You know that moment when the night’s too quiet…160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx11VrfRnJa
and your phone screen glows a little brighter than usual?
That was me.
Lying on my bed, earphones in but no music playing,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr2YESyYQze
just the hum of the fan — louder than usual tonight —160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNHpXCPX0fC
and her last message on the screen.
It wasn’t anything romantic.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl7nc792Fqd
Not a heart, not a wink, not even a punctuation mark that hinted at something.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC2Syr6wMgB
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.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbkA7jiUKdH
Really talking.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYD1T2fohw
No layers, no sarcasm, no anime metaphors to hide behind…
But it felt real.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZG9tKLhpAs
The kind of real that makes you nervous — not because something’s wrong,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD36vh9JjNa
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,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk5ObwQDLNL
a casual text becomes a late-night heart spill,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1LiFNZJyKJ
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,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNzvm1z2OZ
"I’ve been trying to get your attention since that first day."160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3orUTbFjs
Or160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡen5N22bhaO
"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:160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa0vAuYGaAp
"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.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvrbriBqWuG
Instead, I did what most cowards do when their heart starts to overthink:160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgJPdLPjttB
I typed.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5MxVojt8f6
Deleted.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOhNSkddIk7
Typed again.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ06dcpaXOSF
Deleted.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnvoDvATws
Typed again.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNZHkzsBQ6
Deleted.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG07jN0S1i2
Typed again.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMm6bBrbtHB
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?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZ9mYapA5s
Does loving someone mean they owe me something?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzV4kgWruz
A reply? A smile? A place in their life?
No, right?
Because love… love’s not a job interview.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4J0Na1RB0N
You don’t apply and wait for a callback.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcAHhynKgcZ
There’s no resume, no credentials, no guaranteed outcome.
You just feel.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICH2iAWYEP
And hope.
But here’s the brutal truth:160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEQWEkPms3m
Hope is not a strategy.
I began to spiral.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3TRUWdt9tz
Thinking about arranged marriages, random unions born out of astrology and surnames.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSaIDwpDsfn
People saying "yes" to strangers in mandaps because their families believed it was enough.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1YrIdMubU1
And somehow, somehow, love blooms there too.
Is it just the absence of fear?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgi9bHTbM6c
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—160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyd1gehiK2g
“I love pizza.”160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0GeMltiwM
“I love that show.”160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZdY4c2DbWR
“I love her.”
when the night’s too quiet and your heart's louder than it should be,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy3RMNgi785
you start to ask…
What even is love?
Is it the late-night texts that make you smile like an idiot?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXCnoes2Cpp
Or the effort to learn C just to help someone who might not even know your name?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Qy6BwfVAG
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?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqaCrdCuHsw
If love means hiding your feelings just to stay close... is that love?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7iL3GDWRse
If love never gets returned, was it ever real?
Or maybe love isn’t about return policies at all.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQntfOtBNQ
Maybe love is giving without expecting.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmykNWQkg63
Hoping without demanding.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9S2viSnjRJ
Staying, even if the door never opens.
And if it’s the latter — if love is just dumb luck —160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1Ng4cVrCr
then what does that make me?
A gambler?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6mBXKRxmSW
A poet with no ink?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqEIFqmViMR
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.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9c90bxK1if
It doesn’t ask for returns.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hVc5YlkDA
It just… is.
Like the moon.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfIwua86VB1
Distant. Cold sometimes.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Zvb0z59MG
But still shining. Still pulling tides.
So I made a decision.
One I thought I’d regret.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Lryyewpfp
One that felt like surrender.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw87sk8yjsn
But maybe it was the only honest thing left.
I typed:160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfB6mPtefk9
"Let’s be friends."
And I meant it.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7CPpiKhUzy
Not because I wanted to.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOoeJ2Dgmcm
But because I had to.
Because I know — deep down — even if I poured out every syllable of my soul,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAcXz1ByvVt
let the poet in me die trying,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8NbzpV7IXZ
the answer would still be silence, or worse… pity.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9WCC9IxTVc
time won't change the answer,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbXm9FNYD7R
in this moment or in the future.
And I don’t want pity.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡma29nP72xf
I want her to smile when she sees my name.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHxqGmjszpr
Even if it’s only ever as a friend.
So yeah, laugh all you want.
But that was my truth:160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwHIOCpZdZW
Maybe I’ll never be someone important in her life.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYu8vzMNTCD
But I can be someone good.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvCUu5f7YY6
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:160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUPbhnCrkNY
"Sure, of course."160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcayf0PfVCh
I smiled.
Because that’s more than most people get.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk0pyvyfbdP
And sometimes, friendship is the love story that doesn’t get written into poetry —160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm92GKv4UUz
but it still matters.
The night grew older.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1PhLo8nZ5o
The conversation faded into a simple:160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzc91T8pi43
“Goodnight.”
And I lay there.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOYHFyl5cyF
Phone resting like a heartbeat on my chest.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmL2Mn9qoJi
Ceiling fan humming.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAHEFs25mQj
Eyes open.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQe0sHk9Bh
Thoughts louder than sleep.
But slowly, everything softened.
The fan blurred into background.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPADW7gHhZm
The silence turned into a lullaby.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA97uamlnMo
And Nova... drifted.
Not into a dream of her,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1u9Dr2tQM
not even of love,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtPfb2dfVST
but something stranger.
He stood at the edge of a nameless rooftop, under a starless sky.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjmQAc4EA9C
No moon. No wind.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBFQm7uwya
Just an ocean of lights flickering below — like forgotten wishes.
A voice — his own, but older — whispered beside him:160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9UWIIkBE7Z
“Do you think love makes you whole?160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIMEfGWJP4a
Or does it just reveal the parts you’ve been missing?”
Nova didn’t answer.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuVY2T2gmT3
He couldn’t.
Because in that dream,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZZ4puLDIE
he wasn’t searching for love anymore.
He was searching for something deeper.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmflcqQ8m2J
A reason.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeKzFm9Wqrx
A pause in the chaos that made it all make sense.
But life doesn’t hand you clarity like that.
Sometimes it just gives you160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4E9bc92cu
a feeling.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIIUEucH0L
A choice.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1TIjsc0ibx
And the hope that in some parallel version of now,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqzsoCeL9T
you say the thing you never said —
and someone stays.
But in this world, in this moment?
Nova slept.
A little sad.160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdr4Wm0vUGL
A little wiser.
And somewhere between the real and the not-quite-real,160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡggL7ARNFbF
he whispered one last thing to the darkness:
“If love is a question no one knows how to answer...160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2E47VVIxs9
maybe I’ll spend my life learning how to ask it better.”
Then darkness.
And for once...160Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡobZ9jAksJX
peace.
and then Add to home screen.