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“Yeah.” He runs his knuckles along my cheek. “When you cherish someone for how amazing they are, you don’t pluck them from their roots just to watch them wither in your hands. You help them bloom into the incredible thing they’re really meant to be. And no, I’m not expecting anything back from you, so don’t feel pressured. This is simply what I want to do.”
“Where does jealousy come from, if not an insecurity that I’ll lose you because of him? But that’s not how it works, no matter how many people believe it so. You’re not something to be kept or taken, and love isn’t some scarce resource to battle over. Love can be infinite, as much as your heart can open. I mean, when you think about it, love is fueled mostly by compatibility. Whether two people make each other happy by being close. So it’d be pointless of me to resent Shimin. However compatible you are with him, it doesn’t have anything to do with how compatible you are with me.”
“Growing up around here, I’ve seen too many people try desperately to control others to hold on to them. I never saw strength or dominance in it. Just a sad, sad insecurity.”
“Cheating is deception. He and I have talked about this. He’s secure enough to know it’s not a competition. That any feelings I have for you don’t cancel out the ones I have for him. He’s okay with however close you and I get.”
Perks of refusing to play by the rules: you don’t have to choose between the boy who’d torture a man to death with you and the boy who’d welcome you back with pastries after.
Redemption story, they said? There will be no redemption. It is not me who is wrong. It’s everyone else.
