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"Why would you love someone like me, Woo?" San whispers, her quivering breath mingling with the other woman's, lips faintly brushing.
"Why wouldn't I, Sannie?" Her laugh was sweet, her empty eyes holding all the stars in them, drowning San with their love, just as endless and bright. "There's no reason for me not to."
Woo's hand cupped her face, thumb sweetly caressing the icy skin and heating it with her warmth. A tear rolled down San's cheek, her eyes exploring her lover's features all over again, drawing her face in a canvas inside her head.
The one who didn't turn stone under her gaze. The most beautiful eyes San has ever seen.
"I ended so many lives, Woo." She said, a pained smile dancing on her lips as she sobbed under Woo's blind gaze.
"You didn't do it on purpose, love. You never wanted to, it's not your fault, my dear." Her voice cracked as her lips trembled. It pained Wooyoung to listen to San saying those things about herself. She loved her so much and she knew San loved her as well.
Yet the taller girl kept on trying to find reasons to be hated, reasons to make Wooyoung stop loving her. The way guilt and sadness blinded her was agonizing, her curse destroying every single piece of her perception of herself and her actions.
"But I still did it, Wooyoung." San's hand pressed against the other's on her face, a sad, small smile on her features. "So many lost their lives because of me. Every single one I ever loved turned into stone and perished, becoming nothing more than dust and memories lost in time."
"It wasn't your fault, Sannie. Please, believe me when I say it." The girl almost begged, voice strained and hurt, desperate. She hugged the other's neck with pale arms, bringing her close, warming the cool body with his own and trying to absorb all of San's troubles out of her body.
"But Woo--"
"Your curse made it this way." The girl interrupted, almost crushing the other girl in her arms as she spoke, pouring all her love and care into every single sound and coating San with them.
She wished she could take all San's troubles to herself, all the blame and guilt, all the sadness and constant self hatred. Every single thing that hurts her selfless heart.
"You never wanted to hurt anyone. You're the kindest and sweetest person I've ever met and I am so proud of you," she continued, not letting the other mutter a single sound. "You would never, and never did, hurt them out of cruelty. Nothing of this was your fault and I am so sorry you had to go through all of this, darling. You didn't deserve any of this."
"Your words are so kind, my love." The snake haired girl said, utterly endeared yet hurt. She hated causing her sweet little sunshine any kind of pain, thus being one of the reasons she questions why she would ever deserve someone like Wooyoung. Someone so endlessly kind and just as sweet and comforting. "Even though my heart wants to believe them, all my ears can hear are sweet lies bathed in blind love. And they’re so, so hard to believe."
"I will say them as many times as you need to start believing them, Sannie. Because what I'm saying is nothing more than the truth, my angel. Nothing more than the truth." San felt the smile in Wooyoung's voice, as warm as her skin, so reassuring and utterly honest, and San couldn't help but smile as well, the snakes in her hair almost purring under Woo's tender embrace.
The determination in Wooyoung's words almost made San believe them. For a fraction of a moment, during a single piece of meaningless time, she believed it with all her heart and soul and all the pain seemed to dim, to fade away and fly like dust in an old room. For some precious seconds, the grip in her heart loosened and she felt a rush of relief wash over her.
Because Wooyoungwas right. Because everything that happened wasn't her fault. Her curse made her this way.
But then it all disappeared. The guilt came after her and trapped her soul with heavy chains around her heart once again. The relief was gone, yet it was deeply cherished while it lasted.
And it was okay if it didn't last long. It was okay because San knew Wooyoung would bring that relief back soon. Because Wooyoung was the one slowly loosening the heavy chains. Little by little. Word after word. Until they fall and turn into soreful memories that would be cherished as well.
Because Wooyoung would make those memories something good, as she has always done.
San loved the smaller girl so much that sometimes she asked herself how she was even capable of loving so much, of wanting so much, of drowning herself in Wooyoung and never combust, explode and seize to exist. She loved her too much and maybe that was what scared her the most.
"Why would I ever deserve someone like you?" She whispered again, hands finally wrapping around her lover's waist tightly and pulling her in, smashing their two bodies together, almost like she wanted to fuse them. "What kind of God blessed me with your love? What have I done to deserve any of it?"
"You never had to do anything, love. And you know why?" Wooyoung grabbed her lover's cheeks, joined their foreheads tenderly and whispered against her cold lips. "Because you're someone who deserves all the love this broken world can ever give to you. You're the most worthy of love and I will make sure to love you endlessly, in all ways I can muster, until you feel able to give that same love to yourself."
"And after that?" San asked, noses brushing lovingly in a silent caress, her yellow stoning eyes staring at Wooyoung's tenderly.
San loved Woo's eyes so much. Those shiny eyes which never had the chance to see the world, forever blind and full of the purest dreams. They could see through San as if she was a piece of glass, though. And San loved every bit of it.
"After that I will devote every single one of my living days loving you even more." And Wooyoung giggled breathlessly, pecking her lover's cold lips right after. "Because my love for you will never turn into stone."