You know that moment when the night’s too quiet…166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCKkSh1G1Lo
and your phone screen glows a little brighter than usual?
That was me.
Lying on my bed, earphones in but no music playing,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8C64aCxOZp
just the hum of the fan — louder than usual tonight —166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6PDA6SB9Et
and her last message on the screen.
It wasn’t anything romantic.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LXMYXHGQy
Not a heart, not a wink, not even a punctuation mark that hinted at something.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81IG66fVtL
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.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjXeUtEcifJ
Really talking.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIMtdhPfWV
No layers, no sarcasm, no anime metaphors to hide behind…
But it felt real.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB6ezugPAe6
The kind of real that makes you nervous — not because something’s wrong,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj1NlxxV5Uo
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,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFG2aDwjpBb
a casual text becomes a late-night heart spill,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxRjodS0AL7
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,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIhmoZFqMZx
"I’ve been trying to get your attention since that first day."166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg5EwNSvyzN
Or166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiAnlqtT6mO
"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:166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRXD6IMfAl0
"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.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKVSfPWsDcm
Instead, I did what most cowards do when their heart starts to overthink:166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUc7jGdwW23
I typed.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnHQike2oNC
Deleted.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBewL7YH1L3
Typed again.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHP5DOkMRx0
Deleted.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yBN55crZw
Typed again.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9xyM0XfFyd
Deleted.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsHZj1m4Xvz
Typed again.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBMbnqfV3Rl
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?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNrbxd1Be6h
Does loving someone mean they owe me something?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7odeYIwXKM
A reply? A smile? A place in their life?
No, right?
Because love… love’s not a job interview.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Bs19PzcOP
You don’t apply and wait for a callback.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd6yMPk3Z4j
There’s no resume, no credentials, no guaranteed outcome.
You just feel.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP9GOB5o4Hz
And hope.
But here’s the brutal truth:166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVl9f6pVqnC
Hope is not a strategy.
I began to spiral.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxbSCtI1e7H
Thinking about arranged marriages, random unions born out of astrology and surnames.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSEcRRT0jk0
People saying "yes" to strangers in mandaps because their families believed it was enough.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOyrPV6TlBL
And somehow, somehow, love blooms there too.
Is it just the absence of fear?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjUTE8QYqs1
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—166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Cefcbp0Lw
“I love pizza.”166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWxCLk21QHm
“I love that show.”166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9Q0qdkS5e
“I love her.”
when the night’s too quiet and your heart's louder than it should be,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdYa0W80a6o
you start to ask…
What even is love?
Is it the late-night texts that make you smile like an idiot?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Hni16o9cw
Or the effort to learn C just to help someone who might not even know your name?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRTRTmKEyKB
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?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHVlsbn7QYF
If love means hiding your feelings just to stay close... is that love?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEGFSPenjmf
If love never gets returned, was it ever real?
Or maybe love isn’t about return policies at all.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaYLQPTl6Uk
Maybe love is giving without expecting.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjMUvuxOXqC
Hoping without demanding.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOIYyTomRV9
Staying, even if the door never opens.
And if it’s the latter — if love is just dumb luck —166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Zww1mSM32
then what does that make me?
A gambler?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡngpgB5n1vp
A poet with no ink?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvjaWYjEdJd
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.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡikOCgwFlGk
It doesn’t ask for returns.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyFaUBTaZJP
It just… is.
Like the moon.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡACORZq5lUT
Distant. Cold sometimes.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGjj9BDN9x0
But still shining. Still pulling tides.
So I made a decision.
One I thought I’d regret.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdirhqkRRXc
One that felt like surrender.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNVY2EQLvop
But maybe it was the only honest thing left.
I typed:166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoDsvIMkJDX
"Let’s be friends."
And I meant it.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZOskTQ8FS
Not because I wanted to.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEyPFySfFAG
But because I had to.
Because I know — deep down — even if I poured out every syllable of my soul,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEa4e2hFAqp
let the poet in me die trying,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb6vgAKcZ8p
the answer would still be silence, or worse… pity.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4OIk8A1t2U
time won't change the answer,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsnWX2o7dXP
in this moment or in the future.
And I don’t want pity.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtM0knisQ5b
I want her to smile when she sees my name.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE4FaUdT4rE
Even if it’s only ever as a friend.
So yeah, laugh all you want.
But that was my truth:166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJgwIUwb8u
Maybe I’ll never be someone important in her life.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZmInvAyvkx
But I can be someone good.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Vt87YN97t
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:166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpXLdTxNNM5
"Sure, of course."166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvq1fvPjuU9
I smiled.
Because that’s more than most people get.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbJHZfqZk0d
And sometimes, friendship is the love story that doesn’t get written into poetry —166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2SyWjDTLvi
but it still matters.
The night grew older.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEDYaP1uXfr
The conversation faded into a simple:166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡip0sVAqhdf
“Goodnight.”
And I lay there.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ZOAE6CnZt
Phone resting like a heartbeat on my chest.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡizxxxmXPR8
Ceiling fan humming.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhMa7jNydHb
Eyes open.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGIfdHByCaA
Thoughts louder than sleep.
But slowly, everything softened.
The fan blurred into background.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJNwMu6pQcD
The silence turned into a lullaby.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcpOyLWxIwf
And Nova... drifted.
Not into a dream of her,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiWuLxrg95b
not even of love,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVaeLViag2e
but something stranger.
He stood at the edge of a nameless rooftop, under a starless sky.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVKZTUa2TlA
No moon. No wind.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9j5cUMmeRd
Just an ocean of lights flickering below — like forgotten wishes.
A voice — his own, but older — whispered beside him:166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIYQagwfOaW
“Do you think love makes you whole?166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx99MUJuKWz
Or does it just reveal the parts you’ve been missing?”
Nova didn’t answer.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTt0WnCOjjf
He couldn’t.
Because in that dream,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkJEqaoHT2I
he wasn’t searching for love anymore.
He was searching for something deeper.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl7tRQPLq3s
A reason.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Mk8HyswOH
A pause in the chaos that made it all make sense.
But life doesn’t hand you clarity like that.
Sometimes it just gives you166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYlEAeQchWL
a feeling.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNlw8mx3Km5
A choice.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf4PXFSySf1
And the hope that in some parallel version of now,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCigD1gcdxp
you say the thing you never said —
and someone stays.
But in this world, in this moment?
Nova slept.
A little sad.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD6CjxImdfo
A little wiser.
And somewhere between the real and the not-quite-real,166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFgxU8QiVI4
he whispered one last thing to the darkness:
“If love is a question no one knows how to answer...166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcnJc4PLPXq
maybe I’ll spend my life learning how to ask it better.”
Then darkness.
And for once...166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbBvh8Sc6pU
peace.
and then Add to home screen.