Where it all began

In the year of 2011, during Gizem's third year in an Istanbul based university, various departments organized a gathering to acknowledge the students' efforts and kick off a break from the usual lifestyle. Gizem, as suggested by her friend, became curious about how people her age had fun since she didn't interact much and was mostly focused on her academic achievement to free herself from her family's influence, while Liya, who had suggested, followed along.

During the so-called gathering which no different from a club or a party due to the amount of people present making Gizem flustered and out of place and to make things further worse guys were gathering like flies around her as like of every five men, four that saw her will either try to flirt with her or will keep ogling at her from the distance with all sorts of weird looks overwhelming her even further, but lucky her, I guess as that didn't last long thanks Liya who pummelled a guy's face to a pulp alongside his friends for trying to get too touchy with Gizem, which in prompt resulted in scaring all the flies away. In spite of the chaotic scene and the sandbagged dudes being hospitalized, Liya emerged as quite cool whooping those dudes' arses for many people regardless of gender. However, things ended shortly after when the police arrived to arrest her.

"Liya I'll be taking a taxi to police station you will be at; my uncle will probably be already informed that we were involved, and he will take it from there so please don't also beat the cops up ",

While saying this Gizem had her face almost plastered to Liya's face and looked her in the eyes to make sure they were on the same page, as she was quite worried about her friend temper which might be the cause of more hospital beds being filled. Liya obediently nodded unwilling to cause more trouble, Gizem patted Liya's head as she thought,

'Since she stopped going to the dojo her temper only got worse, I should probably inform auntie Liza about it as she is the only one who can convince her about picking up her training, as a child she was quite proficient in many martial arts, and won various world titles until she quit in high school, and that, coupled with her fiery temper, made it nearly impossible to hold her back once she got riled up.

"Gizem, I'm sorry I was careless ", Liya with her head directed to the ground apologized, "If I hadn't forced you to tag along nothing of sorts would've occurred and since the cops got involved your parents might realize what we have done and __ "

*giggle*, Liya was cut off by her friend laugher, as she looked at her with a perplexing face

"Silly, I know what you are worried about but did you forget my uncle is the chief of the police he can easily bury this incident up, and I don't have to worry about him informing my father as both don't really like each other that much, that aside you really start practicing some self-control as we don't want you to end up killing somebody next time "

They kept chatting for a while until the officer came and requested Liya's cooperation indicating he was already informed and instructed regarding who he was dealing with and how he should do so. Liya accompanied the officer without complaining as Gizem watched her get in the car as they quickly zoomed into the distance. Gizem couldn't help but sigh at the sudden turn of the events, actually the reason why Liya was worried is due to Gizem highly conservative parents who were trying to marry her off as she soon as she came out of age to some random bigshot son overseas as way to strengthen their ties and facilitate business between the two families but she strongly rejected as wanted to finish her studies and follow her passion in becoming a doctor although her parents would normally not give her any heed but under her younger brother persuasion he managed to shut down their parents ambitions momentarily giving her the opportunity to chase her goals and break free from their influence but even though they agreed to let her resume her studies they still put several restrictions on her such as not having any romantic relationship and such things. As she was lamenting about her decisions to attend this gathering, "excuse me ", she heard somebody addressing her from behind, so she turned around assuming he was another annoying pest trying to hit on her and how to quickly shoe him away, but once she saw him, she was stunned as a handsome blond young man standing behind her with a slim build, heart shaped face accentuated with his cute dimples and twinkling green eyes which made the heart's strings of many girls flutter at the slightest eye contact, and he was currently staring at her with those very eyes, stunning her for a couple seconds. Once she broke from her daze, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed as a slight blush formed on her ears.

"Hi, I'm here to apologize on behalf of those guys as their department representative, they seemed to cause quite the inconvenience, I already reported their doings to the school, and I can assure you that they will be met with the appropriate punishment"

A polite smile spread across Gizem's face, as she replied with hint of coldness apparent in her voice.

"Oh, well they did, even causing my friend to get arrested, but as their representative isn't it your responsibility to reign in the students so as to keep these things from happening, but it is quite intriguing since I don't remember seeing you interfere or try to stop their acts, Mister representative."

A blush appeared on his face as he scratched his check while pointing to himself.

"Well as you can see, I'm just not the right person to ask for in a fight much less save the damsel in distress and _" he crept his head closer to her without intruding her boundaries, and with his hand cupped around the side of his mouth and in a low voice he said, "and honestly your friend didn't like one to me, she was quite scary pummelling those guys indiscriminately in all sorts of *places*, though this is just my personal opinion but it was quite satisfying to look at especially that whomp and whop part"

"Pfft, you mean the one she used on the last one that was quite the sight to see, not gonna lie, but who would've thought our mister representative to have such a good eye? Jokes aside, I won't make things hard for either of us so let's each go our own way"

Gizem stated as she started seeing him in a new light

"Thanks, I owe you so please do tell me if you ever need help, I promise to be there"

He said with a bright smile as he winked at her.

"I'll hold you to that"

Gizem blushed slightly as she quickly said while hurrying to cab that happened to arrive during their exchange.

Seeing her hurrying to the cab Leroth smiled helplessly while shaking his head, but before he could walk away, he heard her call out to him.

"HEY, WHAT'S YOUR NAME"

Gizem standing before the cab door shouted at Leroth.

After being taken aback for a couple seconds, he smiled as he shouted back.

"LEROTH, LEROTH HUNERES. WHAT IS YOURS"

"GIZEM, SEE YOU LATER" Gizem quickly entered the car as it speeds off in the distance quickly disappearing from Leroth sight.

As Leroth kept on looking at the back of the car, the car grew farther and farther away until it disappeared, before turning to the sky as his face was red as tomato from embarrassment, excitement and a bunch of pleasant emotions, as he couldn't help but say.

"Wow she is gorgeous; I think I might've fallen in love"

Actually, Leroth was also stunned and mesmerized by Gizem beauty, but he managed to act it off without her noticing that.

At the police station, after Gizem's uncle got involved, the matter was wrapped up smoothly due to the said victim's parents being logical and upright people understanding that their sons were in the wrong, in fact they were grateful that the girls weren't willing to pursue the matter of harassment. After Liya's parents got informed of her actions, her father sighed helplessly while shaking his head, but he still felt quite proud of his daughter prowess, but her mother wasn't as easy going and went full on Liya "YOU STUPID BARBARIAN, IS THAT WHAT I TAUGHT YOU I KNEW IT WAS WRONG TO LET TRAIN WITH FATHER, JUST WHO THE FUCK DO YOU TAKE AFTER?"

Hearing this part her father couldn't help but answer inwardly 'Though, you obviously', well things ended there. Time flowed as everyone traced back to their usual daily lives, with this story turned into a legend that will be recounted for years to come, well if you were to ask me about something noteworthy it would be the fact that Leroth started frequently hanging out with Gizem. He tried to invite her out a couple of times only to be rejected mercilessly. However, as the saying goes *persistence is a key ingredient to success*. That coupled with his charming and honest persona just hit the nail on the head as both started going out in secret. Fast forward three years later, after all sorts of ups and downs, the couple were having dinner at a certain famous restaurant. Leroth got down on one knee and proposed to Gizem, and she happily accepted. Although she still had some worries that she couldn't keep out she voiced them out loud

"Roth, you know about my family, right? Although I'm proud of who you are, I can't say the same about my parent, they are quite the ambitious people, so they certainly prefer marrying me to some influential individual son rather than you, somebody with a normal background."

Leroth nodded and calmly thought, not minding anything she said because he knew her well and knew she didn't say anything with intentions to belittle him.

"Yeah, it will be quite a hassle convincing them due to my status as I'm just doing well financially, having no real authority whatsoever."

Hearing him admit it, she felt somewhat responsible as she didn't have any real influence on her family's decisions, tears were already starting to form in her eyes when she heard him speak.

"It's certainly challenging, but not impossible. I mean you know, we can just escape together or have a baby."

While saying this his eyes were sparkling with excitement at the thought of both ideas coming to life.

Gizem felt truly speechless while looking at him, shamelessly stating those solutions especially the second one so she gave him a good smack to the head.to wake him up.

"*sigh*, you and your stupid ideas never cease to amaze me, and what was it last month? YEAH, you wanted to build an underground banker in fear of an incoming apocalypse after watching too much anime, just use your head my family influence is huge if not for my little brother protecting me from their network and uncle massive influence in this city, we would´ve already been found out, the moment we do escape, ain´t no way in hell they won't know and even if we MAGICALLY succeed they can just go after your family, as for the latter one …"

She stopped talking and adopted a thoughtful expression, which made Leroth misunderstand that his second suggestion put her on a difficult stop.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't mean like that, you know that I'm ready to wait, I just said it without thinking it through"

Gizem quickly understood his worries and giggled seeing fidgeting worriedly, she felt warm knowing how inconsiderate of her he was, however she also felt bad that she was pushing her beliefs on him. Actually, although they had been a couple for more than 3 years, they had never indulged in any kind of intimate contact such as S#x, due to Gizem's Muslim roots and her will to follow on that road. Leroth respected her decision and patiently waited as he loved her beyond being mad about her conservative nature, in fact in made her only more valuable in his eyes.

Gizem's eyes turned firm as an idea dawned on her, she said.

"Roth, Let's do it Let's make one"

"W-what m-make what?"

Leroth broke out of his daze at the sudden remark totally confused about what she meant, his eyes soon shined as he understood what she meant, when he said.

"You mean making the banker so we can hide together." or he thought so

Gizem looked at him speechlessly as she smacked him once more, making him feel wronged as he looked at her with confused and teary eyes.

*Sigh* she shook her head as she explained

"I meant making a baby you dumb@ss"

Leroth looked at her with incredulous eyes as he said with a shaking voice

"B-b-but what about you b-beliefs-s?!!"

"About that, I already thought of an idea we can just marry the old-fashioned way in mosque, but the things …"

Gizem was worried about saying the last part, as Leroth urged her

"Just say it don't worry"

"You will have to convert to my religion." Gizem looked at him worriedly as he silently stared at her 'I might be pushing him too far he already scarified too much for me do I__'

*PFFFFT*

As she was thinking she suddenly heard him laugh as he said

"That's it, you silly girl if you had asked me for my soul, I would've presented it gladly"

Hearing him agreeing while boosting at the same time, she felt warmth fill her heart as she leaned over and passionately kissed him. Leroth was quite surprised at her taking the initiative, but he quickly immersed himself in the kiss.

The couple entered the most precious moments of their lives after getting married at the mosque the next day, appreciating every moment of them being together wishing time would stop, but alas they had no power over that as the most they could do was take the batteries out of their clocks, in a way to immortalize the time they spent together.

Fast forward a couple months in October 2012, things have been peaceful for the couple until Gizem started showing signs of pregnancy, and after going through the necessary procedures, the couple were excepting a new family member, as they started doing their preparations, but as the birth date approached, their worries increased. In April 2013 the unexpected took place as Leroth's disappearance shook their peace as he was last seen outside his martial arts gym, and even after getting in contact with his brother who was also his business partner and his only family member he had left he was nowhere to be seen totally disappearing into thin air leaving everything behind, car, money, properties, and Gizem whose life turned into a constant stream of anxiety and worries which led to a premature birth in June.