Olivia

“When we’re together … it’s as though we are like water in the river, my thoughts flowing through yours, yours through mine. And when we are silent”—a faint smile tugged at his lips—“I forget you are even there sometimes.”

“I’m flattered, nauri,” I said drily.

“It is the greatest compliment. I dislike being around people for too long. But when I am with you … I never feel the need to be someone I am not.”
― June Hur, The Red Palace

“He moved my hand into his, and as our fingers intertwined, it occurred to me that love wasn’t all that I’d feared it to be. I had imagined that it was a wildfire that incinerated everything in its path. Instead, it felt as ordinary and extraordinary as waking up to a new day.”
― June Hur, The Red Palace

“I listened to the same heartbroken song the entire bus ride home, because it was still a summer when sadness was beautiful.”
― Nina LaCour, We Are Okay

“Some dreams, I'd learned, were meant to fade away. And to let go of them didn't mean to let go of myself, but to release the life I'd imagined I wanted. The loss had grieved me at first, but in its fading away-slowly, very slowly-a new dream had bloomed.”
― June Hur, The Red Palace