Azaan moved through the hallway, his face impassive as usual. The only thing that was different today was the twitching near his lips. He moved straight towards his destination not paying any attention to anyone.

Knock Knock

“Enter.”

“Assalam o alaikum, big brother.”

Azaan said to the bearded man that sat on the opposite side of the room behind a wooden desk.

“Walaikum assalam, what happened Azaan.”

Moving towards him, Azaan placed an envelope upon the desk. His brother eyed it and asked,

“What is it?”

“Resignation. Allah hafiz.”

He turned and started moving out the door. The twitching bloomed into a smile and the hallways seemed to blur away. He ignored the voice of his brother calling after him, after all, there was no need for second-guessing. His decision was made. He quickly left the exit and headed towards the parking lot. He had parked his car close by today so that he would be able to get away quickly. Soon he was on the road.

In just a few minutes his phone started ringing. He ignored it, the smile still on his face though faded. He felt as if he could taste freedom. No pointless tension, pointless interactions, pointless work, pointless everything. For the first time, he enjoyed the drive, something he had never thought to be possible. The fact that there was still a lack of traffic may have added to his happiness.

As he was driving randomly through the roads he started feeling hungry. Seeing a restaurant nearby he stopped the car. There were only a handful of people inside.

“Asalam mo alikum. One plate of cholay, two parathas, and one tea.”

“Coming up!”

After giving his order at the counter, he went and sat at a table near the entrance. He took in deep breaths, relaxing. His phone was still going crazy from buzzing so much that he considered just turning it off but then decided otherwise. Thankfully the order did not take long and the food took his attention away from the buzzing. He ate slowly, savoring the food. He rarely ate outside so he wanted to fully feel the taste. During this, the buzzing had slowly stopped brightening his mood even further.

Outside the restaurant, the sun was starting to warm up the environment. It was pleasurable, if only it remained so in the summers also. He stood there, facing the sun for a few minutes.

Starting the car, he drove towards his apartment. He had rented it this week when his preparations had been completed, slowly bringing his stuff here. The apartment was located in Islamabad and it took him a lot of hard work to find one that would meet his requirements.

The apartment had a single big room, a kitchen, and most importantly a big bathroom. Lighting and airflow were also quite good even if the price was above the average for this area

After about an hour of driving, he had reached his apartment building. He parked and took out two bags from the car. One had his laptop while the other had some essential things that he required. He entered the building, greeting the guard on the way. His apartment was located on the fifth floor so he took the, thankfully, empty lift. He opened the door and went inside.

The apartment did not have a lot of things in it. There were no walls between the kitchen and the bedroom, so it made the whole area look a lot more spacious. It also caused the sunlight to reach the whole apartment. He had just placed his bags down when his phone started vibrating, and then an alarm sounded.

He dismissed the alarm and checked the time. It was 11 am, and it was now time to start working. It had been a month since he uploaded his third game on the Steam platform. This one had performed a lot better than his first and second game and was the source of income for him currently.

He had always loved games and considering how weak and unhealthy he was as a child, it was the only way for him to pass the time, in addition to the books. He especially loved RPG games and had been trying to make a good one. All three of his games had been RPGs, and fortunately, the latest attempt had been successful enough for him to start being independent.

There had been around 35 thousand downloads for this game and he had already started earning a bit of profit. There had also been a lot of bug reports and it was now time to seriously start fixing them.

He placed his laptop on the table near the window and connected it to the charging port and the ethernet. He powered up the laptop and opened the room window because a light breeze was blowing outside. The wind was cold and caused him to shiver, still, he kept it open.

Sitting on the chair, he started going through the reports. He had already sorted them according to the priority during this month. He had the other members of the team start solving them according to their priority. He was able to solve only minor issues as most of his time was used up in the family business but now that he was also available full time, it would speed up the work.

He coordinated with his team members and they started working upon the fixes. He did not eat lunch so, besides the prayers, he kept working till eight pm.

Today they had been working on the last of the highest priority bugs, and they had fixed it. So today good things kept happening and so they arranged a party. The time was set to be nine pm.

He went to the bathroom for a shower and after changing the clothes, he prayed the isha prayer. After finishing the prayer, he went down the building and towards his parking space. As he was walking in the open, the winds started blowing. He felt as if cold knives were stabbing across his face and quickly brought up his hands. He ran towards his car and quickly entered it, shivering from the cold. Thankfully, there was no rain. He started his car and drove towards the restaurant that they had picked, a shinwari restaurant near the NUST University. During his drive, his phone still rang sometimes but he still did not pick it. He would deal with it after returning from the party.

He arrived at the location that others had shared on Google maps and made a call to the one that had made the arrangement.

"Assalamu alaikum, Arslan I am at the location. Where are you guys?"

"You may be on the opposite side of the location. I will share my location, use it to come."

Arslan replied to Azaan. He was the graphic designer of their team of four.

"Okay, but be quick."

"Cut the call and it will already be there."

Azaan cut the call and opened WhatsApp, waiting for Arslan to share his location. While waiting for the location, he settled the car into neutral gear. He opened his messenger and typed into their group.

Azaan: (Everyone here?)

Imran: (Ya where are u)

Azaan: (Ask him to send the location quick)

Imran: (He just sent it, check ur WhatsApp)

Reading the message, he opened his WhatsApp and found the link was there. He opened the link and followed the marker of Arslan. Soon he was in front of the restaurant. He parked his car and entered the premises of the restaurant.

Azaan: (Here. where are u guys?)

Imran: (i am coming)

Azaan stopped at the entrance of the restaurant. He shivered sometimes even though he had worn warm clothes. Thankfully there was no wind blowing at the movement. As he stood there, shivering, he saw Imran waving towards him and started walking towards him.

“Assalamu alikum, why don’t you just wear full sleeve sweater, hah?”

Imran asked as he saw Azaan shivering.

“Walaikum Assalam.”

Azaan replied, and started walking with him towards others.

“Full sleeves are too constricting, so you booked an indoor table right?”

“Unlike you, we aren’t masochists and don’t enjoy extreme weather that much.”

He punched Imran lightly. Soon they reached the table where the other two people were sitting. All of them were young, mostly in the 25 to 27 years range. All of them were wearing multiple layers of clothing to keep themselves warm as even inside the restaurant, it was cold.

As he reached them, he greeted them all and they started talking about a lot of different topics. Thankfully, none of them asked about his family’s reaction to his sudden resignation for which he was grateful.

It did not take long for dinner to arrive. As the food was served, they started preparing their weapons for the assault. Azaan only focused upon the roasted lamb and the chapli kabab. He did not like the rice that much so he did not have any interest in the Kabuli pulao.

“Ready? 1 2 3 Go!”

As Arslan finished the countdown, they tore into the food while throwing jabs at each other. The food warmed all of them up, so much so that they had to take their sweaters off. After they ate all of the food, a server brought them green tea. The tea was hot so they sipped it slowly.

After the tea was done, they sat there, talking about the condition of the game and discussing any ideas that could make it better. As they were talking, Azaan’s phone started ringing again, he checked the time and it was nearing 10:30.

“Well, I will be returning home then, Allah hafiz.”

“Allah hafiz, do tell us how it goes.”

They chimed in just as he had stood up to leave. After leaving the restaurant, he picked up his phone that was still ringing.

“Assalamu alaikum, mom”

“Azaan where are you and why have you not picked up my call even once?”

“Was eating with friends and am returning to my apartment now. Was thinking how I should say.”

“Why don’t you just return home and we talk about this matter here.”

“No.”

“Your father already knows where you are so come here or should we come to your apartment.”

Hearing that, a sigh escaped Azaan. He stops a bit to think about what to say.

“I won’t be doing the family business, I have no interest in it and it is more of a headache for me. As for talking, I will come this weekend.”

“All of this can be discussed face to face.”

Hearing his mother’s reply, he sighed again.

“No, the first point can’t be discussed. Big brother can handle it and Muhammad has already started learning the ropes. Both of them even like doing it. I don’t. Tell that to father. Allah Faiz mom.”

He then canceled the call and turned his phone silent. Starting the car, he drove towards his apartment. As it was a winter night, the road was empty so it did not take long for him to reach his apartment. He parked his car and went towards his apartment.

Opening the door, he went in, took a shower and changed into nightclothes, and went to sleep. He had just dozed off when he woke up again. His head hurt and he was dizzy. He could not really see clearly. He was just shaking his head to clear it up when he heard a booming voice that caused him to sway.

“Welcome Diver!”