Bluven
THE RACE WE NEVER CHOSE
Ire and Fadaka were never supposed to become rivals.
They were friends before they understood what competition meant-two boys growing up side by side, sharing classrooms, football fields, family memories, and dreams beneath the branches of an old mango tree.
Then came the comparisons.
One result.
One ranking.
One innocent question:
**"Why can't you be more like him?"**
What begins as encouragement slowly becomes a race neither boy remembers choosing.
As childhood gives way to ambition and the world around them grows bigger, Ire and Fadaka must discover who they are beyond grades, expectations, success-and each other.
Because sometimes the person standing beside you isn't your competition.
Sometimes they're simply running a different race.
And sometimes...
**the hardest race to escape is the one someone else convinced you that you were losing.**
*The Race We Never Chose* is an emotional coming-of-age story about friendship, family, comparison, ambition, identity, and the invisible pressure of never feeling like enough.