Maybe it was jealousy.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNfVdIuwqfd
Or maybe… it was something harder to name.
That quiet ache in your chest when someone you care about starts smiling a little more —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl9WvhzHSfc
but not because of you.
I kept asking myself:37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0rIwc0yT6N
Was I being possessive? Was I trying to cage something that was never mine to begin with?
But no.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcUrxUFpTuo
It wasn’t that.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbeqBMk3RvC
It never was.
I wasn’t trying to protect you from someone.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPbsZIFOqsN
I wasn’t trying to compete.
I was just scared.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRaAw9PtqMN
Terrified, actually.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUloGt6iZ0T
That maybe... Ren would take you away.
But then —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRS1wNZUWO9
one long evening, sitting with my thoughts louder than the world around —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡugMeJMe1k1
I understood something.
People don’t get stolen.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN5sGBteqi9
They drift.
Toward what makes them feel lighter.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwNNM1WF6CW
Toward the sun they didn’t know they missed.
And sometimes love —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO9wt1lQTZm
love makes us believe that there’s nothing brighter than what we have right now.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgTNfwMSAAv
That this, this, is the brightest moment the world can ever offer.
But that’s a lie love tells.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOVtSGjS3AJ
Because love is blind,37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZc7iB8tOJL
and people are not.
And so I questioned it all.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwa3XhXDLaq
Not love.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk2ExAjx0rz
But the things we confuse for love.
The need to be someone’s only.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEvGVobrB3
The quiet wish that they’ll never find better than you.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4uK3gqYnUu
The fear that if they do — they’ll forget you ever existed.
Is that love?37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7PCkKcQUf0
Or is that greed in disguise?
Maybe the worst kind of greed —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf13no3z8Sb
the one that wants to own a heart that was only meant to be held gently,37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2S7brc2wn
not gripped tight.
You see,37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpDk14yP0ok
I wasn’t jealous.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTZ8xhBGWXS
Not really.
I was just scared of losing us.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbVI8gYzvXh
The us we created in tiny moments —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2gRV3xwVe
walking beside buses, laughing at nonsense,37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ2hmsUcGym
holding on to silences like they were the most honest things we ever said.
I was scared of losing that version of you I named Forevermore.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf5SiqOOIxr
And the version of me that only ever existed around you.
But then —37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbZoJs5DfqM
I also realized something else.
It’s not someone else that breaks two people apart.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡln3jvq6mp1
It’s not Ren. Or time. Or coincidence.
It’s us.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOwTrrCcQIQ
Me. And you.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWErI5U2VeG
Choosing, or failing, to hold on.37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBo8unYsSgA
Letting go, not because someone better came along…37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiPUvUTyi7q
but because we forgot how to see each other like we used to.
And that’s what broke my heart the most.
ns216.73.216.0da2
