You know that moment when the night’s too quiet…31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq3mQE4pjoo
and your phone screen glows a little brighter than usual?
That was me.
Lying on my bed, earphones in but no music playing,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbjHqSbaZOa
just the hum of the fan — louder than usual tonight —31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSEyaDQLAg1
and her last message on the screen.
It wasn’t anything romantic.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjeDE98o8qi
Not a heart, not a wink, not even a punctuation mark that hinted at something.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWYnBGhnnRD
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.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpkO8I0BIeI
Really talking.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79q0pKdWYN
No layers, no sarcasm, no anime metaphors to hide behind…
But it felt real.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM4J1Vn6fM8
The kind of real that makes you nervous — not because something’s wrong,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNS2ZQTFBww
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,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZbWAWffM3f
a casual text becomes a late-night heart spill,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZiGsOlgUob
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,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6JRgET4qOi
"I’ve been trying to get your attention since that first day."31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xuVL7yWgL
Or31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ23DeUryO9H
"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:31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfL1U5rZ4YE
"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.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpceUKW6dXh
Instead, I did what most cowards do when their heart starts to overthink:31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ84GV35h27K
I typed.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy47SfcqxOW
Deleted.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCXYauN4sU
Typed again.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMK2Fwj3bZ
Deleted.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAutswQhb73
Typed again.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8gJFXMPRWx
Deleted.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0vWoVmb0s
Typed again.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ480BXtLG8d
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?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ93fWc61g5n
Does loving someone mean they owe me something?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6AAjPUDKcl
A reply? A smile? A place in their life?
No, right?
Because love… love’s not a job interview.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNTOe1rRwIB
You don’t apply and wait for a callback.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAE85aFZ0z
There’s no resume, no credentials, no guaranteed outcome.
You just feel.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV10CvAJMJk
And hope.
But here’s the brutal truth:31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrvdHkbz3C0
Hope is not a strategy.
I began to spiral.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWkKDuoGKL4
Thinking about arranged marriages, random unions born out of astrology and surnames.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXWlJHEvEB
People saying "yes" to strangers in mandaps because their families believed it was enough.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgx3BBCRbPD
And somehow, somehow, love blooms there too.
Is it just the absence of fear?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbId0wPwHmV
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—31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJkD1PCOOiF
“I love pizza.”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXV6a5pidr1
“I love that show.”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡduRXa2NPXa
“I love her.”
when the night’s too quiet and your heart's louder than it should be,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1hSbwHB3Vj
you start to ask…
What even is love?
Is it the late-night texts that make you smile like an idiot?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9wNmKelKy
Or the effort to learn C just to help someone who might not even know your name?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAP0A4mkxE1
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?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdqF3ER5wGy
If love means hiding your feelings just to stay close... is that love?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkw1fJtn59U
If love never gets returned, was it ever real?
Or maybe love isn’t about return policies at all.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRybIJBs3vH
Maybe love is giving without expecting.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbkVgxBwlCx
Hoping without demanding.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJH3kdyuTpe
Staying, even if the door never opens.
And if it’s the latter — if love is just dumb luck —31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR0BaaxLBF8
then what does that make me?
A gambler?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHUHrcefyG1
A poet with no ink?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc5MD0bbrba
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.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeThvnqrfU4
It doesn’t ask for returns.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Lb30UVZ6p
It just… is.
Like the moon.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5z30nbnpr1
Distant. Cold sometimes.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZx7pQVb8Ch
But still shining. Still pulling tides.
So I made a decision.
One I thought I’d regret.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKw4KCNJ7IJ
One that felt like surrender.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsmKM7wpLQO
But maybe it was the only honest thing left.
I typed:31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMQqjd1ttq3
"Let’s be friends."
And I meant it.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKWLQv2biFZ
Not because I wanted to.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ56mHEGClyG
But because I had to.
Because I know — deep down — even if I poured out every syllable of my soul,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZqFFiejd3
let the poet in me die trying,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYeHWFFQKl
the answer would still be silence, or worse… pity.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyJFnGFghvY
time won't change the answer,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKq6AiyWTn7
in this moment or in the future.
And I don’t want pity.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEqeZC8Ut9W
I want her to smile when she sees my name.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDX0enEYG1A
Even if it’s only ever as a friend.
So yeah, laugh all you want.
But that was my truth:31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKDT8Vfpr8O
Maybe I’ll never be someone important in her life.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn5PalzhmZa
But I can be someone good.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrGVzhJozwy
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:31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡle8brEtVkp
"Sure, of course."31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA0ITeesOrA
I smiled.
Because that’s more than most people get.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqOtV2kZor5
And sometimes, friendship is the love story that doesn’t get written into poetry —31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYjrq8vtQcI
but it still matters.
The night grew older.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlSa38VU93t
The conversation faded into a simple:31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSvH4cC6bKd
“Goodnight.”
And I lay there.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr8p5aUIDEI
Phone resting like a heartbeat on my chest.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRpEwRxGOsx
Ceiling fan humming.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0fyAmoYAS
Eyes open.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrKTknC2Gp
Thoughts louder than sleep.
But slowly, everything softened.
The fan blurred into background.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8f3VdnkzbB
The silence turned into a lullaby.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡApVZ91SbTC
And Nova... drifted.
Not into a dream of her,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhuGXkbY6Hl
not even of love,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWpGBoVgB9
but something stranger.
He stood at the edge of a nameless rooftop, under a starless sky.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxowyjhGMf
No moon. No wind.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiunPZo1Kdd
Just an ocean of lights flickering below — like forgotten wishes.
A voice — his own, but older — whispered beside him:31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzO0moVNCyO
“Do you think love makes you whole?31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5MkkpNhtGA
Or does it just reveal the parts you’ve been missing?”
Nova didn’t answer.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrdWvy4hyJy
He couldn’t.
Because in that dream,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAg3VH1P4ih
he wasn’t searching for love anymore.
He was searching for something deeper.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡemNws99WD4
A reason.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdEcOLzt6es
A pause in the chaos that made it all make sense.
But life doesn’t hand you clarity like that.
Sometimes it just gives you31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMxrwL9Hic1
a feeling.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz2FCjf20rS
A choice.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg1XuZCZVI5
And the hope that in some parallel version of now,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA5CzzMyBcb
you say the thing you never said —
and someone stays.
But in this world, in this moment?
Nova slept.
A little sad.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUSfiptQcVB
A little wiser.
And somewhere between the real and the not-quite-real,31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFkMVnHcRNO
he whispered one last thing to the darkness:
“If love is a question no one knows how to answer...31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2inu9OK5I
maybe I’ll spend my life learning how to ask it better.”
Then darkness.
And for once...31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ90RxD4vzgG
peace.
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