The sun filtered gently through the tall cashew trees lining the university walkway. Laughter echoed from nearby lecture halls, and students buzzed about with bags slung over shoulders and dreams nestled in notebooks.
Among them walked Idris tall, soft-spoken final-year student with deep eyes and a quiet determination.
And just a few steps ahead, with her signature bounce and shining eyes, was Bela, the girl who once made his world spin.
They were the couple people whispered about. Idris was focused, intelligent, and humble, while Bela sparkled with charm and allure. They were opposites like dusk and dawn but somehow, their stars had aligned in the early days of their relationship. He brought balance to her chaos, and she added color to his discipline.
But things had changed.
It started with little shifts. Bela stopped waiting for Idris after lectures. She ignored his calls during late-night study breaks. She no longer asked how his day went. And she started dressing up more often and attractive but not for him.
Idris tried to ignore the signs. He believed love could withstand seasons of change. Until that rainy Thursday.
He had gone to her hostel with a surprise,
her favorite suya and a love note he'd scribbled between lectures. The gate to her compound was open, the rain drizzling softly. He climbed the stairs to her room, heart light.
The door was ajar. Laughter echoed from inside.
And then he saw it.
Bela. In another man's arms. Half-naked Giggling, their bodies pressed closer to each other in a way no explanation could soften.
For a moment, Idris stood still, not from shock, but from a wave of emotions colliding disbelief, humiliation, betrayal, and a silent rage that boiled behind his eyes.
Bela didn't even flinch when she saw him.
"Oh," she said flatly, "what are you doing here?"
Idris blinked. His words got stuck somewhere between his throat and his chest.
"I brought... suya," he muttered, holding the soggy nylon bag like a joke in his hand.
The man she was with snickered and pulled on his shirt from the bed to his body.
Bela crossed her arms, eyeing Idris like he was the one caught cheating.
"You need to grow up, Idris," she said, stepping closer, voice dripping with scorn. "You think love is enough? I need more than kind words and dreams. I need a man who can spend on me, a man who can show up in a car, not on foot with food in a nylon bag, i had dreams you know?."
"You Idris choked, "We've been through everything together…"
"No. You went through everything," she said coldly. "I was just there."
He dropped the bag by her door.
It fell with a wet thud, soaking in the puddle gathering beneath the leaking corridor roof.
Idris turned and walked away. Not a word more. He didn't look back, not even when the thunder cracked above him like a warning from the sky itself.
The following weeks were shadows,
He avoided their mutual friends, he buried himself in his final-year project, he even changed his route to class just to avoid crossing paths with her.
Bela didn't apologize, In fact, she never spoke to him again, To her, their matter was done like snapping off a dried twig, Idris became invisible.
But pain has a strange way of becoming fuel.
He graduated top of his department, despite the emotional wreckage, he packed up his broken pieces and promised himself one thing:
"Someday, I'll become everything she thought I couldn't be and more."
And as he boarded the bus for NYSC camp months later, he looked out at the fading university gates, no longer with regret, but with quiet resolve.
He didn't know it yet, but destiny was already setting the next stage.