Volume 1 - Top-Tier Character Ayanokōji-kun [DISCONTINUED] [READ THE REVISION]

Chapter 19 - Horrific Horizon

Love.

A complicated feeling for many.

Truly understood by only a few.

What is love?

Since the dawn of man, minds have been considering this question in detail.

Generating theories that range from the materialistic conception of love as purely a physiological phenomenon, an animalistic or genetic urge that dictates our behavior, to theories of love as an intensely spiritual affair that in its highest permits us to touch divinity.

For the abstract, it is a construct unattached to anything real or sensible.

For the worldly, it is a means by which our being—and our self and its world—are irrevocably affected once we are "touched by love".

And others simply prefer to leave it in the realm of the ineffable.

Even though it is such an unexplainable concept, it possesses an undeniable role in our lives.

There are many different kinds of "love" a human being can feel.

You may simply like an object very much.

You may find engaging in a certain activity or being a certain kind of person to be a part of your identity—it makes your life worth living. It could be said you value these.

You may love to care for another person as the person they are.

But often times, we mean something different—

personal love.

Once again, this can be further divided.

It can be a passing moment, fleeting in time. Forgotten quickly, erased from the mind.

Or in other words, a momentary pleasure.

Hedonistic in nature.

But, "true love" is something different, no?

Something that lasts for a long while. That can't be forgotten quickly, but settles in your soul.

You keep thinking about that one person.

You want to be close to them. Touch them. Hear their thoughts and help them. You want them to spoil you. You want to experience new things together.

There is so much to do, so much to want.

Where does this kind of love originate from?

Is it a single spark? One look?

Or is it rather a process—you get to know them better over time, and slowly but surely the distance shrinks ever more.

It takes effort. Some people are not able to commit.

But in the end, true love pays off. Time has continuously seen it again and again.