one year, mapped
A stranger sent you research material on a Sunday afternoon. This is everything that happened because you replied.
scroll. the line draws itself, like everything else did.
the day itself
It was not cinematic. It was a chair who had kicked your POO out the window trying to make up for it with jus ad bellum, and then getting carried away for nine hours. Here is the evening, in your words and mine.
Clausula rebus sic stantibus, Jus ad bellum, Jus in bello, Opinio juris...
Every message above is real, timestamps included. I stand by 11:56 pm. I would add a few things now.
the route
Twenty nine stops. Not every one of them was a good day. All of them are on the map because they got us here.
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a stranger says hello, with attachments
We had never spoken. You were a delegate at Reva, I was the chair who didn't accept your additional documents because I was sleepy and wanted to go home. I went back to that committee, found the piece of paper with your name on it, and sent an Instagram request. When you accepted I panicked and sent you every MUN note on my phone.
By midnight I knew your favourite animal, your three colours, the hobby you want most, your biggest dream, and your number one book. You knew that I like watches, F1, and yapping.
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a spotify blend
Day two. I needed to know what a person who watches Turkish dramas listens to. You said you'd make me a playlist of all your favourites. Five days later you sent three.
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assault rifle fully automatic
I made us a shared playlist and named it after you. A week later you called me Admiral Boss of Belly Ache Sessions. We have been even since.
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echo mun
UNHRC, with a fever, on a day I was stuck chairing MCCMUN and couldn't help. No BD. I said you were a winner in my eyes and I was not being nice, I meant it. The book bet is technically still open.
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two weeks
I've known you for two weeks now, but I definitely know more than what two weeks should've taught me.what is it that two weeks taught youhow u would make an add doc. exactly like thatI'll be honest. I think you're interesting.Same night I told you the worst case scenario of the whole thing would have been you not replying to my first message. You said I was making it a BIG thing. I was.
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the apology email
You made me write one, to your fifth grade email address with xrfx in it, with a twenty minute deadline. I had to dry my hair in between. Verdict: "yea, wasn't great, but its fine, its ur first, so accepted!" I've been trying to top it ever since. This is attempt number three.
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the only quiet stretch
Six days in the entire year without a single message between us. All of them in October. I had a fever that turned into a hospital, you had your own emergency and your midterms. Somewhere in there you texted that you were slowly starting to worry. That was the first time I thought, oh.
Since 31 October 2025 we have not skipped a day. 318 and counting.
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the beard
Ukw, when I saw u at reva. Very stupid, but i just noticed ur beardπThats when something clicked, and I knew for a fact, we'll have a storyWOW, you did? πYou also said you'd never have messaged first, and that we'd have met at a different conference anyway. I took my chances. I would take them again.
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the date that didn't happen
Forum Rex Walk. I was there, you were almost there, and then your parents were there instead. I gave you instructions on the phone and you said it felt like you had committed a crime and I was your lawyer asking you not to give in. We rescheduled by exactly two weeks.
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we finally met
I was nervous, I almost forgot Englishπ U are intimidating, try being less formal next timeπͺIF I WEREN'T NERVOUS, I WOULD'VE FED YOUThat sentence i said, in beary. That literally meant "u look good today". I was shy to translate itI think the food wasnt enough for you.. I am soo sorry πShut up. You were enoughI was in uniform, without a haircut, wearing a mask of not being nervous so you wouldn't leave. You didn't eat. I got an auto home and texted you the whole way.
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too soon
I slipped an "Ilyy" into a goodnight. You said, firstly it's not "ily", secondly don't say it like that, and so soon. Say it when it's right. So I waited. Badly, and out loud, but I waited.
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my best bet
You're my best bet, I've never felt anything like it before. I'm comfortable around you, I've never been that with anyone else before.
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the add doc
Additional Document, Kingdom of Belgium, UNODC, Arfa Zainab. Sixteen pages. Written by the chair who once refused yours. The guilt trip you promised to run till eternity was settled out of court.
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peer e kamil
You lent it. I read it. You were right, nothing goes above it. I paused during Ramadan because I felt guilty reading it, which tells you something about the book and something about me.
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our loudest day
3,023 messages in twenty four hours, our record. I checked what they were about. It was nothing. It was also, somehow, everything. That is the whole year in one day.
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leslie's
You claim you don't remember the date. It was the 25th. I'm putting it on the map so you can't lose it again.
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you said it
I love youI do..But please give me time...to completely settle with this feeling, and this relationshipYou said it when it was right, like you said you would in December. It was worth every badly hidden minute of waiting.
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twenty
A website with a sealed letter, a password that was a Sunday in September, a song, and an Airbnb two minutes from your college so your friends could come after. You said the song brought the website to life. This is the sequel. Nobody else is getting one.
you, a cake, a tree. the pinned chat since forever. -
the dua
May Allah write us in each other's naseeb forever and the life after. This is the most important decision of our lives, and it should be the start to something very blessed.
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the quiet month
5,896 messages, our lowest. Wedding work on my side, exams on yours, and a couple of fights we can leave off the map. Not one day without a text, though. I also found a store called Arfa Boutique and nearly walked in to ask for you.
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three quiet days
So here's my promise, simple and true, I'll choose to talk, I'll choose you. No more ghosting, that's the end, I'd rather be your fool than a ghost again.
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the chain
You said you'd have preferred a different college. I mapped out for you exactly what that would have cost.
- kristu jayanti β
- debsoc β
- muns β
- reva β
- that committee β
- a piece of paper with your name β
- an instagram request β
- this
"You're really telling me that you're okay with that?" You were not.
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red, white, green
your three colours, in the order you gave them to me on day one. white, then red because Turkey, then green. I was told I'm so good at this. -
aicon iii
UNSC Rapporteur. Operation Polo. From "I want to chair at least once" to the Executive Board in eleven months. -
nvnmun
Day one, 4:44 pm: "You can maybe start with a Moderator position." You: "Dont ask... recommending me is fine, not asking them to actually take me in." Nobody asked. You earned it.
UNHRC Moderator, and the guy giving the SG address in the same building. I told everyone I was dating the UNHRC moderator. Everyone was you. -
one year, almost
We've known each other for about a year, and this is the best year of my life, without exaggerating. Only because of you, Arfa.
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a white horse
tall, slim, handsome and beautiful. the horse. I went at 6:30 am so that I can teach you. I did not fall. "I will buy you a horse" is now in writing. -
husband material
Aleena and Amna invented a genre called the abbas coded reel. Your mom asked you, wallahi, whether I am husband material, then sat in on our startup call and sided with me on every point, then used the words son in law. I'm still recovering. Being intelligent but grounded is a lethal combination, apparently. I'm working on the grounded part.
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here
One year. Same Sunday, one week later. Two lakh forty six thousand messages, one apology email, sixteen pages of additional documents, one white horse, zero cats liked. Lalbagh is still on, Inshallah.
by the numbers
I exported the chat. It is 13.7 megabytes of text. Here is what a year looks like when you count it.
messages per month
march was the loudest. june was the quietest. september 2026 is thirteen days old and already louder than june.
when we talk
we are a midnight couple with a 7 pm relapse. the 4 am to 8 am silence is the only time you have ever left me alone.
our dictionary
Words that mean something different in this chat than anywhere else.
- oye
- how I begin 533 conversations. You have used it exactly zero times. It is mine.
- shush
- the polite shut up. 504 uses, most of them when you compliment me and I need a week to recover.
- baba
- you, when I'm being gentle or serious. Also what I call kids in my committee, which you have now banned in front of your mother.
- babyyyy
- the number of y's is the mood. Four is a good day.
- stupido
- me, according to you, 28 times. Usually correct.
- goodboy
- what I get after typing sorry a hundred times. 22 awards to date.
- π
- my entire personality in one face. 10,472 times. You have started using it back, which is fair.
- bye
- your favourite word. 1,480 times. You have never once actually left.
- say sorry rn
- the legal process by which all disputes between us are settled. Appeals are heard in multiples of one hundred.
- assault rifle fully automatic
- our playlist, named after you. See also: Admiral Boss of Belly Ache Sessions, your revenge.
- big woman, old man
- 27 September 2025. I gave you a compliment and you gave me this.
- add doc
- the original sin. Settled 29 January 2026 with sixteen pages and the Kingdom of Belgium.
- generah conventions
- my best joke, about your future brand. You said "and u want a woman with ur humor?" I did, and I found one.
- abbas coded reel
- a genre, per Aleena and Amna. Growing.
- beary president
- my next election. Campaign promise: free food at your dad's friend's cafe near Manyata.
- 1 year over, now go
- you, yesterday evening. Application denied.
the guessing game, again
Five questions from the first night, answered with a year of extra information. Tap a card. No hints this time, you never gave good ones anyway.
places on the map
The ones we've been to, and the ones we keep saying at 1 am. Not to scale. Obviously.
on a phone, drag the maps sideways, like a real one. the second map has no land drawn because I have never been able to draw the netherlands from memory. you'll take me.
you, this year
Only the last two months survived the export. It's enough.






me, for balance






the letter, unsealed
the same one. it worked last time.
Asslamu Alaikum baby
Okay listen. It's 12, which means it's officially the 14th, and I've been sitting here thinking about how exactly one year ago I sent a girl I had never actually spoken to my entire jus ad bellum notes at 2:43 in the afternoon. And you replied "Ouch." That's it. That was the big moment. No restaurant, no story you'd want to tell people. Just the chair who kicked your POO out the window trying to make up for it with research material.
I didn't know anything that day. I thought I was hyping some KJU delegate for a BD at Echo and bribing her with a book. I didn't know that Sunday would end at 11:41 pm with me guessing horses and watches and swimming and marriage and a good family, and getting 5/5 on a girl I had known for one day. I still maintain your hints were wrong btw. That stays. I didn't know I'd end up reading Peer e Kamil because of that day, or that "I don't like cats" would be something I'd decide to ignore for the rest of my life.
Around two weeks in I told you I already knew more than two weeks should've taught me, and you asked me to explain it like an add doc. I couldn't then. I think I can now. Somewhere between you texting that you were slowly starting to worry when I was in the hospital, and me sitting in Forum Rex on 10th Nov waiting for someone who didn't show up, and 24th Nov when you forgot English and said something in Beary and were too shy to translate it, I stopped thinking in different timelines. There was only one I wanted anymore.
And the things I love about us are so stupid. That you hate late replies and still didn't block me when I took 8 hours to reply to a VN in September. That you made me write an apology email to your 5th grade xrfx account at 12 am, said it wasn't great, and accepted it anyway because it was my first. That you've been my first and pinned chat for a year. That "Abbas coded reel" is a genre now. That your mom apparently used the words son in law today and I'm still recovering. That you've sat through Roshan hate, constipation updates and a year of sorry spam, and I've still never actually lost it on you. Not once. Wallahi.
But mostly Arfa, I want to say the thing I said in October when it sounded like yapping. The worst case that day was you not replying to my first message. That was the whole risk. And the best case turned out to be this. I didn't know I could feel this comfortable, this understood, this at home with anyone. You never corrected me or polished me, you just let me be this unfiltered idiot and stayed. This has been the best year of my life and I'm not exaggerating, and it started with a Sunday that meant nothing at 2:43 pm and everything by midnight.
Alhamdulillah for Reva, for that placard, for the request that made you go "who is this", and for you.
Happy one year my baby. Lalbagh is still on, Inshallah. I love you more, and I'll always love you more.
Goodnight meri jaan. Asslamu Alaikum.