Some people enter your life so casually, it's almost unnoticeable. A random comment, maybe a shared interest, a moment of laughter sometimes. But you don't think much of it at first. Just another face, just another name.
That's how it started.
I don't know what we were. I don't know what label to put on it. Friends? Strangers who talked too much? Something more, maybe? I don't know. But I do know how it made me feel.
We weren't supposed to mean anything to each other. But somehow, something changed.
I didn't plan on opening up. I usually don't. But there was this comfort— a strange, familiar kind of comfort that I hadn't felt in a long, long time. Like, for once, someone actually listened, not just heard.
And that… that was new.
It started slow. Late-night chats, random talks, small things that didn't feel like much at first— until they did. Until her name showing up on my screen made me pause. Until I found myself caring about how her day went, or noticing when she sounded off. Until silence from her started to echo.
At first, it was all light. Jokes, banter, shared laughter. You don't realize how attached you're getting until it's too late. It creeps in quietly, like a song stuck in your head that you hum without knowing. Suddenly, they're the first person you look for when you're online. The one you wait for, even if they're late. The name you check twice when you see a notification. And when you do see it, your heart skips a bit or two!
I don't know exactly when it shifted. When it went from "just fun" to something more. Maybe it was a conversation late at night. Maybe it was silence that still felt warm. Or maybe it was just me, catching feelings that weren't supposed to be caught. We shared parts of our lives in bits— scattered across chats and messages. Stories about the past, random facts, inside jokes that no one else would get. It was simple. It was soft. And it mattered more than I thought it would.
I don't even know the exact moment I started falling. It wasn't love at first sight or some fairytale crash. It was gradual. Like a slow burn. It was the way she laughed. The way she'd reply late, but always reply. The small jokes, the "take care" at the end of a call. And suddenly, my days revolved around a girl I'd never even thought I would get to meet.
You'd think it would be safe, liking someone from a distance. But feelings don't care about distance. They don't wait for logic to catch up.
You don't choose these things.
And the hardest part? Not knowing if she ever felt any of it....
Looking back now, maybe I saw the signs. Maybe I knew I was getting too close. But I ignored it. I wanted to believe it was real— that the connection wasn't just in my head.
I started noticing the changes. Slower replies. Colder tones. Shorter calls. I told myself not to overthink it. But I did. I still do. Maybe it was all in my head. Maybe I was too much, cared too loudly. Maybe she got bored, or found someone better. Maybe she never really felt anything in the first place.
Still, I held on. Pathetically, maybe. But I did. Hoping, waiting, even praying in silence sometimes that maybe she'd see me. Not just see me online, but see me. Really.
But some people… they come into your life like a breeze, change everything without trying, and leave like they were never there...
A thing about feelings is... they're tricky. They grow quietly, and when they're not returned, they ache loudly.
This chapter isn't about heartbreak. Not yet. It's about the moments before that— when everything still felt possible. When the story hadn't gone off track. When her laugh still echoed in my head and my heart still hoped for something more.
This was the beginning. And like most beginnings, I didn't know what was coming. I should've known....
"The worst goodbyes are the ones that were never said."