You know that moment when the night’s too quiet…219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfj4tC4L8h
and your phone screen glows a little brighter than usual?
That was me.
Lying on my bed, earphones in but no music playing,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIDEVUt3Xwf
just the hum of the fan — louder than usual tonight —219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC7YcvZS9Wj
and her last message on the screen.
It wasn’t anything romantic.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtph3aWnXqA
Not a heart, not a wink, not even a punctuation mark that hinted at something.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡturbuTYdDe
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.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyVyHgTGpE5
Really talking.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGYx5ODbxMW
No layers, no sarcasm, no anime metaphors to hide behind…
But it felt real.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlhGn9cDUEb
The kind of real that makes you nervous — not because something’s wrong,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPSj0FpPG7T
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,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDyK3ywF8b
a casual text becomes a late-night heart spill,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFUdiP2Nc5Q
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,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡungnLuI7MH
"I’ve been trying to get your attention since that first day."219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxFYilcJQGk
Or219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPYaBEVR3II
"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:219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRNjvx6D0oE
"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.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzEWvc27a1W
Instead, I did what most cowards do when their heart starts to overthink:219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgGoASqijYH
I typed.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0U2DlX1Fq
Deleted.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ3ehXsgQjR
Typed again.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtOleuW04h
Deleted.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfElSbjhtZU
Typed again.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ36bn1crG4n
Deleted.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5RE34aWLDM
Typed again.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFLOVdMmO1a
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?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMb2RQhg11p
Does loving someone mean they owe me something?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRufy4Ct32W
A reply? A smile? A place in their life?
No, right?
Because love… love’s not a job interview.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2bgt92RMV3
You don’t apply and wait for a callback.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvSgV1yqPE2
There’s no resume, no credentials, no guaranteed outcome.
You just feel.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCSFiQd91Sh
And hope.
But here’s the brutal truth:219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpfYAPBHL4o
Hope is not a strategy.
I began to spiral.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlsI3tgRqF4
Thinking about arranged marriages, random unions born out of astrology and surnames.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ48rZmFdOxS
People saying "yes" to strangers in mandaps because their families believed it was enough.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV6n1qFaL8h
And somehow, somehow, love blooms there too.
Is it just the absence of fear?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0E6maylMh
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—219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWjPunajg5l
“I love pizza.”219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0fZ3YmdIH7
“I love that show.”219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5DUYjqO91A
“I love her.”
when the night’s too quiet and your heart's louder than it should be,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡudH6lpel8f
you start to ask…
What even is love?
Is it the late-night texts that make you smile like an idiot?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEwG8hCHO7I
Or the effort to learn C just to help someone who might not even know your name?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKBN71QfV45
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?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGvWFkzPe9d
If love means hiding your feelings just to stay close... is that love?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5n8Xz8Xl9f
If love never gets returned, was it ever real?
Or maybe love isn’t about return policies at all.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Lm5cFmMEQ
Maybe love is giving without expecting.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFLSsjQ0eOM
Hoping without demanding.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9GEfht9W9
Staying, even if the door never opens.
And if it’s the latter — if love is just dumb luck —219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK9otdOjezS
then what does that make me?
A gambler?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6AfebuguDu
A poet with no ink?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3vLJ17gIAz
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.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNeYAij8pPq
It doesn’t ask for returns.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRz8OzoGcay
It just… is.
Like the moon.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWJhTLHYJKc
Distant. Cold sometimes.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ22tqhrSZ9p
But still shining. Still pulling tides.
So I made a decision.
One I thought I’d regret.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQHESPxQ4NY
One that felt like surrender.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbDAYJnzrsI
But maybe it was the only honest thing left.
I typed:219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwcgudDv6Ru
"Let’s be friends."
And I meant it.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGvZdT3rjv9
Not because I wanted to.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN9syAs2y1u
But because I had to.
Because I know — deep down — even if I poured out every syllable of my soul,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCwcbUGFdOo
let the poet in me die trying,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1vyPV1vHiP
the answer would still be silence, or worse… pity.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1t69UapmpN
time won't change the answer,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIDCPBeYML
in this moment or in the future.
And I don’t want pity.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIJk4vgHMig
I want her to smile when she sees my name.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWprtXBoUtZ
Even if it’s only ever as a friend.
So yeah, laugh all you want.
But that was my truth:219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB1KuKMUg2I
Maybe I’ll never be someone important in her life.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQMhN5qlhFD
But I can be someone good.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsil2nq4YbP
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:219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFU2c4wQvUS
"Sure, of course."219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEbsBcreAcJ
I smiled.
Because that’s more than most people get.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx2JWw3k1Pr
And sometimes, friendship is the love story that doesn’t get written into poetry —219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2IyfYxKYs5
but it still matters.
The night grew older.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡddW5Fz0P3B
The conversation faded into a simple:219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF29vz2JfkF
“Goodnight.”
And I lay there.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrTtJrkKd6
Phone resting like a heartbeat on my chest.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDRDeZuTC19
Ceiling fan humming.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfXAbIGFfow
Eyes open.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJx6Rhl2ksd
Thoughts louder than sleep.
But slowly, everything softened.
The fan blurred into background.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGyWWZnWoKy
The silence turned into a lullaby.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdiGumehMaz
And Nova... drifted.
Not into a dream of her,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3sDyjt4d7t
not even of love,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0SJpzJTbr
but something stranger.
He stood at the edge of a nameless rooftop, under a starless sky.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcuvAFyVQeT
No moon. No wind.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIiqK4P002Y
Just an ocean of lights flickering below — like forgotten wishes.
A voice — his own, but older — whispered beside him:219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeAbQn9bFcm
“Do you think love makes you whole?219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvRQ1ZhRwOT
Or does it just reveal the parts you’ve been missing?”
Nova didn’t answer.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvPedg5H4wl
He couldn’t.
Because in that dream,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡetB6qDxQKx
he wasn’t searching for love anymore.
He was searching for something deeper.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ5kIPu5tGT
A reason.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡveg9WQ8Une
A pause in the chaos that made it all make sense.
But life doesn’t hand you clarity like that.
Sometimes it just gives you219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvVDaZlNptH
a feeling.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ93h6Zprrv4
A choice.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlHZLEkZLwh
And the hope that in some parallel version of now,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbf0KtMWdbX
you say the thing you never said —
and someone stays.
But in this world, in this moment?
Nova slept.
A little sad.219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpzi0wrNFuF
A little wiser.
And somewhere between the real and the not-quite-real,219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡISL5YREMdH
he whispered one last thing to the darkness:
“If love is a question no one knows how to answer...219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrxV39aArP
maybe I’ll spend my life learning how to ask it better.”
Then darkness.
And for once...219Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0MqR33IjTq
peace.
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