Chapter One: The Moment
Some moments are small when measured by time... but they are powerful enough to change an entire life.
October 1, 2007
Some dates are just numbers on a calendar...
But some dates are written inside the heart.
Dates that time can never erase.
Not with changing seasons.
Not with passing years.
Not even when life takes a completely different path.
Zaryan had no idea that this day would become the most important day of his life.
For him, it was just an ordinary morning.
The same quiet village streets.
The same familiar sounds of the morning.
People busy with their daily routines.
Children walking towards school with their bags on their shoulders.
And Zaryan...
A fourteen-year-old boy whose world was still very small.
Home.
School.
Friends.
Games.
And the same everyday routine.
At that age, no one knows that sometimes the biggest moments of life do not arrive with noise.
They arrive silently...
In the form of a moment.
In the form of a glance.
In the form of a feeling that even the heart cannot explain.
The bus arrived like any other day.
Zaryan took his usual seat.
He had no idea that this journey would not be like the others.
The bus started moving.
The road was the same.
The people were the same.
The destination was the same.
But after a few moments, his eyes were about to stop on a scene that would never leave his heart again.
That day, Heer was also on the same bus.
Sitting on the back seat.
Quiet.
Lost in her own world.
Wearing her white school uniform.
Holding her books carefully.
She had no idea that a boy sitting only a few steps away was about to turn this small moment into one of the most precious memories of his entire life.
Suddenly, Zaryan's eyes moved towards the mirror.
And then...
They stopped.
A face appeared in the reflection.
A face he had never seen before.
Yet somehow...
His heart noticed it from the very first glance.
He stayed silent for a few moments.
Then, almost to convince himself, he turned around.
Only to know whether the face he saw in the mirror...
Was real or just a thought.
It was real.
Heer was actually sitting there.
Zaryan turned back.
But the journey was no longer the same.
He looked towards the mirror again and again.
Not because of any wrong intention.
Not because of any expectation.
Only because his heart wanted to make sure that the moment was still there.
Then came that one moment...
The moment that perhaps gave birth to this entire story.
Heer slowly raised her eyes.
And in the mirror...
Their eyes met.
Only for a moment.
Maybe for half a second.
But some moments are not measured by time.
They are measured by the place they create inside the heart.
The bus continued moving.
The outside world remained unchanged.
People were talking.
Roads were passing by.
But something inside Zaryan had changed.
He did not know her name yet.
He did not know where she lived.
He did not know what the future would bring.
He only knew one thing...
That today, he had seen someone.
And for some unknown reason, his heart wished to see that moment again.
When he returned home that day, he continued his normal life.
He talked to people.
He completed his daily tasks.
But somewhere deep inside, a picture had already been saved.
A bus.
A mirror.
A white uniform.
And a glance...
He did not know that what he considered a small moment...
Would become the greatest wait of his life in the years to come.
He did not know that an unknown face...
Would one day become the reason behind countless days of his life.
And he did not know that sometimes a person can spend an entire lifetime carrying the memory of someone...
With whom they only shared a few moments.
End of Chapter One
"Sometimes love does not begin with a meeting... it begins with a glance and that glance becomes a journey of a lifetime."
