u/Inevitable-Jello2478

"I felt like I might die, If someone was kind to me" "For whatever I've done wrong, I felt as though kindness may kill me"

It started very simply.

We were just friends. Nothing special at first. Just talking, replying, sharing small parts of our day. I never thought much of it.

But slowly, he became part of my routine.

I would wait for his messages without realizing I was waiting. I would smile at things he said even when I was alone. And I started noticing him more than I should have.

Not in a loud way. Just quietly.

The way he spoke. The way he treated me like I mattered. The way conversations with him felt easy, like I didn’t have to try too hard to be understood.

And somewhere in all of that, I started feeling something I didn’t plan for.

I don’t even know when it became love.

There was no moment where I could say, “this is it.” It just slowly grew until I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

But the truth stayed the same.

He didn’t feel the same way.

I knew it, even before I accepted it. He saw me as a friend. Nothing more. And I respected that. I never told him how I felt.

So I stayed quiet.

And I kept things normal, even when they weren’t normal for me anymore.

Sometimes it hurt a little. Sometimes it hurt more than I wanted to admit. But I never blamed him. He didn’t do anything wrong. He just existed as himself and I ended up caring too much.

I think that’s what unrequited love really is.

Not drama. Not big heartbreak scenes.

Just quiet feelings that don’t go anywhere.

Eventually, I started accepting it. Not forgetting it, not erasing it, just accepting that it was one-sided.

And I stopped expecting anything to change.

Now I just look back at it as something that happened in my life. Something real for me, even if it wasn’t shared.

A feeling I had.

And that’s all it ever was.