A Girl’s Heart

Chapter 1

The café was completely deserted, with only one customer inside. A woman sat by the window, which she had left wide open, allowing the icy wind from the lake, carrying tiny drops of rain, to lash against her delicate face.

Have you ever seen a sad woman sitting through a sad afternoon, wrapped in a curtain of sad rain? If you have, then you would understand how I felt at that moment. Somehow, the sadness of a beautiful woman seemed capable of making the entire universe sad. Perhaps it was because of that sadness that it was raining this afternoon. Her sorrow seemed to spread to me, leaving me with an inexplicable sense of emptiness.

I walked over to her table.

“Hello! Would you mind if I sat here with you for a while, so neither of us has to be lonely?”

I offered.

The woman suddenly turned toward me. It seemed that I had just pulled her away from a stream of memories. The thought made me feel guilty. I became awkward.

“I’m sorry. I interrupted your memories.”

I said that and turned around, intending to move somewhere else. But the woman reached out and took my hand, stopping me. Her expression suddenly became bright and lively. The sadness vanished from her face.

“No, no! I wasn’t reminiscing about anything. Sit with me and keep me company. Without anyone to talk to, I’m dying of boredom too.”

I sat down, looking at the woman in surprise. Apparently, she really hadn’t been lost in memories as I had imagined. I thought to myself, feeling relieved. Then I sat opposite her.

“What would you like to drink? It’s on me.”

She asked in a warm, friendly voice. She was remarkably easy to talk to.

I glanced toward her side. Two bottles of beer had already been opened, and there were still a few pieces of grilled squid on the plate. A bitterly cold gust of wind blew in from the lake, making me shiver.

“It’s so cold, and you’re sitting here drinking beer all by yourself. You must have something terribly sad on your mind. In that case, let me have a beer and keep you company.”

She laughed and waved to the server.

“Bring us two more bottles and ten fermented pork rolls.”

Then she turned to me and said:

“I only have one thing to be sad about today—I don’t have anyone to sit here and chat nonsense with.”

The beer arrived. I popped open a bottle, poured it into a glass, and blurted out a compliment.

“You must have been incredibly beautiful when you were young.”

The woman’s face flushed with delight, and her eyes sparkled.

“So I’m not beautiful now?”

“No. I mean—you’re still very beautiful now.”

It was a sincere compliment. She truly was still very beautiful. She had an elegant figure—tall and slender—with delicate features. There wasn’t a single wrinkle on her forehead or around her expressive eyes. The pink shirt she was wearing only enhanced her smooth, fair complexion.

Curious, I asked:

“Are you traveling all by yourself? Why didn’t you bring your husband along?”

She laughed innocently.

“Oh! My husband is traveling too, but he’s been traveling with another woman somewhere far away in the West. He hasn’t come back for more than ten years.”

She said it so calmly, with a slightly mischievous, teasing tone, that I simply couldn’t believe her.

“You really have quite a sense of humor!”

I laughed.

Realizing that I was skeptical, she became serious.

“I’m telling you the truth.”

“And you’re still waiting for him?”

I asked, silently cursing the man whose face I had never even seen.

What an idiot! How could a man have such a beautiful and faithful wife and not know how to cherish her?

The woman affectionately patted me on the shoulder.

“Wait for him? Not a chance! He and I got divorced.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Almost ten years ago.”