Is love alive?

- I can't give you this.

- Why not? I promised to find you another one later.

- You won't.

It'd been three days and he still failed to convince her. She kept rejecting him no matter how many times he'd begged or promised to trade anything for it.

- You don't believe me? - asked he.

- No - she answered coldly.

The determination in her attitude made him feel frustrated, but he couldn't give up. He'd found it after such a hard time lost in search so there was no way he would let it go at this point. At any cost, he had to have it, the tiny thing she was keeping in that little glass pot by the window. Seemed like it was the only thing that brought life to this house, where lived a girl who was famous for many strange things around her.

- Is there any thing I can do so that you'll agree to give me that thing? - asked him in patience.

- Tell me why you want it so badly? - giving a serious look in the eyes, she asked.

Although he'd anticipated she might ask him such kind of question, still he felt pretty uneasy when it came. It wasn't that he didn't want to answer, rather he didn't know where to begin nor how he should begin. The look of those clear eyes, however, kept him from avoiding the answers. They were so clear yet intense and persistent that thinking of making up a lie made him feel guilty. Looking down to his hands, one wrapping the other, laying on the round wooden table, he was struggling to find a right point to start.

Without a noise, she reached him with a glass of warm water, gently placing it in front of the strange man who was trying to take away her precious thing. She didn't say a word after the question, just patiently waiting for his answer. It was always difficult to guess what this woman could possibly be thinking based on her expression. Maybe many years of solidarity had frozen down her emotions.

He lifted his eyelids a little bit just to catch a glimpse of the water glass. He didn't drink but strangely it made the nervous side in him felt warmer bit by bit. Slowly he took a deep breath and began to move his lips, still not looking at the woman.

- It's for someone. - he murmured - She said it was important to her, as much as she was important to me.

He took a quick glance at the woman's face but her expression was all blank as if the introduction of his story was nothing special to her, even though it was about a girl, with whom he supposed she would be curious about his relationship. With no other choice than going on with what had been begun, he continued.

- She said if I could find it before the winter ended, she would marry me when spring came. It would be like an evidence of my love for her and she would treat it as a symbol of our destined love. You may assume she's an unreasonable girl with sour and scornful thoughts or crazy ideas, but actually she's not. Well... it's just... she has her own belief. So when she said it was important to her, I had no doubt about that. That's why I wanted to find it for her no matter what.

She woman was still sitting in silence. Her fingers were moving on the table, drawing some undefined shapes. She didn't look at him but he knew she was listening.

- What if you can't? - she asked suddenly, looking at him in the eyes.

- I'll wait for another winter. - he answered with no hesitation.

The door bell rang all of a sudden. A guest was coming in and he had to stop his conversation, which was also today's conversation. The woman owned a little coffee shop and even though it didn't serve many drinks, the shop was quite well-known in town for its unique taste of coffee and milk, flavored with cinnamon. The shop was decorated in brown and honey yellow, with all of its furniture made from wood and intentionally made to look old. There were many windows installed around so that even in winter, it was still bright inside without any lamps. People said with this shop's space and coffee, you could get through any harsh winter, and even the owner who seemed pretty reticent and strange, the way she looked at you could also warm up your heart.

Because of his promise to the girl, he'd spent many weeks and days looking for her desired thing. But it wasn't easy at all. In the middle of winter, everything was covered under a thick layer of snow. It was so cold that even time also felt like  freezing. He dug deep into the snow for yards, trying to find a hint of what the girl wanted but every day passing by just left him disappointed and hopeless. He knew her demand was almost the same as finding a unicorn alive, but also, he couldn't resist it, his desire to make her happy. After days tolerating the cold in frustration searching for her version of "unicorn", he decided to take a break in that little coffee shop, and that was where astonishment  stroke him when he found that thing in a small glass pot by the snow decorated window, shining in the dim sunlight.

He came back to the shop again to convince its owner. He didn't mean to take it for free, but the woman told him that even if he'd agreed to become her servant for free, she would never let it go.

- Don't you know that it's impossible to find it in winter? - asked the woman.

- I do.

- So why did you accept the challenge?

- I just want to make her happy.

- At any cost?

- Yes.

- Even if you may die?

The man found himself holding his cup of hot coffee tighter than usual, pressing both palms against the warm sides of the cup. He'd never thought of that. He knew winter would be very cold but even in his worst nightmare, that never was a possibility.

- I never thought of it. I don't think it can happen.

- Anything can happen in this world. I think you're risking yourself on a worthless thing. Don't you think your girl's demand is ridiculous?

- I don't. I guess it must mean so much to her so that she insisted of wanting me to find it in winter. She's never been an unreasonable person. So I believe she has her reason. But... - he paused - if it's just a worthless thing, why don't you agree to let me have it?

The man's question surely had hit some note in the woman. For half a second, her face expression changed from indifferent to stunned and awkward. But she quickly composed herself, leaving the man the bill and turned away.

The next day, still sitting at the same table, the man looked at the tiny thing in the pot more closely. Its vivid green stood out in the brown theme of the shop, and seemed like the white color of the window was also lending it some more light to shine. For a moment, he thought he could understand why these women would love it so much. In winter, it was the only thing that reminded people of the continuous life out there, or at least that was what he felt in this little space, where the tiny thing was enjoying some scarce sunlight of winter.

- It seems you haven't change your mind yet? - today he was the first to ask.

- Not at all. - she answered firmly.

- I don't know what else I can do... - he continued with a miserable facial gesture.

- Tell me what she means to you. - she demanded.

He found this an unexpectedly easy question to answer. Taking a sip of coffee, he began his story about how he'd met her several months ago, how bright her personality was, how he found it so comfortable talking with her about lots of stuff... The woman kept listening with an amusing face. Usually she never showed her true feelings about anything but something in this man made her feel different. She didn't really know whether it was his strong determination or strange honestly that impressed her, but she knew she wanted to get more about him.

- So you think you love her? - asked the woman after his long talk.

- If not love, what else could it be? - the man questioned in doubt.

Another day passed by and the man hadn't got what he wanted. "Give up", however, was a word that didn't exist in his dictionary. He kept dropping by the little shop everyday, asking the woman the same question about the little thing in the glass pot, hearing the same negative answer from her, but different stories and revelations were exchanged each time. He didn't recognized that the woman talked more than usual and himself, either. Sometimes they talked about love, or just about coffee, weather, few people around them and so on. He helped her with the orders now and then, thanks to which he could learned a lot about many kinds of coffee as well as how to enjoy them. He began to understand why people in town love this place so much, but not until the day winter ended, did he realize that coffee wasn't the only thing he loved in here.

Spring is coming soon and snow had started to melt. Along with that process of nature, his frustration was growing up to its peak. He knew today was his last chance before all of snow disappeared from the ground. In that small coffee shop, everything remained unchanged. The tiny thing was still staying in the little pot by the window and there was no hint that the woman had changed her mind. Today, he felt strangely sad. Just sad, not angry. He knew it was also very precious to her, so there was no reason for him to blame her in anger if she refused to give him the thing. If he couldn't get it from the woman within today, he might lose someone he loved and that, for sure, made him unhappy. But actually, it was not the only reason; yet he couldn't find out what the other is.

Seeing the sadness in his eyes, the woman didn't say anything. Today she made him a cup of hot coffee and milk flavored with cinnamon, not black coffee like usual. She said it would make him feel better for a long day. They didn't talk, just watching one another in silence. He took a last look at the tiny thing in the pot, casting his eyes around the brown-themed shop, its old furniture, the white window where there was hardly any snow left, and his eyes lingered a little bit more on the owner who was turning her back to him to do some cleaning.  He didn't know how long it would take him to be here again if everything turned bad between him and his girl. That was why he thought he should see this place more closely before leaving. Noted that the cleaning thing would take the woman some time, he left money on the table, slowly walked to the door and prepared to leave without a word. Suddenly, he heard a noise and then someone  gently pulled his sleeve. The woman flipped his hand, putting the little pot in it, and without letting him utter any words, she said:

- Take this and give it to your love. Don't say anything. I'm not in the mood for any "thank you" or "sorry". Just remember what I told you about love. Find the true one and never let it go.

The woman pushed the man out through the door and hurried back inside the shop. He was still stunned and speechless due to the woman's sudden grace. But excitement soon came up and won over, which drove him straight to his girl's house within minutes. No need to describe how happy and surprised the girl was as she saw what the man had brought. She asked him how he'd got it but without waiting for his full answer, she kissed him more passionately than ever and hurried him into a wedding plan in spring.

It'd been five days and our man had been quite busy with his wedding plan. Of course he was utterly happy because everything was going so smoothly for him, but still, something strange kept lingering in his heart which made him felt uneasy. Seeing how his fiancée treasuring the little thing, suddenly he remembered the woman's saying:

- Love is not what you can archive to prove something, rather it's how you go to the end for it, no matter you're successful or not.

Did his girl ever ask how he'd got through the icy winter to get the thing for her? Did she ever care what he'd done and what he'd had to cope with? Only the shop owner knew. The long walls in white of the girl's house as well as its well-pruned  garden couldn't warm up his feelings even though snow had all melted away, leaving room for slippy roads and wet ground. He found himself missing the old wooden table, the brown walls, the honey yellow light, the smell of roasted coffee, the warmth of the air, and... someone else in that picture. He missed those clear eyes, the soft voice, the tender movements, he even missed the silence between him and that person filled out by the nice flows of music. And fortunately, it didn't take his heart so long to recognize who she was.

It's been a month since the dear owner of the small coffee shop left the town. People missed her so much and they were all praying the best things for their beloved girl. She had to leave for a big surgery overseas and it was said that she had to trade her life for it. If the surgery failed, they would never have any chance to see their strange but heart-warming girl again. They loved and pitied their poor girl, whose far-living fiancé had died in a plane crash this winter while on the way to bring her the twenty-sixth birthday gift, which was found later in his remaining luggage, something tiny in a glass pot.

Several days after the leaving of the coffee shop's owner, the hired lady who replaced her to take care of the shop noticed a man who came by everyday, all alone, always drinking coffee and mink flavored with cinnamon. He said he was the owner's friend. One day, he came in carrying a small glass pot with a green tiny thing inside, a four-leaf clover which was said to be the symbol of eternal love if  found in winter. He asked the hired lady to place the pot by the window where he usually sat near by.

And like other people in this small town, he'd been praying with all his heart for the little lady to come back,

for his true love to come back...