"Constance, look, you're already past the age. About the bride-price we discussed before, maybe…?"
I stared at those bright, clear eyes I'd longed for through my entire youth,
and in a single instant, I was simply tired of them.
So I answered him flatly,
"There's no need."
A flicker of triumph crossed Jason's face, the look of a man whose scheme had paid off, and he smiled.
"Good, Constance. You've always been the sensible one."
"Don't worry. Once you're married in, I'll treat you right."
Jason left with his buddies, all of them laughing and talking,
their chatter drifting into the courtyard.
"Jason, you're really something. You just wore Constance down a few hours and saved the whole bride-price!"
"Jason, you've got nerve. Weren't you afraid she'd get hurt and actually marry someone else?"
His voice carried into the courtyard on the cool morning breeze.
"Afraid of what?"
"Everyone in town knows Constance only ever thinks about me."
"Besides, once she's past the age, she's the kind of woman even the dogs in town turn their noses up at. Other than me, what man here would take her?"
He waved a hand as he spoke.
"All right, enough about Constance. She doesn't matter."
"Hurry up and tell me, how's Laurel Simmons doing? I just fixed up her house earlier this year, so how could there be rats in it? She must be scared out of her mind!"
A boundless bitterness rose from somewhere deep and filled my chest.
Yes,
I didn't matter.
But it didn't matter anymore. Jason, you don't matter to me anymore either.
When a woman in town married,
she had to climb to the mountain shrine at the summit and pray for an early pregnancy.
It was something you were supposed to do together with your husband,
but I worried the Sanchez family in the city had no such custom.
Agreeing to the marriage at the last minute, right before the wedding date, was already trouble enough for him.
So I gathered up my whole dowry and went up the mountain alone.
The moment I reached the shrine, I saw two familiar backs.
Laurel was kneeling on the ground, her shoulders rising and falling, weeping bitterly.
"I don't want to pray to the mountain god for a child, Jason. He doesn't treat me well…"
"You saw it yourself. On our wedding day, he wouldn't even prepare a decent veil for me…"
Jason looked at her with his eyes full of heartache, at a complete loss for what to do,
and then, at last,
he dropped to his knees before the mountain god with a heavy thud.
In this town, a man was allowed to kneel only twice in his whole life.
Once, to pray for his parents' blessing,
and once, to pray to spend his life with the one he loved.
Three years ago, the day Jason and I confessed our feelings, I pulled him to this very shrine,
wanting to kneel with him and pray to the mountain god that we'd be together for life.
Jason hemmed and hawed and never would.
In three years, we came here countless times, and countless times he found an excuse.
But today, just like that, he knelt without a second's hesitation.
"Laurel, it's all right. I'll always treat you well. For the rest of my life."
"But you're married now…"
"What does being married have to do with anything?!"
Jason suddenly grew agitated.
"Even married, I'll treat you exactly the same. The moment Constance dares say a single word against it, I'll divorce her on the spot!"
As he spoke, Jason seized Laurel's shoulders and pulled her into his arms.
In the gap as he turned, Laurel's eyes met mine,
and those soft, tear-brimmed eyes, when they looked at me, held nothing but triumph…
"Constance, you came…?"
Jason's head snapped around,
and the instant he saw me,
his whole body went rigid.
