That winter, when I was 24, my best friend introduced me to a man.
He said, “I'll teach you how to love someone, and I won't let you down.”
I believed him.
For a year and a half, those plane and high-speed rail tickets covering thousands of kilometers were what kept our long-distance relationship alive. I learned to wait up for someone until midnight, and got used to him disappearing with a “I'll be back when I'm done.” I thought that if I tried hard enough, we would make it to the end.
Then the bride price came up, and I discovered there had always been someone in his heart he couldn't forget.
Only later did I learn that he knew how to love. He just didn't want to love me anymore.
Forever is both long and short, like how he said he would love me forever, then left without a second thought.
All I did was pay a steep price for a lesson with my youth.
“Hello. Want to date?”
“Hello. Goodbye forever.”
“I see all living things as grass and trees, but you alone as mountains.
May we look back on these years one day and find that our love endured until our hair turned white.
Having chosen one person to cherish, I will give them all the generosity I have for the rest of my life.
How fortunate I was to meet you. Even in sorrow, it was still love.”
