THE LOVE OF LOVE, AZZAHRA

PROXIMITY

The dawn prayer rang out, breaking the cold silence of the dawn sky. Zahra blinked her eyes and looked at the quiet room. He twisted his brain to remember what happened until he ended up in the sickbed, but just about to string together the pieces of his memory, the sound of someone opening the door distracted him.

Habibi came out of the bathroom in Zahra's nursery with wet hair and face. The man had just taken ablution to perform his morning prayer and just after he opened the bathroom door, he was presented with the appearance of the lover of the heart that had been awakened.

Zahra stared fixedly at Habibi who had just come out of the bathroom. With wet hair and face after ablution, Habibi looked so handsome and charming, Zahra even forgot if the man was not his mahram until the gaze was so fixed.

"Habibi" said Zahra in a very slow, almost inaudible voice.

His eyes turned soft. He turned his face away, feeling unable to see the man any longer. Hafiz's shadow suddenly popped into his mind with the same appearance every time, making his heart flinch again.

Zahra tried to neutralize her heartbeat while holding back strongly so that no clear liquid came out of her eyes. It's nothing that he became like that, the article has just Zahra dreamed of the figure of Hafiz. The person she misses all the time.

"Wake up, Zah?" habibi asked as he stepped closer to the gurney.

"Hmmm.. Since when are you here? Isn't it too early to visit a patient?" zahra said without looking at Habibi.

Habibi was stunned to hear Zahra's words. He stopped walking, there was something stuck in his heart. Did she forget who helped her? did he not know that as long as he was unconscious, Habibi was the one guarding him? The man took his breath a bit deep to neutralize the tightness in his heart.

"Thank you for saving me" said Zahra slowly, reflexively making Habibi turn his eyes back to the woman.

Habibi moved his feet closer to Zahra and sat on the edge of the bed, facing the woman.

"Stop acting like that" Habibi said with a netra staring into Zahra's black bead.

Zahra frowned, not understanding the meaning of the words of the man who was now sitting close to her.

"Sir.. "

"Habibi" Habibi interrupted Zahra's speech.

Zahra gulped her saliva while looking down.

"Zahra." call Habibi soft.

Zahra flinched, still bowing her head before Habibi.

"Don't do it again! You almost killed me for worrying too much about you" said Habibi, successfully making Zahra lift her head.

"You?"

"You know, nothing scares me but Allah and your loss" Habibi said.

Zahra's eyes began to glaze over. He could see that honesty from Habibi's eyes.

"From now on, I won't stop you from crying anymore. Cry as you please, but promise me that you will only cry in front of me. I am enough to see and feel it. It is enough of me to bear all the burdens you feel, no more holding them, no more hiding them from me. Seeing you lying there with no desire to continue your life hurts more than seeing you marry another man."

Zahra's tears began to drip, there was a longing that wanted to be channeled after a long time of soaking.

"Why do you always look like her? Why do you do what he always does? Don't you know, this longing always stifles my chest." Zahra hit her chest softly.

"Really, Zahra misses you so much Habibi." Zahra covered her face while sobbing.

Habibi's heart is breaking. There was the same pain he felt in his heart. There was the same longing he felt in his heart. But, can what they feel fuse into one, in the bond that it should be? Habibi took a deep breath and raised his hand to rub the top of Zahra's head.

"I know, because I feel the same way, Zahra. I miss you, I miss you so much" Habibi said.

There is a desire to touch and hold Zahra's body, but all are confined when he realizes that he is no one to the woman. He had no right to calm her down more than sedative words.

Habibi turned his attention in the other direction until his neutrality for a while focused on the round object attached to the wall.

"Astaghfirullah." murmured Habibi slowly.

"Zah, dawn is almost over. Let's pray first" Habibi said.

Zahra dropped the hand that covered her face haphazardly after a great cry. His net also stared at the round object Habibi had previously seen.

"Astaghfirullah." he wrote.

"Can you get the nurse here? zahra's feet were a bit stiff to move," Zahra pinta told Habibi.

Habibi was silent for a moment with his eyes staring at Zahra's legs which were still wrapped in blankets.

"Wait a minute, I'll call you first" said Habibi, who was hailed by Zahra.

"Habibi." call Zahra when Habibi is at the door. The man turned his body towards Zahra.

"Yes?"

"You're praying here, right?" zahra asked slowly as if held back.

Habibi smiled faintly.

"If you don't like it, I can pray in mushala,"

Zahra nodded slowly.

"Then?"

"Zahra wants to hear your Qur'an reading" Zahra said, looking down in shame.

Habibi smiled at him.

"Tell me what Surah you want to hear, after the prayer I read. Yeah, I'll call the nurse for a minute."

* * * *

"Have you decided, what surah do you want to hear for me to read?" ask Habibi.

"Are you a Qur'an memorizer?" Instead of answering Habibi's question, Zahra asked.

Habibi looked at Zahra for a moment and then lowered his head, staring at the object in his hand.

"Do you want to test me?"

Zahra shook her head even though Habibi did not see her.

"Random Surah An Naba' for me" said Zahra.

Habibi looked up at his beloved woman.

"Is there any particular reason why you asked me to read that surah'?"

Zahra stared at Habibi's black bead.

"The first letter I heard from Hafiz's lips, 12 years ago. The first Surah that managed to shake my heart, which amazed me and fell in love for the first time in a man," Zahra explained with a bright look back on the incident 12 years ago.

Habibi was stunned to hear it. The grip on the holy object in his hand was getting stronger. He stared at Zahra's face, staring at her blankly.

"Can you read it to me?" zahra said with the same gaze.

Habibi sighed for a moment and then nodded. Without opening the Qur'an in his hand, the man began chanting his reading with his eyes closed.

Zahra smiled bitterly at the soft and melodious groove of Habibi's lips. Verse by verse that was chanted so full of feelings, as if the man was channeling a sense of restrained all this time in his heart.

Zahra closed her eyes, she twisted the memory in her brain to go back to that time. Feel all the flavors that pop after all this time. The voice shook his heart, just like the first time he heard it. The way Habibi recited it, pausing each verse to take a breath, even the uniform that the man used was not one bit different from her husband. Hafiz's figure looked real in Zahra's eyes at the moment. Slowly the woman smiled in tears dripping down her cheeks.

* * * * *

The sun began to creep up, its rays began to slip through the glass window on the side of the room, where Zahra was treated. Even the warmth he emitted was unable to rival the warmth of the hearts of the two people who had endlessly thrown a smile earlier. Habibi and Zahra.

"Until when are you here? don't you have to work?" zahra said to Habibi.

"You kicked me out?" Zahra shook her head while smiling.

"Then?"

"Just ask," said Zahra.

"I'll leave after the doctor checks on you, while waiting for someone who will take care of you" explained Habibi who is now focusing on his phone after getting an incoming message.

Zahra pursed her lips when she found Habibi busy with her phone.

"I'm not sick, I don't need to be checked or guarded. I want to go home and work as usual" Zahra debated.

Habibi rolled his eyeballs. Anxious to see the attitude of Zahra who is now starting to differ. The woman looked more cheerful and chatty, other than usual.

"Your physics is fine, but not your psychic, Zah. You need mentoring, you need surveillance and guarding."

"I'm not crazy,"

"Whose you say you're crazy? You're now in a deep depression, Zah. It needs special handling, so stop saying it's okay."

"Abibi.. "

"I don't want the same thing to happen again, Zah. You've scared me." Zahra was silent, turning her face away.

"Zahra?"

"Hmmm.. "

"Sorry."

Instantly Zahra turned her head, staring at Habibi.

"For?"

"It makes you uncomfortable" Habibi said with an unpleasant face.

"Thank you,"

"For?" It was Habibi's turn to ask.

"Have cared about Zahra" said Zahra with her head lowered.

"May I say something?"

Zahra raised her head with a frown, then nodded her ass.

"I love you, Zahra," I'm Habibi.

Zahra gasped at hearing that. The blood in his body seemed to stop flowing, his heart was pumping incoherently, and his breath seemed to be stuck in the throat. Although he could see the radiance from Habibi's eyes, he did not expect that the man would say it directly.

No different from Zahra, someone behind the door of Zahra's nursery also gasped with the body that is now sculpting.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

AS THIS INFO IS THE FINAL PART THAT AUTHOR UP HERE, THE REST WILL BE AUTHOR UP IN ANOTHER APP (WATTP4D) WITH THE SAME TITLE UNTIL THE NOVEL IS FINISHED. SO SORRY IF THIS NOVEL DOESN'T CONTINUE HERE.🙏🙏🙏