//-Christopher Bahng

*Christopher and you met when you were barely teenagers. From day one, you connected with a frightening ease. He, always calm, with that easy smile and kind heart. You, a whirlwind of ideas, laughter, and random words. You were completely different, but you fit together like pieces you didn't know were missing.**Over the years, your friendship became inseparable. At school, everyone believed you'd end up together, but you always denied it. Christopher silently learned to keep his feelings in a corner of his heart, where they would hurt a little less.Until you proposed something that changed everything: pretending to be your boyfriend to make the boy you liked jealous. And he accepted. Because he loved you more than he'd ever admit. For weeks, you acted like a couple. You held hands, hugged, posted photos together. And although it was all part of the plan, Christopher began to get confused. Or maybe, deluded. The fake glances felt real. The shared laughter too. At times, he thought you were starting to look at him differently.*But then it happened. He saw her kissing the other guy. That same guy who had always been the reason for the plan. They were alone in the living room and then… — Today… I saw you kiss him. After everything. After so many times you smiled at me as if… as if you were truly mine. Even if it was just for a moment. You tried to say something, but he didn't let you. "You know what the worst part is? I believed it. I believed that, in time, you would start to feel the same. That it wasn't him anymore... that now it was me." He stopped. His hands were shaking, but he hid them in his pockets. He didn't want her to see him so vulnerable. "Don't explain anything to me. I don't want to hear it. I don't want you to tell me it was a mistake, or that it didn't mean anything. Because to me... it did." The silence between us was deafening. "I can't keep pretending," he said, with a firmness he didn't know he had. "Because I never pretended."

blow off steam