Celline made sure, trying to repeat Nazma's words just now, "Salmon?"
"Are you serious, Naz? Why would you call him..." She burst into laughter.
A smile crept onto Nazma's face, "It's not his real name, Celline!" Nazma held back a small laugh. "It's a nickname. From when we were kids."
Hearing that explanation, Celline finally doubled over in laughter. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably. "Oh my god, Naz! I thought it was his actual name!" she hissed between gasps.
"He's not a fish," Nazma insisted, her face still bright with laughter. "He once fell into a fish pond back in elementary school, so the other kids started calling him Salmon. It just stuck."
Nazma drifted into a daydream for a moment. Her mind wandered, imagining the Salmon she knew.
She pictured a salmon. Its body was a shimmering silver laced with a vibrant orange glow, swimming with incredible strength against the current in a crystal-clear river. Its scales caught the sunlight from the water's surface, creating a beautiful gradient of color—as soft and warm as the hue of fresh salmon meat when just sliced. The fish looked free, tenacious, and alive in its own pure world.
Actually, Nazma's brain was just over-embellishing her imagination about a fish and Simon.
Back to reality.
Celline finally caught her breath, wiping the corners of her eyes. "Goodness, Naz. You really are one of a kind, even the guy you like comes with a backstory. But seriously, does he know you like him?"
Nazma shook her head slowly, her smile turning wistful. "He knows. He's the one who liked me first."
Celline, who had been busy wiping away her tears of laughter, suddenly froze. Her hand holding the tissue stopped dead in mid-air.
The "serious" question that started as a joke had just triggered an answer much deeper than she expected.
"Wait, wait..." Celline lowered her voice, whispering intensely this time. "He liked you first? And you know that? Then why did you say you're just 'guarding your feelings'? Doesn't that mean you two are... something?"
Nazma nodded.
Celline was stunned, "So you've been in this long-distance limbo without a clear status? Just purely banking on the words of an elementary schooler?"
"It's not just words, Cel. I just believe that if he is a Salmon, he will eventually swim back to where he belongs. To me."
Celline was speechless. She let go of Nazma's arm, as if those words carried a weight that forced her to step back just to process them.
"He said, if it's meant to be, we'll find our way back to each other," Nazma repeated quietly. Her voice was firm.
Celline let out a long sigh, staring at Nazma with a look that was hard to place.
"Naz, that's the most cliché thing I've ever heard. But why is it that when you say it, it sounds like a death sentence for any other guy trying to get close to you?"
Nazma only offered a thin smile. She believed it.
Celline shook her head, trying to shake off the melancholy air that was starting to close in on them. "I don't know whether to call you loyal or just plain stupid, Naz. But if that 'Fish' actually comes back and he's not as cool as you've imagined... I'll be the first one to laugh in your face."
"I know," Nazma replied shortly, a small laugh resurfacing, if only for a second.
"So," Celline leaned in again, her voice back to interrogation mode but softer. "When was the last time you two actually talked?"
Celline narrowed her eyes, as if she were crunching numbers in her head.
"Often," she answered briefly.
"Who's older, you or him?"
"Me."
Celline's eyes nearly popped out. She threw herself back against her chair, folding her arms with an incredibly judgmental look.
"He's younger?" Celline shook her head vigorously, as if trying to physically eject the idea. "Forget him, Naz. Drop him right now. Find someone older!"
Nazma was taken aback, "Why does it even matter if he's younger?"
"Oh, Nazma dear..." Celline leaned forward again, her voice dropping into a 'big sister' lecture tone.
"Younger guys are usually half-baked. Their heads are still in the clouds. You need someone who can lead, someone mature, someone whose protection feels real. Not someone who leaves you hanging for months on nothing but 'destiny'!"
Nazma went quiet. She didn't even know how to argue back.
"Listen to me," Celline whispered, more serious this time. "The future is real, Naz.
Don't waste your time guarding the heart of a little kid who's probably out playing with his friends right now, while you're stuck here waiting for fate like waiting for rain in a drought."