• I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much pressure there is to know who you are when you’re seventeen. Or eighteen. Or twenty-two. Or thirty. Like everyone expects you to have this one, clear, perfect plan that’ll make your life make sense. A major. A dream job. A future that impresses people at dinner parties. But the truth is… I don’t know what I’m doing. And maybe that’s okay. My point is, I don’t think there’s a single path we’re meant to follow. We’re all just trying. Messily. Quietly. Loudly. Every day. And whatever your path looks like— whether you’re going to college, or staying home, or taking a gap year, or running straight into your dream job— I hope you’re doing it because it’s yours. Not someone else’s version of it. Not what your parents wanted, or what your friends expect. Yours. (NoNomDePlume, “Chapters of an Ending (Intro of a Song)”)

‎

• hi everyone, it's seungkwan. you might be worried by this long caption, but it's something good, i promise. the thing is, i have to tell you all a very important thing about myself: i'm in love. from the time i was a kid, i actually loved only one thing, and that was volleyball. i played and played until one day, i somehow ended up in the best team in the world (my teammates will tease me for being so cheesy). but six months ago, i met someone wonderful. you all might know him. he's the one in these pictures with me. he has supported me through training for the olympics and i hope he'll be in paris with me. i love him a lot, and i hope you can find it in your hearts to support us. and if you don't...i will try to understand that too. this is something i've been fighting with myself about to tell you. on the one hand, it's my business what i do. on the other, i want to be loud with my love for hansol, the way i'm loud with my love for my friends, family, and country. i want to show off and be proud of his success, not just as his friend, but as his love too… (checkyeshoshi, “ready to dive”)

‎

• We began as friends, two people finding solace in fleeting moments amid the chaos of our respective worlds. And somewhere along the way, I found myself surrendering. Willingly giving in to a love that felt inevitable. There was something tragic about the way he smiled, like he knew the world would never let us be, but chose to love me anyway. And in that moment, I realised; some people don’t fall in love, they surrender to it. He treated me with a tenderness I didn’t know I was worthy of. Not like a trophy or a conquest, but like something sacred. As if I were porcelain in an expensive museum; fragile, irreplaceable, worth protecting even from the air itself. In this industry, love is often framed as a liability. But love, in its truest form, should never be criminalized. It should be honoured. Encouraged. Celebrated. Yet, I was afraid. Afraid of what this love might cost, of the headlines, the noises, the accusations. So I chose to bury it deep inside my heart. To carry it quietly, pressed tightly against my ribs, close enough to feel, but never close enough to show. But I’ve come to understand something. Love, when it is real, will not stay hidden forever… Please, if you ever supported me, if you ever believed in me, believe in this love too. (Anonymous, “At the Edge of the World”)

‎

• There’s a photo of Macau on the fridge, and another by the couch in the living room. Kim will catch Porchay standing by them sometimes, lost somewhere within himself that not even Kim can reach. And Kim wonders if all of the people that they’ve lost know they exist in Porchay’s prayers now—whispered before meals, and shows, and in the dead of night when Porchay can’t sleep. (bangchanspanda, “coconut”)