iman | hakim ziyech

.8

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'she needs to visit spain first before she can go to the netherlands.' her husband outlined to her mother as the three settled into the living room of iman's house. it had been only a day since their meeting at the well, and hakim had come to finalise the details of their departure.

'why is that?'

'my lawyer looked into the case and with her moroccan passport it's difficult for her to settle in immediately.' iman wasn't even that surprised to hear that he had a lawyer on call, and even if she was she made no effort to look surprised. he was probably like achraf, who also had a lawyer ready and waiting on the phone.

she was serving this damned tea that always needed to be given to the guests, and stood in front of hakim who was facing her mother. he didn't seem to get the memo and before she could let out a small sound that suggested 'can you give me your cup so i can go and sit down?', his cup was already lifted. he wasn't even looking at her as she poured the hot liquid in.

she felt like pouring the tea on him. the audacity. not even a thank you. no courtesy whatsoever. he didn't even acknowledge that she was waiting on him.

he must have heard her the fancy kettle in her hands clatter out of the force she was holding it because he lightly touched her fingers before briefly looking at her with an accompanying nod. as if he was saying thank you.

she took a deep breath in and returned to her seat where her mother smiled warmly at her. she didn't seem to have noticed, and iman wasn't in the mood to exhibit any sort of emotion. she was tired. outrageously tired of all this travel talk.

she wasn't even paying attention to the topic of conversation, which was her, and let out a huff as she realised that she wished manal was here.

manal and her husband had left for madrid before they could go to dortmund. she was supposed to have gone with them, had the big life changing event not had occurred. she felt slightly bad for her mother too, who was supposed to be in spain currently with her sister to enjoy the second event they planned on hosting for the newly weds.

she missed having her around, and decided that she would go visit her neighbours later just to check up on manal's parents.

'iman? where are you lost in thought?' hakim made a point of not saying anything and stare down at his cup as her mother tried to get any word out of her daughter.

'oh.' iman replied, 'i.. i want to go see uncle ilyas. manal asked me to. and then i need to go to the school to collect some marking.' she had missed quite a few days of school, so the excuse was believable.

'you should take hakim with you.' her mother replied as if it was the most wonderful idea to have ever graced her. with gritted teeth, she tried to find a reasonable excuse to go alone. she had already spent too much time with him in awkward silence or discussing the fahed matter. she didn't know if she would be able to last another hour and a half of the same silence.

before she could protest, hakim was already agreeing. she felt like shooting him. why why why?

she didn't hear what he was saying as she was cursing him out internally, but his head was nodding along to whatever new idea his mother had conjured up for them to warm up to one another.

before she even knew it, her tea was forgotten as she left to go get her 'going outside' hijab (a more official one in comparison to her 'at home' one) while hakim said his goodbye to laila abbas. he waited for iman to finish getting ready and left through the door once he saw her coming.

she stepped out the door and shut it close behind her, not expecting him to be standing so close to the door in the first place. she cleared her throat and waited for him to start walking, but he stood still.

'do you not want to go?' she wanted to sound polite, but she was mad at him for agreeing with her mum. she wanted to have alone time and go see her second parents but no, she was forced to go with her.. husband.

he looked up from his phone, looking bored and tired of all the excitement from the past few days.

'i would go if i knew the way.' the realisation dawned on her. how could he know the way to anywhere here, he was the true foreigner.

she didn't bother replying but walked ahead of him, an indication that she wanted him to follow her. she had walked a few steps too far and that's when she heard his footsteps quickening to match her angry pace.

'hey, why are you mad? didn't you want to go out?' even his funny and quite frankly broken arabic didn't make her laugh.

'yeah, but not with you!' he shut his mouth at her tone, and iman realised she was being rude. sure she was getting angrier and angrier at everything that had happened, but she wasn't mad at hakim. he didn't give her a single reason to even slightly upset her, except this one of course.

she sighed defeatedly before stopping in her tracks, urging him to stop too. 'i'm sorry, i didn't mean it in that way. it's just..' she didn't find the words to finish her sentence so she remained quiet.

'it's different. i know.' she looked at the taller man and tried to not look surprised by the tone he spoke in. they hadn't spoken much, and all they had discussed in any meetings was what they were going to do with that bastard, nothing personal.

'it must be hard for you too, suddenly finding your life take a completely different course than what you expected it to.' he was talking wistfully, unknowingly referring to himself. iman's mind immediately wandered to the conversation she had overheard. reem. her name was reem. he was expecting to get married to her.

she felt evil.

she shrugged it all off, as if it was that big of a deal to her. she didn't know if she was being defensive or feeling guilty. she started walking again, going on a detour of the original route to the house literally not that far from where they stood to finish of this conversation.

'i can't say much. i should have been smarter when it came to that hmarr.' she looked away, and then braved herself for her next answer. 'besides, the plan was for me to get engaged after achraf's wedding anyway.'

'anyone in particular?' he didn't seem jealous or all that bothered. he just sounded curious.

iman made an unimpressed face.

'nope. never.' she turned her head to her shoes as she moved the bag of sweets from one hand to another. 'what about you?'

'what about me?'

'were you expecting someone else?'

she didn't know why she asked the question. she already knew the answer was yes. he didn't even hesitate before he spoke, which confused her even more.

'no.' her facial expression didn't betray her, but her mind did go into overdrive. why would he lie to her, and on what basis?

she cleared her throat and didn't press on the issue further, and quickened her steps so she reached the front door of the faez house, which she decided felt emptier without manal's presence inside it.

she looked back to wait for hakim to stand beside her and studied him. if he noticed the change in mood between them, then he certainly didn't comment on it.

this meant he didn't know that she knew.

iman didn't know what to do with that information.

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sooooo sorry for thé late chapter. i got busy and lost focus.
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mwah x