The Shore of Serenity

July, 2025 Hazan, My hands moved over the piano keys, the sounds emitting from the instrument filling the room. It was a July evening; the cool summer air drifted in through the balcony door I had left open, every breeze causing the curtains to dance in harmony. The melody, which had started calmly at first, began to accelerate. I entered the famous, breathtaking, suffocating tempo of Valse. As my mind drifted back to hours ago, I began to press the keys harder. I was drowning in my thoughts; this was the only thing I needed to breathe. I had to get away from my thoughts. I was trapped within these four walls. As my fingers slowed, I hesitated on the final note. Just as I was about to speed up again with my anger and accumulated frustration, my thoughts were interrupted by the window of the house opposite flying open with a fury. I smirked. Seeing who it was, all my anger dissipated. Looking at him, my fingers sped up, faster and faster, until they reached that final, sharp strike of the piece. Bam. The last note exploded like a slap in the humid air. My hand remained suspended in the air. My chest was heaving rapidly, as if I had run for kilometers. And there he was. Kahraman Kandemir. His messy, dirty-blond curly hair had fallen onto his forehead. His eyes were squinted with sleepiness, but even through that narrow slit, I could see the blue rage erupting. Clearly, I had torn him from a deep sleep. Without taking my eyes off him, I touched the shrillest, most annoying 'B' note with the index finger of my right hand. Plink. His face crumpled. As if he had eaten a lemon. Out of spite, I pressed it one more time. Plink. His face turned red enough to be distinguished even under the pale light of the streetlamp. Despite his tanned skin, he couldn't hide his anger. He stormed onto the balcony. "Turn that thing off!" his voice echoed through the street. I laughed. "What? This?" I said, pressing the same key again, causing him to curse. "Are you i***t? Do you have any idea what time it is?" When he raised his voice again, I stood up and stepped out onto the balcony, just like him. "It’s not even nine yet," I said, leaning my back against the wall. "I don't care what time it is. Turn that volume down. My ears just exploded." "You're so delicate, Kandemir," I said, and he gritted his teeth. I knew he was gritting his teeth because of the twitching muscle in his jaw. "If you were sleeping..." he said articulately, crushing the words as he spoke. "...and such a disgusting noise woke you up, you wouldn't think any less of me. Just pray that I’m only shouting." This time, I was the one frowning. A disgusting noise? "You don't understand art either, Kandemir." "I wouldn't call this art, Alaca," he said, his voice lowering dangerously. "I’d call this trying to cover up your lack of talent with decibels." "Hm..." I paused before answering. My eyes involuntarily slid down his face. Thanks to the July heat, he wasn't wearing a shirt. He had only a pair of black, loose shorts on. His broad shoulders, his muscles tense from insomnia and anger, that light sheen of sweat on his collarbones... Visually, he was flawless. Damn it, he really was. I fixed my gaze back on his ice-blue eyes and shrugged. "Fortunately, I don't care a gram about your thoughts, Kandemir. So, you'd better get some earplugs." He rested his hands on the railing and leaned forward. "If I hear one more sound, I’ll come over there and rip the strings out of that piano one by one, do you hear me?" I rolled my eyes. "That door is closed to you. Try it if you have the courage. Have a good sleep..." I paused just as I was about to close the window. "Or, sweet nightmares," I said, shutting it firmly and drawing the curtain, seeing Kahraman hit the iron railings in anger. Laughing, I threw myself face-down onto the bed and kept my gaze on the balcony across the street. Even though I thought he would go inside and continue sleeping, I realized he would occupy that spot for a while longer when he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his shorts pocket. I smiled with pleasure as he seemed to be trying to calm himself down. After all, making him angry was my biggest goal, and seeing his face flushed with rage was among my greatest hobbies. Minutes later, when he went inside from the balcony and turned off the lights, I took a deep breath and got out of bed. It was 9:21 PM. "Ugh, they're going to kill me," I muttered, jumping out of bed in a frenzy. Despite the sweltering heat, I threw a sweatshirt from my closet over my black tank top. Sometimes it could get cold at night. Grabbing my wallet and phone, I left the room and heard the sound of the television rising from the living room. As if no apocalypse had broken out in the house hours ago, my mother and father were enjoying fruit and watching an old movie. "I'm going out," I called out. Without looking at me, my father asked, "Where to?" "I'm with the gang. We'll probably head to the coast," I said. "Be careful, keep your phone on," he said. I nodded, put on my shoes, and left the house. I cursed as I stepped out while my phone rang for the umpteenth time. "Simay, I'm coming, Simay! You’ve ruined my phone, Simay!" I grumbled, hearing her click her tongue on the other end of the line. "Oh, look at this crazy girl. Don't come, baby, your mommy is here to pick you up," she said, just as I was met with blinding headlights. "Oh no," I murmured, slowly pulling the phone away from my ear. Simay honked the car horn with pleasure several times, then got out and bounced in place. A currently popular rap song was playing. I grimaced. "Come on, girl! I snagged it from my dad," she laughed. I narrowed my eyes. "Are you sure you took it? Because Uncle Hasan would choose death over entrusting his car to you," I said, causing her to roll her eyes. "Of course I got permission! He even said, 'My dear daughter, all cars are sacrificed for you, as long as you...'" The only reason she didn't finish her sentence was my mocking stare. She shrugged. "If anything happens, we'll call it a youthful mistake and move on, gorgeous. Come on, hop in, baaaaby! Let me pick you up," she said, winking in a manner that was extremely like a thug wannabe, making me pretend to vomit. "I'm worried that in a past life, you were one of those thugs squatting on the street corners, Simay," I said as I sat in the front seat and immediately reached for the seatbelt. "Would you believe it? I'm not worried at all. Because I'm quite sure," she said, laughing as she settled into the driver's seat. "Okay. What were we doing now?" She put her hands on the steering wheel as if remembering. "Yes, yes... now next is... um..." She had to be joking. She couldn't have pushed the car all the way here. "Seatbelt," I reminded her. "Right," she mumbled and grabbed the seatbelt. With that, I grabbed the door handle yelling, "I'll walk!" causing her to burst into laughter. "I'm kidding, girl! You know I'm quite a master driver. I take my sister to kindergarten every day, and I regularly and decently h****k the car. I also know the brake is on the right and the gas is on the left." Even though she spoke quite convincingly, and I nodded, my eyes widened as something clicked in my mind. "Wait—" Before I could finish my sentence, she laughed. "Pistachio!" She pinched my cheek. "Trust me." While hoping she knew the brake was actually on the left and was just messing with me, we started our journey. As she blasted the thug song to the max, I grimaced and turned it down. She turned it up again, I turned it down again. She turned it up again, and when I went to turn it down, she slapped my hand. "We’re cruising, girl, cruising! Turn it up," she said. I sighed. "What cruising, you i***t Simay! With this song, the only thing you could cruise for is..." I didn't finish my sentence because my lips curled up when I saw the bronze-skinned, curly-haired boy at the head of the street, and I blasted the volume myself. As Simay murmured in relief, "That's more like it," other treacherous plans were passing through my mind. As I rolled down the window, Simay had gotten quite close to the bronze-skinned boy. Simay laughed with delight as if she understood what I was doing when I stuck my head out of the window, and she honked the horn. Simultaneously, I shouted, "Psst, baby! Should I pick you up?!" causing the bronze-skinned boy to momentarily jump in place and turn to us, yelling, "Holy s**t!" As I burst into laughter, he saw me and muttered a prayer for patience. "If I said I was surprised, I'd be lying, you know that, Alaca? I'm not surprised even a gram." I blew him a kiss without caring at all. "Where to at this hour? Let's drop you off. Let's take you where you're going," I said, leaning my chin on one hand and continuing to look at him. Kahraman sighed deeply. "Get lost, Alaca," he said, putting his hand in his cardigan pocket and starting to walk fast. Simay drove the car, matching his speed. I laughed. "Don't play hard to get! Hop in," I said. As I continued to laugh, he paused halfway and continued his glare. I loved making him angry like this so much... One eyebrow raised, every muscle in his face twitching separately; he was going mad the more he saw my delighted face. He rested his hand on his chin, scratched it for a while, and suddenly said, "Fine," shrugging as he got into the back seat. Simay and I paused because we didn't expect him to do this. "So, girls?" Kahraman said with an amused voice, leaning forward with one hand on Simay's seat and the other on mine. "Where are you taking me?" I looked back sharply at his face appearing over my left shoulder. "Get the f**k out of the car," I hissed through my teeth in anger. He laughed, pulled back, leaned comfortably against the seat, and stretched. "Seats are comfortable, what model is this? Let me get one for myself before summer ends," he mumbled, starting to touch things around him. "Don't mess the place up!" I shouted. "Don't screech right next to my head!" he shouted back in anger. This time it was Simay who shouted, "SHUT UP!" When she started staring daggers at him, he shrugged. "Wasn't that the code?" he smirked innocently, causing me to roll my eyes, while Kahraman laughed. While Simay was driving at barely 20 km/h, Kahraman yawned. "I would have arrived if I had walked," he grumbled and closed his eyes. "You shouldn't have gotten in then, moron," I scolded. Opening one eye, he said, "Weren't you quite insistent on me getting in the car, baby? Or did I misunderstand?" Then, closing his eyes again to take a comfortable position, I said angrily, "Don't call me baby ever again!" "What would you like me to call you?" "Preferably nothing." "Hmm..." He paused as if thinking. "Didn't like it." "Kandemir." "Alaca?" After a moment of silence between us, Simay cleared her throat. "I don't want to interrupt your staring contest, but we've arrived at the beach. Where were you going, Kahraman? I could have dropped you off." I looked at Simay sharply. "Let the dog walk!" I said, hearing Kahraman's chuckle. "You can be sure you dropped me exactly where I wanted, Simay. Thanks for throwing me into the car, Alaca," he said sarcastically towards the end of the sentence. As I filled with rage again, he got out of the car laughing. Then, as he walked away swaying in a lackadaisical manner, I screamed, "I want to kill this bastard!" How could everything go exactly as he wanted?! How!