β
Stories are both an escape from the truths of the world and the only way to see them clearly.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Nothing extraordinary is ever done out of reason or logic, but because itβs the only way for your soul to breathe.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Sometimes you don't find family in your own blood, but elsewhere.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I was angry at the fate I'd been given. Because I realised that in order for you to have what you want, I'd have to lose the only thing I've ever wanted.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
That there is no place you can go so far away from forgiveness. Not from someone who loves you.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Sometimes, only through a story can a truth be heard.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I don't think love can be bought or earned or even prayed for. It must be freely given.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Not all storytellers are grandmothers, but all grandmothers are storytellers.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Do you know how much I love you?"
"Even I don't know. My love for you is endless. Deep and endless, like the sea.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
That's just like a human to think the world revolves around you, to think the rivers are for you, the sky, the sea is for you. You are just one of many parts of the world, and in my opinion, the one that blights them all.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Because the people who live for tomorrow don't take risks. They're afraid of the consequences. While the people who live for today have nothing to lose, so they fight tooth and nail.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Don't chase fate, Mina. Let fate chase you."
" love can't be bought or earned or even prayed for. It must be freely given.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Iβm saying, people do strange things to protect their hearts. But when youβre afraid, your heart is closed, and itβs never the right time, but when your heart is open, and youβre willing to be brave enough to take a chance, the time is always right.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Wait for me," he says, "where the land meets the sea.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Something crafted with so much love could never sink
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
We will always love you, because you are ours. You are our sea, and our storms and our sunlight breaking out over a new day. You are our hope. We've been waiting for you for such a long time. Come back to us. Please come back.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
But strange, Mina, why do I feel like this? I donβt need a Red String or Fate to tell me that if you should die, so will I.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I apologize for many things, but mostly I apologize for making the weight you carry a little heavier.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
If cellists have fan clubs, Jenny, I want to join yours.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Humans tell myths to explain what they cannot understand.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
There are many pathways destiny can take.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Nothing extraordinary is ever done out of reason or logic, but because it's the only way for your soul to breathe.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
My grandfather understood the comfort there is in shared silence.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
And never was it for anyone's sake but my own. I couldn't endure in a world where I did nothing, where I let those I love suffer and be hurt. If I had stayed home, if I had never run after Joon, if I had never jumped into the sea, there would have been such a hole in my heart- the emptiness of having done nothing at all.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Look Shin, I found your soul." I lift my palm. At the center sits the pebble with the carving of the lotus flower... "It might not be as large as a mountain or as bright as the moon, but it's your soul. It's strong, resilient, and steadfast. And stubborn. And worthy, just as you are.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
In order to remain a human you'd have to tie your life to an immortal. I may not be the god of a river, a mountain, or a lake but I am a god, and I would tie my life to yours, if you'll have me
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
After all, a true musician doesnβt just perform a song but makes you feel something. And itβs clear with how my heart aches from the memory and the music, he has the spark. I want to ask him where it comes from, and how can I find it for myself.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
People don't begin relationships thinking they'll end."
"No, people end relationships when they know they should have never begun in the first place.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
My girlfriend that I was in love with who broke up with me on a hospital rooftop three months ago in Seoul shows up right before my concert in New York City. Yeah, I forgot about it.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Don't chase fate, Mina. Let fate chase you.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
You canβt aim to please everyone, you can only aim to please yourself.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Your story has been told over and over again, by everyone but you, I might have jumped into the sea to save Joon, but it was your hesitation that gave me the courage. With everyone and everything pushing you toward the Sea God and a fate not of your choosing, you looked back to what you wanted. And because of that, to me, you are the Sea God's bride. The girl who, by saving herself, saves the world.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I didn't want to chase you," he says, and I wince. Did he finally realize I'm not worth chasing? "I wanted to run with you.
β
β
Axie Oh (ASAP)
β
Your people suffer not because of any great will of the gods, but because of their own violent acts. They wage the wars that burn the forests and fields. They spill the blood that pollutes the rivers and streams. To blame the gods is to blame the land itself. Look upon your reflection to find your enemy.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Love is a country. Itβs vast and endless and full of an unbreakable hope. Maybe this love is a love thatβs worth dying for, I donβt know. All I know is that itβs worth living for, again and again.
β
β
Axie Oh (Rebel Seoul (Rebel Seoul, #1))
β
I am like the other brides. I know what it is to love someone you would do anything to protect. Who are you to say what my fate is- if I am to fail, or if I am to succeed? My fate is not yours to decide, my fate belongs to me.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Shim Cheong might be the most beautiful girl in the village but her face is a curse.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
My grandmother often said that the most dangerous of gods are the ones who are forgotten.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I took the liberty of designing your pennant,β said Rhy, resting his elbows on the galleryβs marble banister. βI hope you donβt mind.β
Kell cringed. βDo I even want to know whatβs on it?β
Rhy tugged the folded piece of fabric from his pocket, and handed it over. The cloth was red, and when he unfolded it, he saw the image of a rose in black and white. The rose had been mirrored, folded along the center axis and reflected, so the design was actually two flowers, surrounded by a coil of thorns.
βHow subtle,β said Kell tonelessly.
βYou could at least pretend to be grateful.β
βAnd you couldnβt have picked something a little more β¦ I donβt know β¦ imposing? A serpent? A great beast? A bird of prey?β
βA bloody handprint?β retorted Rhy. βOh, what about a glowing black eye?β
Kell glowered.
βYouβre right,β continued Rhy, βI should have just drawn a frowning face. But then everyone would know itβs you. I thought this was rather fitting.
β
β
Victoria E. Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
This is why I donβt like read receipts. Itβs like psychological warfare. He knows I know that he read my message and chose not to respond.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
our relationship ended before it truly had the chance to begin
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
You make me believe in wonders.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Wherever you are, I'll find you."
"I'll make it easy for you. Because I'll be right here. With you.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I'm saying, people do strange things to protect their hearts. But when you're afraid, your heart is closed, and it's never the right time, but when your heart is open, and you're willing to be brave enough to take a chance, the time is always right.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
People who live for tomorrow should fear the people who live for today
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Have new experiences, make new friends. I promise you can get the life you want now, if you just live in it.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Do you mean it?" he asks softly. His fingers around my wrist tighten infinitesimally.
"I mean it," I say. "With my heart, with my body, with my soul.
β
β
Axie Oh (ASAP)
β
People do strange things to protect their hearts. But when you're afraid, your heart is closed, and it's never the right time, but when your heart is open, and you're willing to be brave enough to take a chance, the time is always right.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Wait for me, he said, where the land meets the sea.
But I have waited for you, every day for a year, and you haven't come. What am I to do? How can I go on, waiting like this, when I know you will never come?
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
In another life, you might have found a more welcome shore than this. As it is, the sea is dark and the Sea God sleeps, and the shore is too far to reach.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
It is true that a wish is a piece of your soul. Because a true wish is something that if it never came true, it might break your heart.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I love them." It sounds like a confession, and I realize- haltingly- that it is. Whenever I ran through the rice fields, the long-necked cranes billowing their great wings as if in greeting; whenever I climbed the cliffs, the breeze urging me onward; whenever I looked out to the sea, the sunlight on the water like laughter, I felt love. I felt loved. How could the gods abandon those who love them?
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
And there is no hope, because love canβt be bought or earned or even prayed for. It must be freely given. And I have given my heart to someone, but he is not the Sea God.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
The Sea God isn't angry, Mina. He's lost. He's waiting, in his palace far beyond this world, for someone brave enough to find him.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
love canβt be bought or earned or even prayed for. It must be freely given.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I was twelve years old, and I could feel the hours of our childhood slipping through my fingers like sand in the sea.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Is it considered cheating if you go to the concert of a boy band that's not the idol group your boyfriend belongs to?
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
I want to be independent with my career but not with my relationship. I want to need someone, just as much as I want to feel needed.
β
β
Axie Oh (ASAP)
β
My father used to say there's a fine line between death and sleep, and that both are ways to escape an unendurable pain.
But he never spoke of the choice you'd have to make to wake.
β
β
Axie Oh (Rebel Seoul (Rebel Seoul, #1))
β
My eldest brother, Sung, says trust is earned, that to give someone your trust is to give them them the knife to wound you. But Joon would counter that trust is faith; to trust someone is to believe in the goodness of people and the world that shapes them.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Here, let me explain it to you in Jenny-speak. You know that movie we watched earlier tonight? Ajeossi. There's a quote Won Bin's character says that roughly translates to, 'People who live for tomorrow should fear the people who live for today.' Do you know why that is?"
"No," I drawl, "but you're going to tell me."
"Because the people who live for tomorrow don't take risks. They're afraid of the consequences. while the people who live for today have nothing to lose, so they fight tooth and nail. I'm saying that maybe you should stop caring so much about your future, about getting into music school, about what'll come after, and . . . live a little. Have new experiences, make new friends. I promise you can get the life you want now, if you just live in it.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
In this moment, I don't feel beautiful. Nor do I feel very brave, my hands trembling. But there's a warmth in my chest that nothing and no one can take from me. This is the strength I call upon now, because even if I am afraid, I know I've chosen this.
I am the maker of my own destiny.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Because the people who live for tomorrow don't take risks. They're afraid of the consequences. while the people who live for today have nothing to lose, so they fight tooth and nail. I'm saying that maybe you should stop caring so much about your future, about getting into music school, about what'll come after, and . . . live a little. Have new experiences, make new friends. I promise you can get the life you want now, if you just live in it.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Grandfather brought his rough hands to my eyes, wiping the tears from my face. βIβm saying, Mina, that Joon has loved you
your entire life. Since the day you were born. He will always love you. It is his forever gift to you.β
I shook my head. βThen why did he leave me behind?β
βBecause he knows that you love him enough to let him go.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I am not your bride," I say gently. "Not truly. You don't love me, nor I you. We are fated, but not in this way.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
What happened on that cliff so long ago that left an emperor murdered, two worlds torn apart, and a kingdom cursed for a hundred years?
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Why must everything we love be taken from us? Why can't we hold what we love forever in our hands, afae and warm and whole?
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I am the maker of my own destiny.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Because the world may be corrupt and broken, but as long as there are gods, there is hope.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
My love for you is endless. Deep and endless, like the sea.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Jenny, I just signed an endorsement deal with Samsung.β He grins. βLet me spoil you with popcorn.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
With his chopsticks, he picks up his macaron and places it on my tray. βHave mine too.β I beam at him. Heβs giving me his macaron. Itβs like heβs giving me his heart.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Who would dare attack Lotus House?β Namgi says loudly. βTell me, and I will go and hunt them down, tear them limb from limb. Destroy their homes, their sons, their goats, if they have themβ
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I used to wonder to myself , Is this what it's like to have a younger sibling? I wouldn't know , being an only child myself. Because Joon, knowing you followed , always walked a little slower.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
The elders say Shim Cheong was fashioned by the Goddess of Creation to be the Sea Godβs final bride, the one to ease all his sorrows and usher in a new era of peace in the kingdom. She has skin forged from the purest of pearls. She has hair stitched from the deepest night. She has lips colored by the blood of men.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Thereβs something I must do, somewhere I must go. Will you wait here? Do you trust me?" He doesn't answer me at first, watching me with his sea-dark eyes. Then he smiles, a small quirk of the lips. "With my soul.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
How did I know? I think of all the pieces I've gathered up until nowβShin, who lost his soul and his memories with it; the Sea God, who seemed less like a god and more like a boy caught in a terrible nightmare. But mostly I knewβ¦ βBecause I am the Sea God's bride, and Shin is the one I love.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I feel as if Iβve stepped into a scene from a K-drama. The main characters are Jaewoo, the stalwart class president, and Sori, the chaebol daughter of a huge entertainment company, which I guess would make Nathaniel and I the disreputable American side characters, there to disturb the otherwise idyllic life of the leads.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
Donβt be foolish, girl. Nothing in this world is ever freely given.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Iβve never seen anything more beautiful. Iβve never seen anything more terrifying.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
There is no place you can go so far away from forgiveness. Not from someone who loves you.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
My fate is not yours to decide. My fate belongs to me
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
The closer I get, the further away she seems. Until I'm right next to her, and she's as far away as the stars.
β
β
Axie Oh (Rebel Seoul (Rebel Seoul, #1))
β
When I look at Kirin, I see only him, a bright light in the darkness. When he looks at me, he sees only the darkness.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
To blame the gods is to blame the land itself. Look upon your reflection to find your enemy.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
A tall, not very frightening, honourable god without a soul. How did my fate get entangled with his?
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
We are fated, but not in this way.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
You make me happy. The ducks in the pond make me happy. The clear skies, the calm sea, the lasting peace. All of this makes me happy.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Which makes me wonder how much of storytelling is embedded in the land and itβs people, a consciousness that we all believe in and share.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
If you only trust yourself, it could be fun.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
Then there are girls like my sister, who want to be the Sea God's bride because it hurts too much to be themselves.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
It has to do with me because it has to do with you," Young says, his voice dropping. "Jaewon-ah, we've been friends longer than we've been--."
"Enemies?" I suggest weakly.
"Than we've been lost.
β
β
Axie Oh (Rebel Seoul (Rebel Seoul, #1))
β
But I think it might be the other way around. I think it would be a terrible sacrifice to do nothing.
And never was it for anyone's sake but my own. I couldn't endure in a world where I did nothing, where I let those I love suffer and be hurt. If I had stayed home, if I had never run after Joon, if I had never jumped into the sea, there would have been such a hole in my heart-- the emptiness of having done nothing at all.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
That's just like a human to think the world revolves around you, to think the rivers are for you, the sky, the sea is for you. You are just one of the many parts of the world, and in my opinion, the one that blights them all.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
I hook my arms around his neck. βWhat are we stealing?β I can feel Jaewooβs grin against my lips.
βTime?β he suggests. He must mean it as a joke, but itβs actually the very thing weβre trying to steal. Moments like this are so few and far between.
β
β
Axie Oh (XOXO)
β
You left the house though I forbade it,β he says. βDidnβt you hear what the fox goddess said? My life is tied to yours. If you die, so shall I. You may not care for my life, but you should at least have a care for your own. There are many things in this realm that could kill a weak human like yourself.
β
β
Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea)
β
The back of my eyes heat a little with the realization that Jenny never giving up on me is the reason we're friends, and the reason I'm friends with Angela and Gi Taek too. This conversation with Hyemi is a reminder that I need to reach out to Jenny, just as she reached out to me countless times before.
β
β
Axie Oh (ASAP)
β
Grinning, she hovered over him. Then, like a fist closing around a doorknob, her grin closed around him. With her lips, she turned the knob first one way and then the other: left, right, open, shut; left, right, open, shut. The knob did not squeak. In fact, Wiggs was unusually quiet.
Now, falling into rhythm, she sucked the knob from its axle, sucked the axle from its door, the door from its hinges. Out onto the lawn, tempo increasing, she sucked up the flagstone walk, the rosebushes, the petunia bed, the sprinkler, the driveway, and the small Japanese car parked in the driveway: oh, what a feeling! Toyota! Wiggs moaned as the neighborhood disappeared.
The towers of the city began to sway, and soon, the planet itself fell victim to the force, swelling at its equator, throbbing at its poles. It wobbled violently on its axis, once, twice, then exploded. The Big Bang theory, proven at last. Continuing to impersonate a black hole, she pulled in every drop and particle β sheβd never had a man in such entirety β and it wasnβt until the final spasm had subsided and the cosmos was at peace that she loosened her grip and, lips glistening like the Milky Way, looked up to see β the legs of a third party standing there.
β
β
Tom Robbins
β
Wait, I say. When he starts to slide his phone into his back pocket. I take out mine and pull out his contact, clicking the call button. I couldn't find your phone, so I called it. On his screen, my incoming call lights up with the name 'Songbird'. It was his nickname for me while we were dating.
'Did you change it back? Or did you...'
'I never changed it'.
β
β
Axie Oh (ASAP)
β
Leaning back in the couch, she let her mind relax. Think, Heather. Think. She visualized a grid containing the origin of a coordinate system. A perpendicular set of lines labeled βx axisβ and βy axisβ appeared to float before her. She drew a single point located right three ticks and up four ticks from the origin on the grid, then followed up with another point, connecting the two with a line. It was there, floating perfectly in the air before her. Right, she thought. She added another dimension to the grid to form a cube, and into this cube she drew spheres, ellipsoids, cubes, and pyramids. It was easy. The equations came faster and faster, as if she had fumbled around and found a switch in the dark. A part of her mind turned on, big time. Adding a fourth dimension was easy. She took her three-dimensional grid cube, shrank it to the size of a pinhead, then formed a line of these cubes. Five dimensions formed from a plane of the 3D grid cubes. Six: a cube made of cubes. Seven dimensions: a line made of the new cube of cubes. On and on the mental sequence spun from her mind. Easy. Oh so easy. She no longer had to think about the equations that represented the shapes. Merely visualizing the shape brought the corresponding equations to her mind. She didnβt have to solve them; she just knew them. It was beautiful beyond her wildest imaginings.
β
β
Richard Phillips (The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda, #1))