Maybe it was jealousy.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcRRWLjLrQk
Or maybe… it was something harder to name.
That quiet ache in your chest when someone you care about starts smiling a little more —157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3qYb6h84I7
but not because of you.
I kept asking myself:157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcoxCFXuyQo
Was I being possessive? Was I trying to cage something that was never mine to begin with?
But no.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxdOTz0jvKV
It wasn’t that.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3q3WfRyHrK
It never was.
I wasn’t trying to protect you from someone.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjOfN979jMZ
I wasn’t trying to compete.
I was just scared.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL9FpRdRu0y
Terrified, actually.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhCVt0juklp
That maybe... Ren would take you away.
But then —157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3rrGSjNWFp
one long evening, sitting with my thoughts louder than the world around —157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi3qKHw8nhX
I understood something.
People don’t get stolen.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRRsvmdyah8
They drift.
Toward what makes them feel lighter.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsNiw6H6X1U
Toward the sun they didn’t know they missed.
And sometimes love —157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNwsmrygE5L
love makes us believe that there’s nothing brighter than what we have right now.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlXNsaKryD
That this, this, is the brightest moment the world can ever offer.
But that’s a lie love tells.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXiYB8smHqr
Because love is blind,157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZvy0CJfiy2
and people are not.
And so I questioned it all.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7vUFdEuSES
Not love.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT4nUhmvBUS
But the things we confuse for love.
The need to be someone’s only.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8QvgoqgtZ
The quiet wish that they’ll never find better than you.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3z7RxDlRif
The fear that if they do — they’ll forget you ever existed.
Is that love?157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWCXHUp7Bh
Or is that greed in disguise?
Maybe the worst kind of greed —157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIdySu7Mn1
the one that wants to own a heart that was only meant to be held gently,157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2OLZ9Ikptl
not gripped tight.
You see,157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe98DqhqM4s
I wasn’t jealous.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GIWqQijG0
Not really.
I was just scared of losing us.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuYShUrpDzC
The us we created in tiny moments —157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡusmuErlTvC
walking beside buses, laughing at nonsense,157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuV0QlHXZFM
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.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAjh1vqjLzi
And the version of me that only ever existed around you.
But then —157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyMq7Gohc1j
I also realized something else.
It’s not someone else that breaks two people apart.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3wcdp9mbEH
It’s not Ren. Or time. Or coincidence.
It’s us.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqoE0gm4MRs
Me. And you.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQB9QSbf3S
Choosing, or failing, to hold on.157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvoJbMq1uFj
Letting go, not because someone better came along…157Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmy3ZGMbWVE
but because we forgot how to see each other like we used to.
And that’s what broke my heart the most.
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