You know that moment when the night’s too quiet…192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFB46D3syGR
and your phone screen glows a little brighter than usual?
That was me.
Lying on my bed, earphones in but no music playing,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9zDxAmUc1o
just the hum of the fan — louder than usual tonight —192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE35yaIf0W8
and her last message on the screen.
It wasn’t anything romantic.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vmhKvJwB6
Not a heart, not a wink, not even a punctuation mark that hinted at something.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4mjqdjaTph
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.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ680FTOCMl8
Really talking.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAJxcDmYUH3
No layers, no sarcasm, no anime metaphors to hide behind…
But it felt real.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXnrYcVAnn
The kind of real that makes you nervous — not because something’s wrong,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOiwo3fEJlN
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,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHaY3ZD3iF
a casual text becomes a late-night heart spill,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKpRPyw6QUO
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,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdMn7g8FMzj
"I’ve been trying to get your attention since that first day."192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhNmveGNcAL
Or192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgcuaCT3DV7
"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:192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkC51VpmcjP
"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.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKN0TVzoSak
Instead, I did what most cowards do when their heart starts to overthink:192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPKSBd4c5zg
I typed.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fqqRpdpCT
Deleted.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGp7OReoBKP
Typed again.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3DuvVGvWV
Deleted.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL6DpsxhdUD
Typed again.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAK7GpmBvJx
Deleted.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVYliHgns2W
Typed again.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBpkoTuEBcL
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?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFon540akrz
Does loving someone mean they owe me something?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeMg6vlg2Kf
A reply? A smile? A place in their life?
No, right?
Because love… love’s not a job interview.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMkN8nwKaW
You don’t apply and wait for a callback.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFhKOkkjqXV
There’s no resume, no credentials, no guaranteed outcome.
You just feel.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvx4FFjRSFM
And hope.
But here’s the brutal truth:192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJywQcHars2
Hope is not a strategy.
I began to spiral.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGYVh6kc74o
Thinking about arranged marriages, random unions born out of astrology and surnames.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9buhCTW5uC
People saying "yes" to strangers in mandaps because their families believed it was enough.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡELu0okAzyY
And somehow, somehow, love blooms there too.
Is it just the absence of fear?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGAlWrNcKmX
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—192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFrdGlZX7vc
“I love pizza.”192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCkJhB3yy4A
“I love that show.”192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9sRHKxSII9
“I love her.”
when the night’s too quiet and your heart's louder than it should be,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1QGCNVMb3B
you start to ask…
What even is love?
Is it the late-night texts that make you smile like an idiot?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkWHAEE99Di
Or the effort to learn C just to help someone who might not even know your name?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMkWHnG584P
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?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ24gZCFQ2wg
If love means hiding your feelings just to stay close... is that love?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCF3qaKAab4
If love never gets returned, was it ever real?
Or maybe love isn’t about return policies at all.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPEp5Ya7ff
Maybe love is giving without expecting.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIKdnS2QC1O
Hoping without demanding.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoRWRYYvI7o
Staying, even if the door never opens.
And if it’s the latter — if love is just dumb luck —192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpc6bhhe4eU
then what does that make me?
A gambler?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1QwemrkHoY
A poet with no ink?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGKgDeKZP15
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.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtMERqo6Xvi
It doesn’t ask for returns.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWJ5eZ9vqd1
It just… is.
Like the moon.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡetzuutYavO
Distant. Cold sometimes.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnhCGAuxm0n
But still shining. Still pulling tides.
So I made a decision.
One I thought I’d regret.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm8w2fkGtkd
One that felt like surrender.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt8l9pGyZk5
But maybe it was the only honest thing left.
I typed:192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUbl3lRDpcx
"Let’s be friends."
And I meant it.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzH6paklXlw
Not because I wanted to.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX7wcNn9Roc
But because I had to.
Because I know — deep down — even if I poured out every syllable of my soul,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7IbEOX31ml
let the poet in me die trying,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS6eXN3wIVR
the answer would still be silence, or worse… pity.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVuXLGVbBsd
time won't change the answer,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgz9aY8EUov
in this moment or in the future.
And I don’t want pity.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW0zSCRiN5f
I want her to smile when she sees my name.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlTCxKrC7P1
Even if it’s only ever as a friend.
So yeah, laugh all you want.
But that was my truth:192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZiNVWuXA3w
Maybe I’ll never be someone important in her life.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrzxsU4sFl
But I can be someone good.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhPxWndnvUt
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:192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp3gW9dWUJu
"Sure, of course."192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbu9PN5m2S
I smiled.
Because that’s more than most people get.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5Iri8DbSm
And sometimes, friendship is the love story that doesn’t get written into poetry —192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOgz8CMSxa8
but it still matters.
The night grew older.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmeF1OaTtzj
The conversation faded into a simple:192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡur31v4omOh
“Goodnight.”
And I lay there.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIcyuTB9mmF
Phone resting like a heartbeat on my chest.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGNwbKySNVI
Ceiling fan humming.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXeIbPNX1Ad
Eyes open.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEPWfhmRVKx
Thoughts louder than sleep.
But slowly, everything softened.
The fan blurred into background.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2jQuZhXU9t
The silence turned into a lullaby.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡax2Qynx8Ws
And Nova... drifted.
Not into a dream of her,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GCkTYDEL1
not even of love,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHotSlJnun
but something stranger.
He stood at the edge of a nameless rooftop, under a starless sky.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJEBpkdzUvs
No moon. No wind.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBdsGQ9om9a
Just an ocean of lights flickering below — like forgotten wishes.
A voice — his own, but older — whispered beside him:192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdVqXWkfzk
“Do you think love makes you whole?192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrSqugyZhlK
Or does it just reveal the parts you’ve been missing?”
Nova didn’t answer.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjFhfZIzmSB
He couldn’t.
Because in that dream,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSlCWPpXHa
he wasn’t searching for love anymore.
He was searching for something deeper.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7DrG5odoUn
A reason.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMk0iR5T1GM
A pause in the chaos that made it all make sense.
But life doesn’t hand you clarity like that.
Sometimes it just gives you192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv8MW5Nuk2z
a feeling.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09uFqEkzEd
A choice.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw9MrKqjKlx
And the hope that in some parallel version of now,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKECUAlnfo
you say the thing you never said —
and someone stays.
But in this world, in this moment?
Nova slept.
A little sad.192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDI0kSDr9uE
A little wiser.
And somewhere between the real and the not-quite-real,192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHEXI2R1qde
he whispered one last thing to the darkness:
“If love is a question no one knows how to answer...192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkxHMDVbugU
maybe I’ll spend my life learning how to ask it better.”
Then darkness.
And for once...192Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2nqrHgMR81
peace.
and then Add to home screen.