Airon: The Murderous Party

Ch 7. Tama and Nahr

While walking in the university, Tama and Nahr were chatting to get to know one another…

"So, Nahr, after you told me about the origin of your name — which I found to be an amusing story, especially the connection of your name to the river — now I think I ought to tell you about mine, huh?"

"Preferably, yes. Ummm… But if you do not want to tell me, you are not obliged to tell me, of course. I am just a little curious about how and why you got your very cute name."

"Ahhh, you are so polite! And ahhh my name is so cute that people use it to make fun of me thanks to it." Tama pinched Nahr's right cheek. "But ohhhh you are so polite and cuttteeee!"

"Ouch." Nahr rubbed his red cheek.

"Ohoho, oh, sorry. Ahem, look, do not make fun of me. My name means ogre in Japanese but it has a cute meaning."

"Ball."

"A, ahem, yes and-"

"It is a cat's popular name in Japan."

"I was going to say testicles but this is much better. It has different meanings but the one intended is ogre. I will show you here on my phone. Look, this is the symbol used for my name 魂 it means soul but the intended meaning is this one 鬼 pronounced Oni 'ɒnɪ', which means an ogre as I already mentioned. This symbol 鬼 is commonly known to mean a demon, especially in anime. My parents wanted me to be like an ogre with a cute side like a ball game, a fluff ball, you get it."

"Oh, yeah I get it, but nice thinking. Nahr is written like this in Arabic نهر and it can be written with diacritics for more pronunciation accuracy نَهْر." Nahr showed him how his name was written on his phone.

"Fascinating. I like that our parents thought our names through."

"Yes. It is a name I am proud of." Nahr had a proud smile on his face.

"Me too."

"So, what department are you in?"

"Psychology."

"What? Why? I saw Bani with… my roommate. They are in the same department, right?"

"The Cinematography Department yes, but different majors. Bani is writing and A… your roommate is in film directing."

"Then, why are you different from them? I mean, different majors. Do you like psychology, or did you want to be apart from your fiancée because you got bored of being with her all the time?"

"What?! NO, I did not get bored of her. As a matter of fact, I miss her with me. We keep our distance to maintain our love with passion enflamed and kill any possible boredom. But no, this is NEVER the reason."

"Haha, you are just saying that because you are not yet married."

"I understand that you have seen a lot of failed marriages but this does not give you the right to judge how mine will end when you barely know us." Said Tama with a calm smile.

"I, I am sorry, man. I was joking, even though I suspected that it was going to end up like all marriages I know. I am sorry to judge you guys." Nahr was waving his hands and rubbed his nape as a body language gesture of embarrassment.

"No problem. I understand and I apologize for being harsh on you. I just want you to stop generalizing as this is the second time you did it in front of me today, which is the first time we met. I believe you did not mean it and I actually quite like you as a person, so please don't generalize because those who do are mostly bad people."

"It is a bad habit of mine because of my family."

"Family taught us great things and bad things. Now we can sift through what we have been taught and pick what suits us and what is best for us."