Daddy, Chasing Mommy Back is On Us!

Selena hadn't expected such a response. "She's married?! That's unfortunate," she uttered with a sigh.

"The way we met was due to an unfortunate event as well. She was only 17 when I first met her on Mount Elbert in Astoria. I was there on a trip with my friends, and the view on the mountaintop was really unique. I got myself injured during our hike, so I had to stay around the local villages there for a while to recover. She would drop by and visit me every day then. She's a simple girl who's eager to see the rest of the world. She wanted to further her studies, but the families in the mountains were simply too poor. Also, she had a tough childhood, for she's a child from her mother's first marriage, and her mother gave birth to another girl and boy after getting married to her second husband. Thus, she was the least pampered child at home. She had to do chores each day and she started working after she got out of middle school. One day, she came over and asked me if I could take her out of the mountains. I asked her what the matter was, and she told me that her stepfather wanted her to marry the son of their clan's leader. Their clan leader had promised to give their family a huge sum of money in exchange. However, she didn't want to get married to the clan leader's son as the son was a gangster. I had been treating my injuries back then, and all my friends had already left the mountains. I was there all alone, and the signal there was terrible, so I couldn't get in contact with the outside world at all. At that time, I wasn't sure if I was able to bring her along with me, but I decided that I'd do it the moment I saw her crying."

Selena listened to his story quietly. "What happened after that?"

"We agreed to meet at a specific time and place. She made it on time, and the both of us ran for quite a distance. However, my leg injury hadn't completely recovered, so it was really painful for me to run. We were too slow, and some of the villagers soon caught up with us. They brought her away, but they didn't do anything to me since I was an outsider. I offered to pay her father a lot of money, but her father didn't trust me. He said that he encountered many people like me who traveled over to the mountains from the city, and he thought that people like us didn't have any money since we were traveling to such rural areas. I swore that I would give him the money, but he didn't trust me at all. He even sent some men to beat me up. After that, she came to me once more. She cried and begged me to stop meddling with her business. She told me that she had decided to get married to the clan leader's son, that his son was a handsome man, that she was honored to be able to marry into the clan leader's family, and so on. However, I could tell that it wasn't truly what she wanted. I watched her get married with my own eyes, yet I couldn't do anything about it. After that, my assistant came to pick me up from the mountains. I left all my valuables with her in hopes that she would live a better life from then onward."

"Did you guys meet again after that?" Selena asked.

Jason shook his head. "I wanted to check on her after that, but it turned out that their entire village had shifted elsewhere because others had occupied their land. The families in the village were all allocated to

other different villages, and I didn't

I

know her actual name. She told us to call her Savannah when she introduced herself as our tour guide, but no one had heard of that name when I asked around about it. We lost touch with one another just like that. I no longer bothered to look for her after that since she was already a married woman. She's probably a mother now." Jason lowered his head as he put on a bitter smile. "I'm such an idiot, aren't I? You must be laughing at me deep down, Selena," he said as he met her gaze.

She quickly shook her head. "Haven't you heard of the saying, Jason? Love is a country where all idiots reside. Love is a silly thing to begin with. We wouldn't truly be in love if we weren't foolish about it

sometimes, right?"

He gave her a faint smile as he looked at her. "Love is a country where all idiots reside. I like that saying."

"Do you still like that girl called Savannah now, Jason?" she asked.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

He looked down and remained silent for a while. "I don't know either. AMI know is that I felt a really special feeling when I first laid eyes on her. I felt like I've known her for a long, long time, even back then."