sweden who I've known before.", he replied.

The phone call continued for about an hour until he ended the call telling her that he's going to have fun at her house.

"Now, let's pick up where we left off in the story last time before Niels arrives at my house.", Xyuro said before going on her computer to write the rest of the story.

Upon arriving in Egypt, Yasmina found herself on a boat sailing across the Nile with Imran and her friends Yara, Bruno and Yatomi.

"Wait, where am I?", Yatomi said.

One of the locals sailing the boat answered to her in Arabic that the boat is heading towards the city of Cairo and that they'll be in a hotel.

A few hours later, upon the boat arriving at a port in Cairo, the four of them left the boat and headed towards the streets of the capital.

"Are we really in Egypt?", Bruno said.

"Yes, we're staying there for 4 nights before we head home.", Yara responded.

And so, Yasmina and her friends headed to a nearby hotel to spend the rest of the night.

The next day, after they all checked out of the hotel they were staying at, Imran rented a car for them to drive across the Nile to visit the city of Luxor.

Will Yasmina and her friends somehow manage to spend the next 4 nights in Egypt? Find out next time in the next episode of Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi!

To be continued...

Introducing Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi (formerly Stories from Mayotte)

Remember "The Erasmus Experience" and "One Night in Stockholm"? 

For those who don't remember, these two completely different stories served as prologues to a new project that was originally known as "Stories from Mayotte", which has been in the works for 2 months, since March of this year.

Besides the other projects that I've been working on for a long time, this project, which is now known as "Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi" (meaning "Clear Dawn Stories" in the Swahili language) primarily focuses on a combination of actual true stories originating from my home island of Mayotte and from other countries around the world, and mostly fictional stories based on my own anime-inspired universe. 

However, unlike the ending in One Night in Stockholm, where Yara and her boyfriend Lael will talk about various stories throughout their countryside vacations primarily through oral tradition, "Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi" will focus on the perspective of a new female protagonist named Yasmina, who is the eldest daughter of a family of farmers-turned-teachers. 

Also, here are the descriptions of some of the characters that'll be appearing in "Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi".

1) Yasmina

The eldest daughter of a family of farmers-turned-teachers of mixed Swahili descent, who goes to the same high school as Yara and her friends Bruno and Yatomi. 

Unlike others around her, she is very passionate about the world, art, languages and literature to the point where she's still trying her best to care about the people around her and likes to tell a variety of different stories from various places around the world.

2) Kenan

An university student, who has known his former neighbor Yara since childhood.

Growing up, their parents have known each other, and they had both made a promise to marry and live with each other when they became adults, but sadly, he moved far away to study in Metropolitan France after graduating from high school, and she hasn't seen him since.

2 years later, he moved back to his home island, where he continued his journey as a work-study student and started working a side job as an English teacher online.

Anyways, "Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi" will have a variety of different characters other than Yasmina and Kenan, and will be focused on telling different and relatable stories.

However, before we end our post, I would like to share the good news that I officially got permission to stream on RPLAY after almost 2 years! 

Although it's only a matter of time before the current school year ends in July, I'll continue to update you all from time to time while waiting for the main internet services to be repaired and restored.

That's all I have to say for today, so stay tuned for more information about "Hadithi ya Alfajiri Safi"!

One Night in Stockholm

This story is a sequel to The Erasmus Experience, which is set 2 years after Yara's departure from Denmark after her Erasmus project concluded, serves as a prologue for the new series called Stories from Mayotte, where Yara's dream continues, this time as a 23-year-old illustrator who headed on a 2-month business trip to Sweden, where she reunited with her boyfriend Niels despite her workplace shenanigans and by the end of her business trip, ended things with him due to them not being on the same page and reunited with her actual boyfriend Lael in her dreams, before actually going on a date to the countryside with him, starting the story of "Stories from Mayotte". 

Like The Erasmus Experience, some parts of the story has been edited out to the nature of this blog as well.

September 1st, 2031.

Yara is a 23-year-old illustrator working for a game company in Germany. 

One day, she headed on a business trip to Sweden for a meeting with a client company, where she stayed at a business hotel in Stockholm for the night.

The next day, she was sitting on a bench, working on her laptop, when she heard whistling noises out of nowhere.

“Wait, where is this coming from?”, she said.

She kept to herself for a while, until the guy that made the whistling noises walked and showed up to her.

He tried to flirt with her multiple times, to the point where she repeatedly told him to leave her alone and back off.

Instead of respecting her wishes, he refused and continued to catcall her, only for her to attack him in the face with her right elbow, and soon, Niels and a male bystander showed up to punch him in the face and grab him by the collar.

“Severin, who the hell do you think you are to my girl? Leave her alone!”, Niels said to the man.

“How did you know my name?”, Severin responded.

“I’ve heard your name from the girls, who told me that you’ve been spiking their drinks at a bar. Since you won’t leave her alone, I’ll make sure that you’re already done for.”, the male bystander told him, before Niels taught Severin a lesson by beating him up.

After getting beaten up by him, Severin ran off from the scene crying, but it was already too late for him, as two male bystanders managed to apprehend him until the police came to the scene, while a female bystander recorded everything he did and uploaded the video online.

“You okay, Yara?”, Niels said to her.

“I’m okay Niels, thanks for saving me.”, she responded.

“You’re welcome.”, he replied in return, before sitting next to her and hugging her in the bench.

After they were done hugging each other, she looked at the time on her phone, and it was 2:50 PM, a mere 10 minutes before her scheduled meeting with the client company was about to begin.

“I’m sorry babe, but I don’t have enough time, as I have a meeting scheduled in 10 minutes. See you after work!”, she said, before standing up from the bench and packing her things into a bag.

“Okay. See you after work too, babe.”, he replied, while waving his hands at her.

Eventually, Yara made it to the client’s office for the meeting.

There, she saw the male bystander, who saved her a few minutes prior.

“It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Idahcar. I’m your business partner, Axel.”, the bystander said to her.

“Actually, I’ve seen your art online, and all of them are amazing to the point where my boss likes to see you in person, so she scheduled a meeting with your company that day. Are you ready for the meeting?”, he continued.

“I’m ready, Mr. Axel.”, Yara said.

“Great, now, let’s go to the meeting.”, he replied.

As they arrived in the meeting room, they saw his boss, who turned out to be none other than Tatiana, a 39-year-old entrepreneur, who was more than happy to see her in person.

3 hours later, the meeting was finally over.

After they got out of the meeting room, Axel gave his business card to Yara, thanking her for remaining calm throughout the meeting before they exchanged phone numbers.

She then asks him about what happened to Severin afterwards, to which he told her that after the other bystander posted the video, the guy received immediate backlash and was immediately arrested for his crimes.

Afterwards, they eventually parted ways with each other, and she headed back to the business hotel.

While in her hotel room, she checks on her phone and finds out that she has two months left in Stockholm.

She took this as an opportunity to rent a cheap apartment for the remaining 2 months.

After moving to her new apartment, she held a party at a bar and invited not only her colleagues, but her business partner Axel and her boyfriend Niels to the party.

After the party was over, her colleagues left, except for the three of them.

Upon seeing her sister Machel being unconscious on the table, Yara tells her “Go home Machel, you’re drunk.”

She wakes up, and said “You got me Yara, I was just sleeping!”

“It’s too dangerous for you to stay here, Machel. Let’s get out of here as soon as possible.”, Axel responded, before he left the bar with her.

Now, it was just Yara and Niels at the bar, and soon, they immediately left as well.

Then, they were at her house and while in her bedroom, they saw a photo of them with Joakim outside of the concert hall from 3 years ago, on her laptop.

“Remember that time we went to his concert when we were exchange students in Denmark 3 years prior?”, she said to him.

“Yes, I do remember. It was amazing.”, he replied, before continuing with “By the way, is there anything you want to show me?”

“Yeah, there’s something I want to show you.”, she told him and continued with “Can you give a massage?”

“Okay.”, he said, before giving her a massage and soon, he helped her prepare for an important business meeting in Gothenburg before leaving her house.

The next morning, she got up from her bed and headed to an important business meeting with a business partner in Gothenburg, where things would take a turn for the worse.

However, around the time that she was in a meeting, she was instantly fired from her company despite being one of their best and hardworking employees without any valid reason and had to leave the meeting earlier than expected.

She then immediately ran to the café and sat next to the barista, who had no idea what had happened the whole time.

Her boyfriend Niels showed up at the café, walking and sitting next to her, who was crying at the table in front of the barista himself.

“What’s wrong, Yara?”, he politely asked.

“I just got fired from my company for no reason.”, she answered, before explaining to him about everything.

He got angry and said “That’s horrible. How can they do this to you even though you’re one of their best employees just because of your educational background? You don’t deserve them in any way.”

Upon hearing their conversation, Aleksi, who was working as the barista, was understandably pissed off and gave Yara some advice to sue her employer in Germany for wrongful dismissal, to which she listened to it.

Soon, Ingeborg, an experienced lawyer from Germany, showed up to get her coffee, and after Aleksi told her everything about Yara’s wrongful dismissal, she asked the latter if she can represent her in court, to which she agreed, before the lawyer left the scene.

After drinking their coffee, the couple left the café and headed back to Stockholm, where Lasse, a close friend of Axel, approached Yara with an offer to work for his newly created company, which specialized in art.

Afterwards, she completely forgot about her former company, and 2 weeks later, while working at a nearby café, her former boss Lothar showed up and tried to blackmail her with a forged document, only for her to call the barista and tell her to call the police on him.

The police came over to take Lothar away from the café.

“Thanks for saving my day.”, she said to the barista, before paying for her bills and leaving the café.

“You’re welcome, Ms. Idahcar. Have a great day!”, the barista replied.

1 month later, Yara moved out of her apartment in Stockholm and moved into an apartment in Helsingborg.

4 days later, after she left the mall, Niels walks in and asks her if he can help her out with her groceries, to which she agreed.

Soon, they arrived at her house and after they were done putting everything in place, they were now sitting on her couch.

“Remember when we were a couple 7 years ago?”, he said.

“I do remember, but that was a VR experience.”, she responded.

“Shall we do it in real life then?”, he told her, who nodded yes.

They head to her bedroom, where things are about to take a weird turn.

The next morning, after everything was over, he wakes up to cook some pancakes for the two of them and wakes her up to come eat the pancakes he cooked for them.

After they were done eating the pancakes, they decided to discuss her life after her 2-month business trip.

One month later, Yara resigned from her job at her current company and parted ways with her former colleague Lasse, who was sad to see her go after her business trip had come to an end but wished her all the best in her future endeavors.

Later, she stayed in a hotel room near the airport in Stockholm and ended things with Niels, by parting ways with him due to them not being on the same page after 3 years.

The next day, she headed to the airport, where she saw Lael, who was more than happy to see her for the first time in 6 years.

“Hey, Yara! It’s been a few years since we’ve last met! How’s things going in Sweden?”, he said to her.

“It was great, despite the wrongful dismissal and all of that stuff going on.”, she replied.

“Since you’re leaving, can I get some hugs and kisses from you and join you in your country?”, he politely asked.

She hugged and kissed him before letting go of each other, and soon, they both held hands with each other, and headed to the plane back to Paris.

Upon arriving in Paris, they hopped on a flight south to Marseille, where they met some of her dad’s close friends from school and got in touch with them, before heading back to her home island of Mayotte, where her family welcomed her with open arms.

Soon, Yara and Lael went to the town hall to enter a civil partnership, and moved in with each other to a comfortable home, in which they ended up having two children: Helmi and Topias in 2032 and 2034, respectively, before getting married.

Turns out, it was all a dream the whole time, as Yara woke up in the real world, on her bed in April 2025.

“What was it about, my love?”, her actual boyfriend Lael asked, while sitting next to her bedside.

“It’s about my trip to Sweden, our own life as a couple, not to mention having our own ideal family.”, she answered.

“Ah, I see. Stockholm sounds cool. I’d love to be there with you one day.” he said back. 

“Same as well.”, she said.

“Wait, I have an idea. How about we spend our vacation in the countryside?”, she suggested to him.

“Good idea.”, he said to her.

One week later, on the day of their spring break, Yara and Lael headed to the countryside for a vacation full of farming, picnics and raising livestock.

And so, the story of the countryside vacations of Yara and Lael begins.

Will Yara and Lael manage to have a great time in the countryside? Find out next time in the new series, Stories from Mayotte!

THE END

The Erasmus Experience

 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...

Part 2