Chapter 3 — There's No More Room For You

And now, she's wearing a wedding dress and telling my boyfriend, "You lost." Not bragging. It's the sentencing. She laid out this situation from the beginning. I was never her rival, just her backdrop. Tham Do Chu raised his head and looked over following Chu Au Vi's eyes. He saw me. His eyebrows instinctively furrowed, then he stood up and walked towards the door. The glass door was pushed open and the tinkling sound of wind chimes rang out.
“Why did you come here?”
He stopped at the door, his tone seemed to be questioning.
“Come and review old stories with my cousin.” I said, “What about you, isn't the lobster bar open today?”
His face turned pale for a moment. "Au Vi said she suddenly wanted to try on a wedding dress, so she asked me for advice. She's a girl, it's not safe to go alone."
“Trying on wedding dresses.” I nodded, "Whose wedding dress is it?"
He was speechless. Chu Au Vi stepped out from inside, the end of her dress sweeping on the floor. Seeing me, she showed her standard expression of surprise and quickly walked over.
"Yeu Yeu! Why are you here? You just got discharged from the hospital, why don't you go home and rest?"
She tried to reach out to pull me, but I dodged aside. Her hand stiffened in mid-air, the expression on her face changed from surprise to hurt.
"Yeu Yeu, am I misunderstanding something? I just asked Do Chu to go see the wedding dress with me. Next month I have a model shoot where I need to use a wedding dress. Going with him was just a coincidence—"
“By chance.” I repeated the word, "So the dress you're wearing, coincidentally, is the model I just ordered last month."
Plain silk fishtail dress, off the shoulder. I made an appointment with the staff three times, and all three times Tham Do Chu said he was not available to go with me. I went to the store alone, tried it on alone, took a photo in front of the mirror and sent it to him. He only texted back one sentence: "Okay." And now, he's sitting here, looking at another woman wearing it with eyes I've never seen before. The corner of Chu Au Vi's mouth twitched, but quickly restored her gentleness.
"Is that so? That's such a coincidence, if you like, let me take it off for you to try, okay?"
"No need." I looked at her, "Just wear it, it suits you very well."
Tham Do Chu seemed to have finally found the steps down to the water, his voice softened a bit: "I think that's best. Au Vi just tried it on, it doesn't matter."
“Yes, it's okay.” I said, “I don't need it anyway.”
Chu Au Vi's smile stiffened. Tham Do Chu's eyes became alert.
“What is not needed anymore?”
I didn't answer him. Turn around and walk towards the taxi parked on the side of the road. He chased after me and grabbed my arm.
“Trinh Yeu, tell me clearly, what do you mean you don't need it anymore?”
I looked down at his hand holding mine. That hand was long and clean, the old scar on the side of the ring finger was white in the sunlight. It was this hand that first held my hand in the cinema. I used to think those were the most reassuring hands in the world. Now I just want to break it.
“Let go.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I'm not causing trouble.”
"If you're not causing trouble, why say those words? Don't need anything? Not getting married anymore?"
Only the family members of both sides know about Tham Do Chu and I's engagement. No ceremony, no ring buying, just two restaurants c
Hungry for dinner, forming a tacit understanding. That when he applied for a job transfer back to Lam Thanh, he would register his marriage, organize a wedding, and end the long-distance relationship. I waited four years. Every time he said, "We'll have to wait until this project is finished," and I flipped through a few more calendar pages. Flip through all four calendars. The project ended four times. Every time it ends, there is a new project. The day he returned to Lam Thanh, it was forever in "Next time".
“Yes, no more marriage.”