The Hot Guy

Here's Story 2 from my umrah stories. The story is not about the former professional rugby player, Sonny Bill Williams (featured in the image). The image used is because Sonny had performed the umrah, and he is hot (because of his character too).

Story 2: The Hot Guy

Not many people knew that when I went on the umrah, my famous filmmaker-cum-Malay-commando friend, Sanif Olek, was also in the same umrah group. We didn't post any photos of us in Makkah as we didn't want unwarranted gossips. Both of us had made plans (separately) to be in Makkah during the holy month of Ramadan. We later found out about each other's plans and that we had wanted to go with Halijah Travels (my entire family went on the haj with them, and Sanif went with them when he filmed in Saudi Arabia). 

Anyway, some of the people in the group thought that Sanif and I were dating (we had separate hotel rooms so that ruled out us being married). One of the guys in the group cheekily commented how Sanif and I had the same camera lens, and how we often talked in the hotel lobby, in the bus). Sanif told the guy to address me as 'Kak' (Sister) instead of my name, causing him to think that we were indeed a couple. But of course, our body language spoke otherwise and the women in the group knew that we weren't seeing each other. I remembered the day we climbed Jabal Rahmah or Mountain of Mercy (Mount Arafat is the place where Adam and Eve reunited on Earth after falling from Heaven). Sanif told us that he would make doa to get a spouse like Scarlett Johansson. Me? Although I had an idea of a potential spouse, the disillusioned me had decided to let God be my matchmaker.

After performing the umrah rites, some of the aunties in the group sat down and chatted. I was feeling so thirsty and dehydrated but had to wait until the evening to break fast. The aunties teased me and told me to make doa in the mosque about finding a husband. I smiled. Unknown to them, I had shamelessly prepared a three-page prayer list. After all, God told us to ask Him anything in His House and He would grant our prayers. Suddenly, a tall, lean guy with chiselled face and dark auburn hair walked towards me. He was laughing and talking to this other guy (could be a family member). They spoke with an American accent. The tall guy was hot! To think that he was performing umrah in Ramadan, even hotter! I turned to the aunties and said that I just saw a hot guy who could possibly be my type. Those 50s to 60s year-old aunties got so excited and urged me to run after the hot guy.

"Quick! Run after the guy. Who knows, he could be your jodoh (fated to be your soulmate)."
"This is Makkah, not the streets of Paris... I am here to pray and not to chase men in the mosque compound." I said smilingly.

"But you need to put in effort. Don't regret later. Come, I go with you..." said Aunty Z.

I told the overly-enthusiastic aunties (what my late mother would have told them), "I'm going to face the kaabah and make doa, ok? If the guy is destined to meet me, we will meet again. Despite the thousands of people here, if Allah decrees for us to meet, we will find each other. Besides, I'm wearing a red headscarf, surely he would have noticed me amidst the many sombre-coloured headscarves, right?"

I did not meet that hot guy. I guess, we were never meant to meet.

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ps. In my Korean-drama script, I had imagined how my main couple found each other again in front of the kaabah, after their first meeting at Starbucks outside Harvard Medical School. Now, that would indeed be romantic.