Ink

How do you win when you're up against yourself?

They tell you you'll forget how it used to be. You'll get used to it, that it's better to move on. They don't realize you can't. You're not the same person anymore.

My heart was glass--easy to see through, simple to break.

Hana yori dango. Dumplings over flowers. It basically means that someone should value needs over wants, substance over appearance. As in, make sure you have food and shelter before you burn money on something extravagant. And, you know, choose genuine friends who will be there for you over pretty, shallow ones. Don't get carried away by beauty if it leaves you empty.

He was fireworks and radiance, glare and tingling frostbite.

I hope he draws for you.

It doesn't matter what they do to me,' he said. 'It might even be better if they—stop me. But I need to know you're safe.' 'Oh, and so what you need is so important?' I spat, but really I was shaking at what he'd said. More like what he hadn't quite said. 'How can I know you're safe if I'm not here to save your pretty ass?

Just like in our kendo matches, where we only felt briefly safe with our shinai thrust between us, keeping each other at arm's distance was the only way to trust each other. That way, no one would lunge, and either of us could retreat. We lived in parallel worlds, somehow held together by the axis of each other.

Power is an ugly thing. Run from it while you can.

Be angry, Katie Greene. Don’t forget how it was. Because there’ll always be a hole in your heart. You don’t have to fill it.

Katie, I know it's your life. But please ... live it. Please live.

There would always be a void. And my shoulders shook with relief that I didn’t have to fill it.

There's a saying in Japan, and it has to do with cherry-blossom viewing: hana yori dango (Dumplings over flowers). It basically means that someone should value needs over wants, substance over appearance. As in, make sure you have food and shelter before you burn money on something extravagant. And, you know, choose genuine friends who will be there for you over pretty, shallow ones. Don't get carried away by beauty if it leaves you empty.

una persona debería anteponer sus necesidades a los caprichos, la esencia a la apariencia.

I'd had my suspicions, but they couldn't have prepared me for the truth.

Which was safer, going forward or going back? I didn't know