Friend Zone

Prolonge

People always say that love is simple-you meet, you fall, you confess, and then you either stay together or walk away. But what if it's not that simple? What if love lingers in the spaces between words you never said, and moments you were too afraid to claim? What if love is choosing silence, because silence means you still get to stay by her side?

That was me. That was my story with Aiah.

For years, I laughed with her, cried with her, carried her through every heartbreak she never deserved. I was her safe place, her constant, her "home" whenever the world turned too cruel. And yet, she never saw me the way I saw her. To her, I was Kael-the best friend who never left. To me, she was everything.

Do you know how hard it is to love someone so loudly in your heart, but so quietly in your actions? To want to hold her hand in the middle of a crowded room but settle for being the one who holds her bag? To want to be the first person she calls out of love, but accept that I'm only the first she calls out of pain?

I told myself it was enough. That as long as she was in my life, I could survive. But deep inside, I was breaking. Every time she ran back to me after another failed love, I wanted to scream: "Why him? Why not me?" But the words never came out. I swallowed them, again and again, until silence became my curse.

People think the friend zone is just a joke, a meme, a punchline. But no. The friend zone is a prison you build yourself, with walls made of loyalty and fear. Loyalty to the person you love too much, and fear of losing them if you ever dared to be honest. And I was its willing prisoner.

But here's the truth I never said-
Aiah was the love of my life. The kind of love that changes you, ruins you, saves you, all at once. She was the girl who could make me forget every wound with just a smile, the girl who turned ordinary days into memories I would keep forever.

And maybe she'll never know. Maybe she'll grow old thinking I was only ever her best friend. Maybe she'll marry someone else, have kids, live a life where my name is nothing more than a chapter she read once and forgot.

But maybe-just maybe-there will come a day when she looks back and realizes. Realizes that I was always there. That the arms she kept running into were mine. That the love she spent years searching for was right beside her, waiting patiently, silently, hopelessly.

If that day ever comes, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe I'll smile, maybe I'll cry, maybe I'll finally let go. Or maybe, just maybe... it won't be too late.

Because the truth is, this doesn't feel like the end. Not for me. Not for us. This-everything we've been through-feels like a beginning disguised as an ending.

And so, if you're reading this, remember: some loves don't fade. Some loves wait. Some loves burn quietly in the dark until the right moment finally comes.

And mine? My love for Aiah?

It has been waiting all this time.

And it will keep waiting... until she finally looks at me, not as her best friend, but as the only man who has ever loved her all the way through.

Because this story-our story-is far from over.

This is only the beginning.