You know that moment when the night’s too quiet…27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJUPXAlFeb0
and your phone screen glows a little brighter than usual?
That was me.
Lying on my bed, earphones in but no music playing,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXCQwH14wbw
just the hum of the fan — louder than usual tonight —27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0FjMebNoo5
and her last message on the screen.
It wasn’t anything romantic.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoRflxV0f0W
Not a heart, not a wink, not even a punctuation mark that hinted at something.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYnzmVIArlS
Just words. Casual, comfortable. But from her.
And I just stared at them, like they were the final piece of a puzzle I wasn’t supposed to complete.
We were talking.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsMwMIHrBRG
Really talking.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDtDCLE2ESs
No layers, no sarcasm, no anime metaphors to hide behind…
But it felt real.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxN7rU66fiA
The kind of real that makes you nervous — not because something’s wrong,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlw8mVSXKDu
but because it’s too good. Too close.
And I began to wonder:
How much can you talk to someone before you say something you shouldn’t?
Before a joke turns into a confession,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCoOVzdaBJV
a casual text becomes a late-night heart spill,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5O0H2IIAwT
and silence feels heavier than words?
How much longer can we keep it buried?
I could feel it bubbling up.
The things I wasn’t supposed to say.
Like,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcEPv1okBPC
"I’ve been trying to get your attention since that first day."27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ77Q92FYzJ5
Or27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjrGkhHJvCr
"When you walk into a room, I pretend I didn’t see you first, but I always do."
Or the most dangerous of them all:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPeZTJ0f7XP
"You called me 'bro' earlier... did you mean that like 'brother,' or more like... awkward placeholder for someone you don’t know how to place yet?"
But I didn’t send any of that.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2NtDfFf2W8
Instead, I did what most cowards do when their heart starts to overthink:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF77h1jkZl7
I typed.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjPd88DBGgL
Deleted.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo16wSO7dQC
Typed again.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡexFPxde1ah
Deleted.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhyBBmIoRWz
Typed again.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡngF3O3PdsM
Deleted.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAPYmXonwrw
Typed again.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeyo2G4NNdU
Paused.
And somewhere between all that hesitation, I asked myself something even worse:
If I truly like someone… can I ask them to like me back?
And isn't that just the most foolish question in the world?
What gives me the right to expect love just because I give it?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAW2KX7EJrD
Does loving someone mean they owe me something?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKysu9ojagb
A reply? A smile? A place in their life?
No, right?
Because love… love’s not a job interview.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuk3GHiV0Z4
You don’t apply and wait for a callback.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPMot6vGud
There’s no resume, no credentials, no guaranteed outcome.
You just feel.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbBFO5dzBC2
And hope.
But here’s the brutal truth:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbKLISK3Gyx
Hope is not a strategy.
I began to spiral.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSKDdZudryc
Thinking about arranged marriages, random unions born out of astrology and surnames.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWHmPiv0OU2
People saying "yes" to strangers in mandaps because their families believed it was enough.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1weRnxENno
And somehow, somehow, love blooms there too.
Is it just the absence of fear?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzMGgW55cYc
Is it a choice? A decision made over and over again, like brushing your teeth or choosing peace over pride?
Or is it just a lucky accident?
So then what is love?
Love.
Four letters. Infinite confusion.
We throw it around so casually—27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZkgHzeiNKB
“I love pizza.”27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8t5ZmvOKie
“I love that show.”27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDruyr9GLKE
“I love her.”
when the night’s too quiet and your heart's louder than it should be,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBZTUyuHYw6
you start to ask…
What even is love?
Is it the late-night texts that make you smile like an idiot?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡor5OSACZjb
Or the effort to learn C just to help someone who might not even know your name?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHVTaOX8CqC
Is it being seen, truly seen—not for how smart or funny or helpful you are—but for just being you?
Because I wasn’t sure anymore.
If love means trying to be enough for someone... is that love?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9t9V8pKjS
If love means hiding your feelings just to stay close... is that love?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVyLZNVogcr
If love never gets returned, was it ever real?
Or maybe love isn’t about return policies at all.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqPYiny8Ail
Maybe love is giving without expecting.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡInK27fz41v
Hoping without demanding.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkqBIEdWDM2
Staying, even if the door never opens.
And if it’s the latter — if love is just dumb luck —27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAp1EUaFXL3
then what does that make me?
A gambler?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIRgqEgA6oN
A poet with no ink?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3QenjOBCuP
A fool tossing feelings into a wishing well that’s been dry for years?
All I know is this:
Love, the real kind, the scary kind — it doesn’t demand.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr0KI1nKBo3
It doesn’t ask for returns.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqhfYN8ZpE
It just… is.
Like the moon.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6hG6oS9LQP
Distant. Cold sometimes.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYddCwNDAUZ
But still shining. Still pulling tides.
So I made a decision.
One I thought I’d regret.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ92WbztUXbT
One that felt like surrender.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlpMM9HmNPE
But maybe it was the only honest thing left.
I typed:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQ86hKVbhA
"Let’s be friends."
And I meant it.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm7KEe4k8KF
Not because I wanted to.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspAihzO0Hz
But because I had to.
Because I know — deep down — even if I poured out every syllable of my soul,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDrngAP0Gbn
let the poet in me die trying,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYiHPTk1j6
the answer would still be silence, or worse… pity.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzxZOwdeArQ
time won't change the answer,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTXUMqrdsN
in this moment or in the future.
And I don’t want pity.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC35srtX2Tz
I want her to smile when she sees my name.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIjnCOraGY8
Even if it’s only ever as a friend.
So yeah, laugh all you want.
But that was my truth:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡElLzaSQUR6
Maybe I’ll never be someone important in her life.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yght7c3rd
But I can be someone good.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡotrT7UlcAY
Steady. Loyal. Low-maintenance. Someone she doesn’t have to second guess.
Hopeless romantic?
Guilty.
But hopeless doesn’t mean worthless.
So when she replied:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWo9gwYpjVk
"Sure, of course."27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoTd2ou1V3c
I smiled.
Because that’s more than most people get.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfwh72vHM6c
And sometimes, friendship is the love story that doesn’t get written into poetry —27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3eANNOOtSC
but it still matters.
The night grew older.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIrAzBQ1m1n
The conversation faded into a simple:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCtsW0uBNZJ
“Goodnight.”
And I lay there.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0VDn4rhqLe
Phone resting like a heartbeat on my chest.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxYNvbmK0a
Ceiling fan humming.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNgAOuuhX1H
Eyes open.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOh9pIkPTKc
Thoughts louder than sleep.
But slowly, everything softened.
The fan blurred into background.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwVZYyCmdUA
The silence turned into a lullaby.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG9RJ8TXJuw
And Nova... drifted.
Not into a dream of her,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlQcKkEJOL7
not even of love,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjz3VSTno6D
but something stranger.
He stood at the edge of a nameless rooftop, under a starless sky.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQsEgCJlgrj
No moon. No wind.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtQ9toaBuI4
Just an ocean of lights flickering below — like forgotten wishes.
A voice — his own, but older — whispered beside him:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDP3R7w1vI1
“Do you think love makes you whole?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ96HsQagn49
Or does it just reveal the parts you’ve been missing?”
Nova didn’t answer.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEap5PJly8H
He couldn’t.
Because in that dream,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ62AXYKg9mO
he wasn’t searching for love anymore.
He was searching for something deeper.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9XPHHnf0xW
A reason.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0DdZnNnKNf
A pause in the chaos that made it all make sense.
But life doesn’t hand you clarity like that.
Sometimes it just gives you27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwfQisrHTVN
a feeling.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyOL3lScBXb
A choice.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjB9HhltHfJ
And the hope that in some parallel version of now,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8e5Z6AZGk0
you say the thing you never said —
and someone stays.
But in this world, in this moment?
Nova slept.
A little sad.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEwt61UanmH
A little wiser.
And somewhere between the real and the not-quite-real,27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnIZrd2klsz
he whispered one last thing to the darkness:
“If love is a question no one knows how to answer...27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡomVq07vbbv
maybe I’ll spend my life learning how to ask it better.”
Then darkness.
And for once...27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPdyMNFDKBI
peace.
然後按「加至主畫面」