REPEAT AFTER ME / @forlornmyth
SHE’S NOT KNOWN TO BE FORGIVING. women like her, carved from the rarest jadeite and ground down into the vision she is now as house han was promised; women like her do not forgive and forget. wu yuhua, mind you, has not once forgotten nor ever forgiven someone who’ve wronged her. and, naturally, has never gotten over anything ever. which, if one were to take into consideration of her age—seems almost childish.
though—what is maturity when her girlhood is snatched from your hands and wrung dry? when it is instead wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl and worn like second skin. her girlhood, her innocence, which is no longer hers to claim—down to the very disarming smile she’s practiced and mastered—she keeps it because men love a wide-eyed-heart-on-her-sleeves thing, even if she’s long been anything but.
she keeps it, in memoriam of who she used to be. she keeps it, really, as a reminder of how far she’s fallen.
but, we return to never forgiving. we return to the bitter ball she’s tucked under her tongue. we return to the pit of smoggy flame burning bright in the void that we’ll hesitantly call a soul.
we return to the letter she’s penned, sealed with intent to send it far away—south, if you will.
sung, she writes, i hope this letter reaches you well.
i’m sorry to hear that your new bride passed without taking you with her.