To me this is about a relationship doomed from the start - the girl is attracted to "uncommitted" guys who leave, which may be alluded to the phrase "queen of leaves," probably due to relationship problems with her father. The guy really likes the girl, she makes him very happy, but from early on he never planned on staying / marrying her. So she left him. She "showed him what he never had" as someone who deeply cared about him, as he never really had a girl like that in his life before. It seems she probably left because he wouldn't commit. Despite this, he never forgot about her. She smelled like cigarettes and wine, and the smell of these probably bring back memories of her. One night he returns to his hometown to see the girl he once loved singing on stage, and he never heard her sing before but figured she could. It seems like she hasn't aged at all, but he's already passed his "youth" stage and is using pills to drown out the sorrow/pain of loneliness, the one that she had temporary subsided.
To me this is about a relationship doomed from the start - the girl is attracted to "uncommitted" guys who leave, which may be alluded to the phrase "queen of leaves," probably due to relationship problems with her father. The guy really likes the girl, she makes him very happy, but from early on he never planned on staying / marrying her. So she left him. She "showed him what he never had" as someone who deeply cared about him, as he never really had a girl like that in his life before. It seems she probably left because he wouldn't commit. Despite this, he never forgot about her. She smelled like cigarettes and wine, and the smell of these probably bring back memories of her. One night he returns to his hometown to see the girl he once loved singing on stage, and he never heard her sing before but figured she could. It seems like she hasn't aged at all, but he's already passed his "youth" stage and is using pills to drown out the sorrow/pain of loneliness, the one that she had temporary subsided.