dani B)

“thinking is the root of our suffering.”
― Joseph Nguyen, Don't Believe Everything You Think

“I met someone. I think I’m in love. She’s tiny and cute. You would like her. I told her all about you. She’s…” Here, he lights a cigarette. I hear the all-too-familiar sound of his lighter over the phone. The blue-green flame. “She really puts me at ease. It’s different than when I’m with you. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I had a problem with you. Not at all. It’s just that, with her, I never feel anxious about what I’m supposed to do next. I could never cheat on someone like her.”
― Bae Suah, Highway with Green Apples

“I wish you were a different type of girl,” he continues. “The type who cries and refuses to let go when a guy breaks up with her. The type who says, ‘How dare you see another woman, I won’t stand for it.’ If you were that type, you would never have gotten this call from me. But, we were good in the beginning! You said so yourself.” Those words—You said so yourself—sound so oddly like begging that I find myself saying yes despite myself. He forgot it was my birthday. I don’t feel like reminding him, either.”
― Bae Suah, Highway with Green Apples

“The sound of the nail clippers must have annoyed my brother, because he stuck his head out the door and yelled at me to be quiet. My mother, who felt nothing for my father, discovered the glass I’d broken while doing the dishes and scolded me from inside the kitchen, as if she’d finally found the proper outlet for her frustration. Crickets chirped in the corner of the yard. I asked myself over and over, When will I ever get out of here?”
― Bae Suah, Highway with Green Apples