His Bosnian Love | { Kenan Yıldız Fanfic }

9 - Kenan

Even though the low branches were giving me a hard time passing through the woods, often blocking my way and full-on view of the path, I had no trouble spotting her once I made my way to the clearance.

The trees eventually opened up and revealed a meadow, sitting low on the horizon as the sun was brightly shining on the west side of the forest, giving away the only valid orientation there was in this poorly situated place.

Amid all the maroon-coloured grass, there was also a beautifully measured river which carelessly took up more space than I heard she would. It was a breathtaking scenery.

I mean, unusual place for a first date, considering the fact I've been hiking the last half an hour here, but it's not like I'd been on any dates to begin with. Aside from the ones that were deliberately forced upon me disregarding my own free will.

Well, I'm not sure what this even was but I guess if it wasn't a date date, then it could be a friendly date.

Anyhow, I couldn't stop myself from smiling once I got close enough to her to notice what she was doing. Her whole concentration was on the yarn she was carefully knitting out into a beautiful piece of - whatever it was. It looked like it was a scarf but of a strange shape.

When she turned around at the sound of a twig crumbling beneath me, I could sense that it was not of surprise, alas. The first time I get to see her not totally jump out of her skin when she sees me.

A warm smile takes place on her fair, placid face, and she shakes her head, flicking her tongue.

"Tsk tsk tsk, and here I was thinking you'd at least have the dignity not to sneak up on me."

I chuckled.

"Yeah, but I didn't scare you this time, didn't I?"

She looked quite a bit offended at that.

"And when have I ever been scared by you?" As if she knew what I'd hold all against her, she took back her words almost instantly. "You know what, never mind." I couldn't help it, she was just too amusing to tease.

"And what's that you got there." I tilted my head in curiosity as she finally spoke up about this mystery item she was knitting.

"Oh, this." She slowly raises it with both hands, bringing it closer to me. I was now also on the ground, lying on my back with only my elbows keeping me up. "This is my hat."

"Your what? That looks more like a diaper than a hat."

She shoved my shoulder playfully and dared to flash me a grin.

"Well, it looks like that right now, but just you wait, this is going to be the best hat you've ever seen."

"Whoo, can't wait. And why are you even making a hat now, like, in summer? Isn't it a bit too early for that?"

"Kinda, I guess. But I've never been able to achieve the speed that my grandma had with this. I'd always tread slowly and pay attention to every single detail." Esma was now intently staring at her hat in awe, taking in every bit of yarn that made up the whole piece. "I want to decorate it nicely also, so by the time it's late October, I'll have this baddie done, along with a couple of other things too." 

I enjoyed watching her talk about things she liked. What made her happy kind of made me happy in a way, too. I had this fuzzy feeling in my chest every time she laughed or even so much as looked at me.

We chatted quite frankly about everything, though she was a bit defensive on a topic or two.

"So, what are your parents like?"

She twitched at that and, as if thinking it was going to go unnoticed, just nonchalantly shrugged and said with a tense laugh: "I mean, parents like parents. Just the normal kind. Nothing special."

I decided not to delve more into this sphere of her life, which I now knew was a sensitive topic and which she felt uneasy sharing about. I respected that; it's not like I had any better answer to the same question.

After quite literally making a laughing stock out of me while describing the events that occurred the night we first met, my face was flushed with embarrassment as I tried to get her to stop talking about that. She kept going on and on about how I was drunk out of my mind and how I drooled all over her (though with how she was explaining it, I could see she was exaggerating that part - at least, I hoped so).

--☆--

I couldn't believe it when the sun was finally setting, time flew by insanely fast when I was with her.

I guess she also looked surprised when she noticed the position the moon's sister was in when she panicked and hurriedly packed all her stuff up.

The golden speckles of joy that once frequented her iris were now replaced by gloomy misshaped outlines of an oak brown, seemingly contrasting to the witness which underlined around her.

I could sense that she was unnerved by the long duration we had spent here or whatever it was that upset her. I was at a loss for words as I just sat there, not knowing what to do or say. I mean, of course we weren't gonna be sitting around here all day and night but the way she was scared lifeless as she rushed with packing her stuff almost scared me too.

"Listen, I gotta go now. See you tomorrow?"

"Uh, sure. Same place same time?"

She smiled reassuringly but still had that worried expression on her face.

"Deal."

And with that, she was gone, and I was left alone with my thoughts, which brought me to many branches of my life, not only the ones that hit me in the face while I was walking through the woods.

--☆--

Once I got home- okay, maybe I shouldn't call it home, but yeah, anyway, once I got to Adam's, I was greeted by a cheeky smile and a smug tell-me
-everything-that-happened face. I groaned at his intrusion into my intimate circle of feelings by only his stance, but there was nothing I could do because I had to admit it: I was acting kind of suspicious every time he mentioned Esma.

I pushed him away, but he locked my head with his arm and tugged at it while laughing viciously.

"Now, now. You can't possibly think you can get out of this without spilling all the tea."

Okay, now he was going full-on hyena mode with his tortling, and I tugged his ear.

"Damn, you stuck-up dog, stop snickering about it like it's your latest piece of gossip to spread to the rest of the village." I wasn't angry at him, just a tad bit annoyed by the pestering. "And besides, I actually just like talking with her. Nothing. Special ..." The last words echoed into timid silence as I mindlessly rubbed the back of my neck.

"Okay, okay. You have it your way this time." Adem finally gave in. "But no details left out the next time both y'all have a picnic date."

I laughed at that and patted his back. "Fine, so be it. Next time we have our deep conversation sesh I'm gonna make sure to envision every single breath of hers, every microcell around us, just so you can get the full experience on how it is to talk to a girl." I was now mocking him with my hands all up in the air and we ended up joking a bit more before going to bed.

I may have kind of given up on the idea of ever warming up to the excruciating pain I've endured while sleeping on the couch, so we've just mutually agreed on sharing the bed since it was big anyway.

Adem's been telling me about his brother coming back any day these days but I don't really care about one more person in this household.

Like they say, the more the merrier.

After all, the only thing I could properly think of once I laid in bed was the faint smell of pancakes, which once woke me when I was a little kid, begging to await at least one more day when the nostalgic morning routine would be the same.