eulalia | Veridia: Interlude V (Reply)

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Sun: Jia! I'm getting married!

Jia: What?

Sun: Cadwgan asked me to marry him!

Jia: What—but—you can't—

Sun: I know neither of us is twenty summers quite yet, but who will say no as long as his parents say it's allowed?

Jia: But you can't!

Sun: I can't? Why can't I?

Jia: Because I'm in love with you!

Sun: Oh. Oh, Jia.

Jia: I love you, I've been in love with you for so long. We could be so good together, Sun, I know it. I would be so good to you.

Sun: I don't love you that way, Jia. And even if I did... I'm pregnant.

Jia: It could be our baby. I wouldn't mind.

Sun: Why didn't you ever tell me before all this happened?

Jia: How much more obvious could I have been? I think everyone else in the whole village knew!

Sun: I didn't know! Because you never told me!

Jia: I'm telling you now.

Sun: No, I—I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jia.

* * *

Xiang: Oh, darling, I am so sorry this has happened to you.

Jia: Now—now I don't even h-have her as a friend.

Xiang: I know it hurts very much right now. I won't lie to you and say that someday it will never hurt at all, but someday it will hurt less. And someday, when you have both grown and learned more about yourselves, you may even become friends again, even if it won't be the same as it was yesterday. But it will hurt less than it does now, darling one.

Jia: *sniffle* That's easy for you to say, Baba.

Xiang: Do you think that your father was my first and only love? That's a sweet thought, but not very realistic, I'm afraid.

Jia: Oh... who was he?

Xiang: His name was Cai Lun. He was very sweet, with a bit of a mischievous streak. We attended school together when we were just about your age and he was one of my closest friends there. We would work on our assignments together, and walk down to the river to see who could skip stones farthest, and occasionally he convinced me to sneak out to see if we could get into the tavern in town. My feelings for him deepened, and I... confessed to him one evening. And he didn't feel the same way for me.

Jia: What happened afterward?

Xiang: To be quite honest, it was very awkward for a few months, and then we had both completed school and I had to return home. Cai Lun hugged me and wished me well, and part of me was happy about it and part of me hated it, because it made me think of what I couldn't have. But it hurt less than it did at first, and eventually it hurt even less. And...

Jia: And?

Xiang: And eventually I met your father by happenstance and fell madly in love. An lifelong affliction, I'm afraid. Someday it won't hurt this much, Jia, and someday you will fall in love again. And the risk of it will make it all the sweeter. Do try to remember that.