The Enchanted Unrequited

There was a time when I believed love was just a feeling—something beautiful, something fleeting, something people eventually outgrew. I never imagined it could become a place someone lives inside. Then, you happened. Somewhere between ordinary conversations and quiet moments, love stopped feeling like an emotion and became a part of my existence. It found its way into my breathing, my prayers, my silence, and the spaces within me that even I had never explored. You didn't become someone I simply loved. You became the home my soul built without asking for permission, without making a sound, without either of us realizing how deeply the roots had grown. Maybe that's why, when someone once asked me, *"What's something you'll never do again?"* my mind searched for an answer, but my heart already knew. I don't think I can ever love this deeply again. Because this wasn't ordinary love. This was the kind of love that made every prayer unknowingly...

Some departures never involve walking away. They happen while we continue showing up, answering messages, remembering birthdays, laughing at familiar jokes, and carrying on as though nothing has changed. From the outside, everything appears untouched. But somewhere beneath all those ordinary moments, something quietly loosens its hold, and neither person can quite point to when it began. She couldn't remember the day she stopped expecting him to notice the little things. It wasn't because he had become unkind, nor because he had intentionally withdrawn. Life simply became fuller, busier, louder. Somewhere between responsibilities and routines, she realized she had started carrying entire conversations inside her head instead of sharing them with him. Whenever something beautiful happened—a sky painted in impossible shades after the rain, a song that reminded her of an old evening, a line from a book she knew he would have smiled at—her first instinct was still to tell him. ...

Some absences don’t begin with distance. They begin while everything is still there—while conversations still happen, while names are still saved the same way, while nothing has officially ended… because nothing officially started. And yet, something slowly starts to loosen its grip. She felt it before she understood it. Not in words, not in actions he could be blamed for, but in the spaces between things—the pauses that stretched just a little longer, the replies that arrived just a little emptier. Nothing was wrong. And maybe that was the problem. Because pain without a reason has nowhere to go. She never asked him, “Are you drifting away?” Not because she didn’t want to know, but because she already did. And knowing silently felt easier than hearing it out loud. There was a time when his presence filled everything—not loudly, not overwhelmingly, just enough to make the world feel… held together. Like background music you don’t notice until it stops. And when it did, nothi...

Some love doesn’t announce itself. It stays. It watches. It waits. Five years is a strange amount of time to carry something unnamed — too long to dismiss, too quiet to explain. Time moved forward. The world shifted, paused, rebuilt itself. Her heart didn’t. Love didn’t arrive with intention. It settled. Slowly. Silently. Like something that had always been meant to stay. She never blamed him. That was the hardest part. There was no promise. No label. No moment she could point to and say, “This is where it began.” It simply existed. The way breathing does. To him, she was a friend — and he was kind in that role. He never pretended to be more. He never made promises he couldn’t keep. If anything, his honesty was gentle, even when it hurt. And that is why she never made him the villain in her story. Because how do you accuse someone for not feeling the same depth you do? Her love was not born out of expectations. It was born out of presence. Out of listening. Out ...

Some loves don’t make noise. They don’t knock on your door with flowers or promises. They just… exist quietly—like the hum of the ceiling fan at night, or the steady beat of a heart you never really notice until it’s gone. I sometimes think… if I were a fish, things would be easier for you, maybe then you would have loved me too a bit. Not the kind that swims away into an endless ocean, but the kind that stays in one small glass bowl, in a corner of your room, living quietly in your space without asking for more than you can give. Maybe I’d be a brigh blue with a golden shimmer, the kind of color that feels like peace after a storm. Maybe you’d have even given me a name—something soft and meaningful with love, like June, a name you’d say quietly when you were near, as if it belonged to a secret only we shared. I wouldn’t talk. I wouldn’t argue. I wouldn’t take up too much room in your life— just enough to see you, enough to feel close. Maybe then you’d think I was...

It’s not the night that feels too long—it’s the silence that feels too loud. They don’t tell you this when you’re young— that there comes a time in life when sleeping alone no longer feels like freedom, but like an unfinished sentence. This solitude is intoxicating. You sprawl across the bed, claim every inch of the blanket, and feel proud of not needing anyone. The silence feels peaceful, the dark feels calm, and you convince yourself you are enough for your own company. But time changes the way nights feel. Somewhere along the way, the bed begins to look too big for just one body. You notice the other pillow lying untouched— a silent witness to the conversations that never happened, to the laughter that didn’t spill into the night, to the “goodnight” that was never whispered in the dark. It whispers memories into your ear, presses its cold weight against your chest, and reminds you of every conversation you wish you could have at 2 a.m. At first, you think you m...