Life on the islands was peaceful and quiet. As time went by, more people came to visit the church and Alisa didn't feel so alone. Even the boys who attended the church were kind and this made Alisa slowly feel healed from her love traumas, even though she didn't talk to them much. However, there was one who managed to make her open up easily.

"Alisa, you're too pretty to be a nun." he said, making her feel embarrassed.

Mark began visiting her daily and bringing gifts such as flowers and products that, according to him, he produced on his own farm.

"You have to tell me what your favorite thing to eat is, Alisa," he asked. "I'm not the best cook, but if you tell me, I can make it for you."

Alisa just smiled, feeling her heart race a little.

"Mark?" The blonde girl said, giggling mischievously. "I know him well. Here, look," she said, beaming, showing Alisa a plate of rainbow curry. "He asked me what my favorite food was. I said I liked curry but I wasn't very specific. Every week he brought me a different curry. This week he finally brought me my favorite," she said, taking a large spoonful and smiling as she tasted it. "Want some?"

"No, thank you," Alisa politely declined.

The truth was that Alisa didn't like curry. And she didn't like knowing that Mark was being considerate to other people besides her. And she decided that she would tell him that her favorite food was ice cream to see if the boy would do the same thing he did to the witch.

A week passed, however, and Mark still hadn't shown up. Alisa began to feel impatient until the day Chelsea visited her and told her the news.

"Mark seems to be looking forward to getting married. I've seen him talk to a lot of girls and ask them what they like best. They also seem to be getting pretty interested in him. I know of at least one person who would be thinking twice if he proposed."

"Marriage...?" Alisa asked, startled and scared.

"Yes. They've lived on the islands a lot longer than you, you know? And they're also closer to him than you are. And they're not nuns like you. I guess that counts in their favor, don't you?"

Alisa felt like the earth under her feet disappeared. And she thought about Mark and how attentive he was to her.

"He wouldn't try to make me fall in love with him to make me suffer, would he?"

Alisa decided to ignore what Chelsea had told her until the day Julia, the daughter of the animal store owner, came to visit the church and Mark showed up at the same time. And she watched with pain in her heart as the boy completely ignored her to go talk to the other girl, even giving her a pot of yogurt as a gift. From the other girl's reaction, Alisa realized that it wasn't just any gift. At least not for the girl. And it was only when he was leaving that he waved to Alisa. Julia called him and, after saying goodbye to Alisa, followed him happily.

"Probably the two of them will return to the other island together," she thought. And her heart stung.

Winter arrived and Alisa started wearing a wool dress instead of her usual silk and cotton clothes. It was on a snowy day that Mark showed up at church that the two finally had a conversation about everything that was bothering Alisa. She told him about what Chelsea had told her about the other girls, about how bothered she was by being ignored on the day Julia was at church, about how her love life had been so far and the reasons that made her become a nun.

"And I think I'm falling in love with you," she said at the end, looking at the floor, not having the courage to face him.

"You know, Alisa," he said, stretching out on the bench and placing his hands behind his head, "I can see the Harvest Goddess."

Alisa wanted to ask what this had to do with everything she had told him, but she remained silent. And he kept talking.

"She's not an amazing deity as you think she is. In fact, she could pass for a normal person if... well, if she didn't live in a water fountain."

"Why are you telling me this?" She finally asked, not understanding.

"I think you chose the path you wanted to follow. It was your choice to become a nun. And a nun who serves the Harvest Goddess, mind you. If you choose this path, you must follow it to the end. I'm not the kind of man you think I am," he said, turning his face and looking at her.

For a second Alisa felt her heart tighten and her eyes fill with tears. She lowered her head and hid her face with her hands, as if that would be enough to keep him from noticing she was crying. She secretly hoped that he would console her, comfort her, hug her and tell her that everything was okay. But he did none of those things.

"Don't cry. It bothers me deeply to see a girl crying."

That afternoon, after Mark had left, Father Nathan arrived with news.

"Looks like we're moving, Alisa.

"Moving?" She asked, trying to hide her surprise.

"Your eyes are swollen," the priest noticed, approaching the girl to examine her. "Are you okay?" he asked, dismayed.

"Yes, I am," she lied. "Can't make a habit of that," she thought. "What do you mean by moving, father?" She asked.

"It seems our work here is complete. They're sending another priest to take care of the church. And we're being relocated."

Alisa waited until her chores had finished and ran to visit the witch. Just like the priest, the girl noticed Alisa's swollen eyes, but unlike the priest, she didn't let it go.

"Usually seeing swollen eyes gives me immense pleasure but," she stopped talking for a moment, as if searching for the right words, "it gets on my nerves when it is you. What happened?"

Alisa allowed herself to cry again as she told the witch everything that had happened so far.

"It's a little bit your fault too, you know?" She said, a small smile on her lips while she patted Alisa's back. "Mark is that kind of person, who is nice to everyone, tries to please everyone, and in the end, when someone falls in love with him, he blames them for misunderstanding him."

Hearing the witch speak, Alisa found herself wondering if the witch herself had been someone who had also felt deceived by Mark. But she didn't want to go into the subject.

"I think I really should take your heart, you know?" The witch said, in a joking tone.

However, Alisa saw the solution to many of her problems in her proposal.

"Can you do it?"

The smile on the witch's face instantly disappeared after the question and her expression changed to a grimace.

"You know I couldn't do any of that," she replied with a bitter face, as if she was losing something. "But I can help you not to suffer anymore. I would love to see your suffering face, but I'm going to help you out this time, as a goodbye gift," she said with a smile that, to Alisa, seemed sad. It was the first time she had seen that kind of expression on the witch's face. "Do you want it? But be warned, if you do accept, there's no turning back."

"I do," Alisa replied resolutely. "Nothing could be worse than what I'm feeling right now.

"Okay," the witch agreed. "I think this is our goodbye, then."

As she muttered indefinable words, Alisa felt her eyes grow heavy until she lost consciousness.