2.

ZAYN

KHATTAB

BORKAN.

Lying down on his bed, thinking about everything and nothing. After a long week, he finally has time to warm his bed. He has been expanding their family business this whole week to even find time for his room. His father decided to pass the business down to him a month back. His father thought he wasn't fit enough to have the business at the age of twenty nine, but something miraculously changed his mind. Not that he isn't good with his work, he knew he was great. He manage to spoil all his chances to get the company when he made a catastrophic decision. He was so blinded in retribution that he didn't lay much attention to his future. It was qualmish. It was almost too late when he manage to eviscerate his life from the caustic depth of nothingness.

For four years, he worked as an employee in his own father's company and it didn't bother him. He was really happy with what he had back then. And his father didn't -for a slightest bit- differentiate him from the other employees. He scold him just as he would do to them, he made him work hard just as every other employee. He likes it like that, his father is always just even among his own children.

"Ya Zayn, Baba asked for you. He is waiting for you in his living room." His younger sister -Maaysa, said after knocking a few times and he mumble a silent come in.

"Wait let's go together. Let me just change." He ordered before walking into his closet to change. He immediately wrap himself in sweats before walking out of the closet. "Let's go!"

"You're being grumpy again." Maaysa whined as she graciously walk down the hallway.

Zayn always tease her that she walks like her name. No matter how many times he'd tease her with his elder sister, she always walks that way. At first, they thought it was her teenage time, changing her walk but then found out it was very natural. He loves her to death but she always thought of him as a grumpy person which he turned into some few years back. Everything was going the wrong way then and he didn't know he was also following the wrong way. He was a wasp just a few years back!

"I'm not! You just want to call me grumpy and you did." He playfully glare at her and soon they're put of his side, falling into a longer hallway.

When he was twenty, he was never like this with his sister -sisters- he never has time for his family. He went to abroad to study and from that moment, he has changed his way of living, hence, the catastrophic decisions. Just a year ago, he manage to pitch away from his formless state.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night. Baba is talking about your wedding, I think." She hypocritically whisper in his ear after much tiptoeing -she still didn't reach his ear.

"Oh really! That's nice. It's been long since he last talked about it. I think he's with the bride this time around." He chuckled at his own words and his sister join in. They knew their father quite enough.

He'd give you a hint, and when you don't take that hint, he'll make sure everything turns out his way. Like the time when he ask Zayn to come and see his office if he'll like it there, Zayn didn't bother going and his father forced him to start working under him. He loves them but likes being the master. The head of the house is -Father and he will never forget those words. He says it almost everyday.

"True!" Maaysa laughed a bit before they both say taslim in their father's living room where all the family members are, sitting on the huge plush black couches.

"Good Afternoon, Baba." Zayn greeted, slightly squating down in front of the old man who is his father, before standing up to greet his mother with a kiss on the cheek and did the same to his other sisters. He didn't even know when they arrived.

"Afternoon! We're all gathered here, I'll just do the talking, your mother won't do it anyway." As if she'll do it even if he didn't want to, Zayn thought with a chuckle. Their father is very weird. "We've found a suitable bride for you, Zayn. I want you to go and meet her with your mother. Come back and tell me what you think." He continued -Alhaji Khattab Borkan.

Alhaji Khattab Borkan is an Indian man. He got married to his wife when he came Nigeria to start business. He was very poor and she was rich, her parents didn't think twice before giving him her hand in marriage. With time and support from her family, he started business and slowly but surely, he became very rich and well known. His father is from India and his mother is from Pakistan. He made sure to visit them every now and then and they also come to visit -when there is any important celebration going on, like weddings and naming ceremonies. And sometimes, the whole family will go there and spend sometime with them.

His features, accent, behaviour is very Indian and so are his children's.

Zayn always looks at his father like a titan standing in front of him. He has gone through a lot to find everything for them, he made sure they never lacked a thing even when they were younger and he was not very rich.

"Okay, Baba. I'll go, but when should we?" He asked obediently, "I mean, go?" He added when his father gave him a look of bewilderment.

"Tomorrow, Insha'Allah." His father answered before yawing his gaze to his wife to answer the question she asked.

"Finally, my baby brother is getting married!" His only older sister -Kaadira- mumble next to him.

"Stop calling me that. And I'm getting married, we won't want to hear my children calling me baby brother, would we?" He grumble out. He doesn't like the name one bit, but his sister is not getting it.

Kaadira is a successful makeup artist. She's very well known around Nigeria and everyone talk about her and her skills. She has a very large school for teaching makeup. She is married with two children -Khatija and Munib- Khatija is a girl and Munib is a boy,  Khatija is seven years old and Munib is five. Their mother is thirty years old which means she's one year older than Zayn.

"She's only older than you with a year! Don't let her rule you like this." His other younger sister -Naazwa whisper in his ear from the other side of him. They like putting him in between, whenever they want to fight.

Naazwa is also married with a baby boy -Mudassir, three years old- she is also pregnant, two months long. She is a great business woman. She sells whatever it is that women wear to look beautiful, be it wrappers, jewelries, shoes, bags and so on. They are all married in the same state as them which is why he always see them in their house unexpectedly. She's twenty five years old.

Their father once asked them why they went to university if they were going to become businesswomen. He said they wasted his money for nothing and they just laughed before playing the destiny card. 'That's what Allah has planned for us all along. No one can change that, now can we?' They'd mock him. He'll grumble under his breath and then change the topic.

"You girls should fight but I'm not going to say anything!" He raised his hands in surrender. They both pouted before Maaysa's huge body wipe off the pouts.

She threw herself at them, hopefully, Zayn saw that coming since she always does that whenever they talk without calling her. She wants attention and they don't give her one, so she'd follow the worst way and get it by force.

"What in heaven is wrong with you?!" The hotheaded Kaadira glare at her younger sister, anger marring her features.

"Attention," one word and they all laughed, including her parents. The way she stands is something to laugh at -her hands on her waste, face contorted into one of those ugly orangutans as Zayn likes to call it.

"You're incorrigible!" Naazwa rolled her eyes at her before slumping on the couch, then idea popped into her head. "My stomach...uh-" she made sure her face looks like she's in anguish.

"Wha- what's wrong with you?" The question came from her mother -Hajiya Rehma. She immediately stood up from her place, next to her husband.

Zayn already knows how dramatic his sisters can be so he didn't even move from his place as the commotion starts. His parents should've known this also.

"Zayn, do something! She's in pain." Maaysa was really afraid, she knows that if anything happen to her sister, it's her fault and no one else's.

"You better stop pretending, Azwa." He rolled his eyes at them when they threw a quelling look at him.

"Ugh, you're no fun, Zay." She pouted, coming out of her anguish bubble.

"You should stop playing this prank with pregnancy Naazwa. You almost gave me a heart attack there." Their father scolded, standing up and sauntering into his room which was adjoined to the living room.

Their mother threw her a glare before following her husband to their room. Both the children and father are dramatic, it seems like they're all carrying most of his genes. From his hair, features and behaviour.

"You always ruin my plan, you're a party popper." Naazwa glare at him, he merely shrug one shoulder before standing up.

"Go back to your husbands' house. I don't like seeing you here, go to your children! And Maaysa, we're going wherever it is we're going tomorrow with you. Be ready. You know how much I hate tardiness." He mumble the tardiness with utter venom before disappearing from the living room. Ha hates tardiness and that'll never change.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day!