You know that moment when the night’s too quiet…115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjK7ujULRYe
and your phone screen glows a little brighter than usual?
That was me.
Lying on my bed, earphones in but no music playing,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr8qDurGuQJ
just the hum of the fan — louder than usual tonight —115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSKwADaC53v
and her last message on the screen.
It wasn’t anything romantic.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIqGaAXMCDr
Not a heart, not a wink, not even a punctuation mark that hinted at something.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXgxZ5W1hDw
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.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3OTvlzMfpT
Really talking.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbeVrYRx6NV
No layers, no sarcasm, no anime metaphors to hide behind…
But it felt real.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJZzBiyy0bf
The kind of real that makes you nervous — not because something’s wrong,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjbxEgVh6c
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,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZen8IJT5Lz
a casual text becomes a late-night heart spill,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlHRiQQXPIB
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,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo5avzh6EGB
"I’ve been trying to get your attention since that first day."115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv7WgMO95H2
Or115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgCEDTaZFj9
"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:115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbOTJs9oOyK
"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.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvBxcMO97J
Instead, I did what most cowards do when their heart starts to overthink:115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrX8rJQ5WBd
I typed.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy2k07JN6eI
Deleted.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPqQU2AMf9v
Typed again.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5QYSm3EPjj
Deleted.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQkCIL6AiVY
Typed again.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVGbxvTWgG9
Deleted.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz2GT800ckH
Typed again.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwxsUYx5mh2
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?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeY5krZqikd
Does loving someone mean they owe me something?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡst5mduLmU2
A reply? A smile? A place in their life?
No, right?
Because love… love’s not a job interview.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZQSXe3biV
You don’t apply and wait for a callback.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9F23vouB3U
There’s no resume, no credentials, no guaranteed outcome.
You just feel.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGVMAg8UBMJ
And hope.
But here’s the brutal truth:115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMmgOZI7Gkl
Hope is not a strategy.
I began to spiral.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIeKCd0BMGx
Thinking about arranged marriages, random unions born out of astrology and surnames.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1YPyuhxUok
People saying "yes" to strangers in mandaps because their families believed it was enough.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1OC2tFyFPB
And somehow, somehow, love blooms there too.
Is it just the absence of fear?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7MFNHZt4K
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—115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Faq9LWi21
“I love pizza.”115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVwmUj9joPj
“I love that show.”115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGwNfCW3HLa
“I love her.”
when the night’s too quiet and your heart's louder than it should be,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlMrGucAase
you start to ask…
What even is love?
Is it the late-night texts that make you smile like an idiot?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlMURVyOulM
Or the effort to learn C just to help someone who might not even know your name?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKqFHAGY6NC
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?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozgphbFSxJ
If love means hiding your feelings just to stay close... is that love?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlXZAARtvwD
If love never gets returned, was it ever real?
Or maybe love isn’t about return policies at all.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoIYtCFlX2c
Maybe love is giving without expecting.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzJF4Upw73t
Hoping without demanding.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgfk8eb0I5
Staying, even if the door never opens.
And if it’s the latter — if love is just dumb luck —115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Q2ZlwVPhj
then what does that make me?
A gambler?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAuoLE99XX1
A poet with no ink?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRjQJBqEzub
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.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwm5ECBHdZ7
It doesn’t ask for returns.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKy8KjvXrAa
It just… is.
Like the moon.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFT0fwxa3AD
Distant. Cold sometimes.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw2B5htnVU7
But still shining. Still pulling tides.
So I made a decision.
One I thought I’d regret.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRHI0eIfSlE
One that felt like surrender.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsYVLjQwirV
But maybe it was the only honest thing left.
I typed:115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSkrAJhDfSt
"Let’s be friends."
And I meant it.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtBL1352R6c
Not because I wanted to.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIYj5um6PGW
But because I had to.
Because I know — deep down — even if I poured out every syllable of my soul,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvVvBQZO7W7
let the poet in me die trying,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjY0COGEAFn
the answer would still be silence, or worse… pity.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWlCQKO9knu
time won't change the answer,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR1waPPJXBf
in this moment or in the future.
And I don’t want pity.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkEUkEU5A2F
I want her to smile when she sees my name.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡphNseiQSRI
Even if it’s only ever as a friend.
So yeah, laugh all you want.
But that was my truth:115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡchM7YPZP2Q
Maybe I’ll never be someone important in her life.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhM4NXMCYPW
But I can be someone good.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡda0QnkFIWs
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:115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEzSpzTyDSo
"Sure, of course."115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8IuJO9E46h
I smiled.
Because that’s more than most people get.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhqBKAO06Ip
And sometimes, friendship is the love story that doesn’t get written into poetry —115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXODCNIWVqh
but it still matters.
The night grew older.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVa9tjMnRh
The conversation faded into a simple:115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0kpam0gBg
“Goodnight.”
And I lay there.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNiosxsubPc
Phone resting like a heartbeat on my chest.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnAQaEtfLxJ
Ceiling fan humming.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡipHoyTWtYO
Eyes open.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAIDvjskOcj
Thoughts louder than sleep.
But slowly, everything softened.
The fan blurred into background.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFND4ns8nyg
The silence turned into a lullaby.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOd42S34zEp
And Nova... drifted.
Not into a dream of her,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzbqLDaoYnN
not even of love,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfbVwtQUpna
but something stranger.
He stood at the edge of a nameless rooftop, under a starless sky.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3pJROZIssN
No moon. No wind.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUXSKlX5EdX
Just an ocean of lights flickering below — like forgotten wishes.
A voice — his own, but older — whispered beside him:115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0lFtWRULm
“Do you think love makes you whole?115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrXkqVWzZpp
Or does it just reveal the parts you’ve been missing?”
Nova didn’t answer.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzZRD67cdlj
He couldn’t.
Because in that dream,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJO22Np49nI
he wasn’t searching for love anymore.
He was searching for something deeper.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIO6gRc8m66
A reason.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzZwyAwg2k
A pause in the chaos that made it all make sense.
But life doesn’t hand you clarity like that.
Sometimes it just gives you115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhuuV14uNIG
a feeling.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOghvTeq2IK
A choice.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi8SPVekDak
And the hope that in some parallel version of now,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUyPyi8XVDW
you say the thing you never said —
and someone stays.
But in this world, in this moment?
Nova slept.
A little sad.115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnKaad6P5YW
A little wiser.
And somewhere between the real and the not-quite-real,115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmQe28wL5ll
he whispered one last thing to the darkness:
“If love is a question no one knows how to answer...115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDnTOE2HwAQ
maybe I’ll spend my life learning how to ask it better.”
Then darkness.
And for once...115Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQAmMsNnBSx
peace.
and then Add to home screen.