門當戶對

the doors don't match

門當戶對。The doors match. The households align.

I learned this phrase from a boy who was cruel to me in college. Not consistently cruel. Cruel in the way people are cruel when they like you and don’t know what to do about it. He’d ignore me for weeks and then show up at my door when something broke. We orbited each other the way damaged things orbit. Not by …