This is a passion work. So, I would really appreciate it if you leave behind a review when you're done reading.
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CH6: STUPID IN LOVE
The Next Day…
Korede Balogun woke up early today, as early as 4:30 am. Perhaps due to his anticipation, he was not plagued by the usual dreams/nightmares that have haunted him for a while now. He got off his bed and performed his routine exercises and then took a longer than usual bath. After which, he did a last-minute check on the bag he was taking with him to confirm that he hadn't forgotten anything. By the time he was done with this, it was time for the morning prayer and he went to observe his solat. The Baloguns are Muslims[1].
When he got back from the mosque, he found his mother, Shade Balogun, preparing their breakfast. He walked to the Kitchen and greeted her. "Good Morning ma."
Shade turned back when she heard his voice. However before she could respond, a little silhouette jumped into Korede's embrace and a childish voice was heard.
"Good morning Uncle K." the voice said.
Surprised, he looked at the figure in his embrace and found out it was a seven years old boy. The boy is Kola's son and hence Korede's nephew, Dare Balogun.
"Good morning, little fella." Korede said rubbing his chin on the boy's cheeks. Korede had small stubs of hair on his chin that tickled the boy causing him to laugh and push Korede's face away.
"When did you get here?" Korede asked
"Yesterday night. I wanted to play but Grandma said you needed to sleep and I should not disturb you" Dare answered.
Korede showed an asking expression to his mother.
"Your brother brought him here yesterday night. He said he and Anu are going to be busy for a while so he brought him here. He seemed really busy since he left almost immediately after dropping Dare off." Shade said. As if recalling something, she continued, "Oh, You had already gone to sleep so he decided not to disturb you. He said to tell you he'll be seeing you soon."
'Seems he is busy because of the recruits joining the Eagle squad.' Korede thought.
Anu, mentioned by Shade, was Kola's wife and Dare's mother. Their relationship was a complex one. They had an extreme closed-door marriage. Hardly anyone outside of family knew the two were married much less having a child between them. Although Kola didn't go into details, according to the explanation he gave their parents, both he and Anu are colleagues in the same section of the army.
While such a union between colleagues in the same section is not against the rules, it is frowned upon especially at officer[2] levels where both Kola and Anu were at. Although this might not have much impact on Kola, there's a strong possibility the impact on Anu would be large.
In as much as it was denied, women like Major Anuoluwa Aliu have a tougher time rising the ranks in the military than their male counterparts as the majority believe that the military is 'a man's world' and women should have no place there. Therefore, any 'misconduct', no matter how small, is used to disqualify them. So, it goes to reason that an ambitious woman such as Anu would not want her 'taboo' relationship with Colonel Kola Balogun to become public knowledge.
Once upon a time, Korede asked the couple why they got in a relationship in the first place if it was going to be this messy. Their response was so cliché that Korede had to roll his eyes at them.
"We were too far in love by the time we found out." the couple said as they laughed. They eventually told Korede the whole story causing Korede to be speechless. He wondered if it was true that smart people, like the couple in front of him, become stupid in love or it was just fate.
The story goes like this. Kola and Anu were off duty and both of them decide to take and break and take a tour around Calabar, Cross River State where they were stationed at the time. The two first met at a mini carnival. You know how it goes, they bought wanted to buy the same thing, which happened to be the last one available, and they had both reached for it at the same time. Kola was the first to touch it but, trying to act gentlemanly, decided to leave it to Anu. To his surprise though, the woman insisted that she wasn't going to buy it again since Kola touched it first and 'first come, first served'. The woman left resolutely and Kola had no choice but to buy it. He wanted it anyway. He was, however, intrigued by the woman's actions. By the time he was done buying the souvenir for his brother and went to look for the woman, she had disappeared into the crowd watching the mini carnival. Luck was on his side, however, as he met the woman later that evening.
The locals had recommended a restaurant to him as a must-visit when in the capital city of Cross River State, Calabar. On arriving at the restaurant, Kola noticed the woman from this afternoon and walked up to her. After politely asking to sit with her, which she accepted to after some thought and with some effort on kola's part, they got talking and realised they enjoyed conversing with each other. They didn't even notice the time until their food was brought to them. After the two once again competed over who to pay, which Kola won thanks to the waiter feeling it was more reasonable for the man to pay, they exchanged contacts and agreed to meet up the next day. It was then they knew each other's names, Anuoluwa Aliu and Kola Balogun.
Day after day, the couple could be seen touring the hot spots in Calabar and, as you might have guessed, love grew between them. Eventually, all things must come to an end, the couple had spent their two weeks leave together and had to return to duty. It was on the final day that the two realised that they were both servicemen. However, due to both of them being members of special forces, they did not tell each other what part of the army they worked in but gave their cover positions.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the couple's cover positions didn't intersect and so there was no rule, spoken or unspoken, that disapproved of them being together. The couple dated for the next four years. The only problem was that due to the nature of their jobs, they didn't meet each other much during this period of time but they were able to make their relationship work as a result of their understanding and chemistry with one another. They both introduced each other to their respective families and were accepted. The couple shared a similar trait. They both didn't have many close friends and were mostly around family. They eventually decided to get married but this was when trouble came knocking.
As the saying goes, 'No secret remains secret forever.' The mutual deception between the two was exposed when they were both involved in a highly classified mission called 'Operation SlyWolf'. Anu was revealed to be part of Army Intelligence while Kola was an Elite Eagle's squad operative. Although the couple didn't reveal what Operation SlyWolf was about, they mentioned that when they found out their partner's true identity, they both considered breaking off the relationship. However, events during the mission brought the two together more than ever before. Hence, the beginning of their current complicated relationship. Luckily, they both didn't keep many friends hence they were able to have an incredibly below-radar wedding. They even went the extra mile to make sure their marriage certificate was well hidden and almost nobody could find out about their union.
'I have always wondered how an intelligence officer with her intelligence and a special forces operative didn't think of looking into the person they were involved with before the relationship became serious in order to avoid any issue. While I can't speak for sister Anu's past conduct, what I have seen about her since I've met her tells me she isn't one to make such an oversight. Big bro also goes without saying. Then how could such an event have happened? Were they stupid in love? Or was it 'Fate'? and what happened during Operation SlyWolf that could've brought them together again.' Korede thought as his thoughts flew widely. He eventually shook his head and concluded that it's probably one of those things you would only understand if you experience it yourself.
Dare, seeing that the adults had suddenly grown quiet, said excitedly "Uncle K, let's go play."
"Sorry little fella, not today. Uncle has somewhere important to go for a while. Maybe when I come back." Korede replied, causing the little boy to become sad. Seeing this, Korede once again rubbed his short beards on this boy's cheeks while tickling him. The boy started laughing and tried to escape from Korede's embrace to no avail. Seeing the boy's mood had improved, Korede placed him down and rubbed the boy's head with his hand.
"Don't worry, I will bring you a gift when I come back and we can play for the whole day," Korede said exaggeratedly. When Dare heard the words 'gift' and 'play', he excitedly nodded his head.
"Alright, come on. Come help me set the table." Shade said, beckoning Dare. She turned to Korede, "You better go prepare. And be quick if you don't want to be late because I'm not letting you leave this house without eating breakfast."
Korede chuckled and walked to his room.
[A.N: Please, don't forget to leave to leave a review of the work to encourage me. Your opinion really matters to me.]
AUTHOR'S NOTES
1. 'The Baloguns' will be used to refer to the nuclear family being mentioned while 'the Balogun Family' will be used for the greater extended family.
2. Nigerian Army, Navy, Air force are divided into enlisted and commissioned officers. For example, using army ranks, Enlisted ranged from recruits or privates(and its equivalents) to warrant officer rank. Commissioned officers ranged from second lieutenant to field marshal rank.
[A.N: Please, don't forget to leave to leave a review of the work to encourage me. Your opinion really matters to me.]