He looked into her eyes and saw a depth that frightened and exhilarated him. In them, he saw his past, his present, and every possible future he ever wanted to live. He realized then that love wasn't about finding someone to share the world with. It was about finding someone who became your world, rendering everything else invisible.

Lila’s smile widened, a flicker of memory dancing in her eyes. "I remember. You looked at me like you were seeing a ghost."

Lila was sitting opposite him, her attention buried in a book. A stray lock of her dark hair had fallen across her face, and she occasionally blew it away with a soft, unconscious puff of air. To anyone else, she was just a girl reading in a cafe. To Elias, she was the entire universe.

He remembered the first time he had heard Kıraç’s voice. It had been playing on the radio of a beat-up old taxi they’d taken during a sudden summer downpour. The powerful, gravelly vocals had filled the cramped space, and when the chorus of "Senden Başka" played, Elias had looked at Lila and realized that the lyrics weren't just words; they were his reality.

Lila looked up then, sensing his gaze. She smiled, a slow, gentle curve of her lips that reached her eyes, crinkling the corners. "What?" she asked, her voice a soft melody that easily cut through the ambient chatter of the cafe.

It was a terrifyingly absolute truth. Before Lila, Elias had moved through life like a ghost, observing the world but never truly part of it. He had seen thousands of faces, walked down countless streets, and heard a million voices. Yet, they were all just background noise.

"I was just thinking about that song," Elias said, squeezing her hand gently. "Which one?" "The one from the taxi that day. Senden Başka."