There, in the corner, sat Leyla. She wasn't looking at her phone. She was looking at the door, her fingers tracing the edge of a coffee cup in time with a rhythm only she could hear. "You're late," she whispered over the low hum of the room.

The rain in Baku didn’t just fall; it pulsed against the windshield of Elmir’s old Mercedes like a rhythmic heartbeat. He wasn’t driving anywhere in particular, just circling the Flame Towers, watching the neon LED "fire" flicker against the gray Caspian sky.

As the first soulful notes of the MP3 filled the car, the lyrics began to weave through the cabin. Sevir... sevmir... (She loves me... she loves me not...). It was the ultimate Azerbaijani anthem of uncertainty. For Elmir, it wasn't just a song; it was a countdown.

She smiled, a small, certain thing. "And? What did the song tell you today? Sevir? or Sevmir? "