You know that moment when the night’s too quiet…99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9mNnJv54Mu
and your phone screen glows a little brighter than usual?
That was me.
Lying on my bed, earphones in but no music playing,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNnhc4dVtgr
just the hum of the fan — louder than usual tonight —99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK3XmzM1SQ0
and her last message on the screen.
It wasn’t anything romantic.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwDUBLeRcW
Not a heart, not a wink, not even a punctuation mark that hinted at something.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYBo2weGwnS
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNPFPuA1w4V
Really talking.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMQKNEom7BM
No layers, no sarcasm, no anime metaphors to hide behind…
But it felt real.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnpayCRMbXM
The kind of real that makes you nervous — not because something’s wrong,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkv5shZOzUt
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,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBa0s0iO5vQ
a casual text becomes a late-night heart spill,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyLgJn7ype5
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,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvlyED70NY2
"I’ve been trying to get your attention since that first day."99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWF0evf1Gk
Or99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2esHWnUQc
"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:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡawAHp88zgP
"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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZPQigmMuFX
Instead, I did what most cowards do when their heart starts to overthink:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡufhsGGZViN
I typed.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9i25rjfRob
Deleted.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvmTzFaQdHy
Typed again.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhVyOO6Mxm
Deleted.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe3V2wXEi8r
Typed again.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWFnNuwh0BW
Deleted.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ75Vww4jIYM
Typed again.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxKKc8hvd4b
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?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBJKhXVFqeg
Does loving someone mean they owe me something?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3R6VMGgiiQ
A reply? A smile? A place in their life?
No, right?
Because love… love’s not a job interview.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOxZNmBY3Sk
You don’t apply and wait for a callback.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaQBP1zTu2m
There’s no resume, no credentials, no guaranteed outcome.
You just feel.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQGjXNzJrhz
And hope.
But here’s the brutal truth:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ9JfTm4Ntq
Hope is not a strategy.
I began to spiral.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZegtjLQZVJ
Thinking about arranged marriages, random unions born out of astrology and surnames.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSkJRdJFoKf
People saying "yes" to strangers in mandaps because their families believed it was enough.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡolOCnJZuwS
And somehow, somehow, love blooms there too.
Is it just the absence of fear?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBZOH6ZY2OG
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—99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXbYjPeNXM
“I love pizza.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFghKlJdlN4
“I love that show.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Og9qvsb2A
“I love her.”
when the night’s too quiet and your heart's louder than it should be,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31XkyqsHMo
you start to ask…
What even is love?
Is it the late-night texts that make you smile like an idiot?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7tUQePsGGd
Or the effort to learn C just to help someone who might not even know your name?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZrg1EpK0nU
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?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZeHrrTyLC
If love means hiding your feelings just to stay close... is that love?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8LkKQlbaOk
If love never gets returned, was it ever real?
Or maybe love isn’t about return policies at all.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw2K9yINFHv
Maybe love is giving without expecting.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVd25lNy3JD
Hoping without demanding.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTbQuxThcXv
Staying, even if the door never opens.
And if it’s the latter — if love is just dumb luck —99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbEMO2hr2P5
then what does that make me?
A gambler?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0q6hvk82O2
A poet with no ink?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoiLhc9EpNo
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOWY55GtQid
It doesn’t ask for returns.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1EMZodE3nC
It just… is.
Like the moon.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHXTQ2OTWG
Distant. Cold sometimes.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoal70jkpyJ
But still shining. Still pulling tides.
So I made a decision.
One I thought I’d regret.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVw5rNzHQUh
One that felt like surrender.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4bQGVlF8Qf
But maybe it was the only honest thing left.
I typed:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ82UPHq027B
"Let’s be friends."
And I meant it.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3twCylCk9L
Not because I wanted to.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0BZWN3XO1B
But because I had to.
Because I know — deep down — even if I poured out every syllable of my soul,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnMgGKXYZdo
let the poet in me die trying,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhriwDHrdyB
the answer would still be silence, or worse… pity.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8jMuzSBHNv
time won't change the answer,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUvqa4cQFMY
in this moment or in the future.
And I don’t want pity.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8iymdWdQdj
I want her to smile when she sees my name.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDneuhbRcZM
Even if it’s only ever as a friend.
So yeah, laugh all you want.
But that was my truth:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByFfo8hQ1Z
Maybe I’ll never be someone important in her life.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Y1I1XZPdC
But I can be someone good.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdnI2GhjGt
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:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRJ2tpldqFK
"Sure, of course."99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZyZlmR9gJw
I smiled.
Because that’s more than most people get.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbZyl4ddtOW
And sometimes, friendship is the love story that doesn’t get written into poetry —99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP9dS8Ojzf2
but it still matters.
The night grew older.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg6OAqcX5MH
The conversation faded into a simple:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwTeuwANUjZ
“Goodnight.”
And I lay there.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIwnH4onS9v
Phone resting like a heartbeat on my chest.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcQBcMLGPD9
Ceiling fan humming.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmMwKpOONzv
Eyes open.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYuMPcR5x1q
Thoughts louder than sleep.
But slowly, everything softened.
The fan blurred into background.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjnOA1ht2fP
The silence turned into a lullaby.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0IGLh7oxJX
And Nova... drifted.
Not into a dream of her,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXxfYLunuA5
not even of love,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG3msjLvky6
but something stranger.
He stood at the edge of a nameless rooftop, under a starless sky.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡisgG4e4KJJ
No moon. No wind.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtsYzfivA1z
Just an ocean of lights flickering below — like forgotten wishes.
A voice — his own, but older — whispered beside him:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRx91HJWBSP
“Do you think love makes you whole?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJ3ztDFjte
Or does it just reveal the parts you’ve been missing?”
Nova didn’t answer.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCuwEpitIKj
He couldn’t.
Because in that dream,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoL20OyZssi
he wasn’t searching for love anymore.
He was searching for something deeper.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwjjnT5aY1f
A reason.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjMdFTgjbm8
A pause in the chaos that made it all make sense.
But life doesn’t hand you clarity like that.
Sometimes it just gives you99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9kFmeVT5k1
a feeling.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodJuzv0MbS
A choice.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6JOlFuydv
And the hope that in some parallel version of now,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmbXQT1LQ30
you say the thing you never said —
and someone stays.
But in this world, in this moment?
Nova slept.
A little sad.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU3QfejUEHJ
A little wiser.
And somewhere between the real and the not-quite-real,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJcpuvMj6J
he whispered one last thing to the darkness:
“If love is a question no one knows how to answer...99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXS91JDVNzV
maybe I’ll spend my life learning how to ask it better.”
Then darkness.
And for once...99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlSSh4xBJNh
peace.
and then Add to home screen.