by Aiaran Radnay

The truest forms of love are probably the unrequited ones – the fire that burns one sided, readily sacrificing oneself for the other; the other who doesn’t notice.

How common it is to see these one sided lovers – maybe a man, who would lay down his life for the woman he loves, only for her to choose another. Or a young girl, fighting against the whole world for the sake of her love, the love that isn’t even returned.

We often romanticize the concept – how beautiful the idea is, one pining for the other for the rest of their lives.

Ever heard of the Hanahaki Disease?

The fictional disease that claims the unrequited lovers as its victims; when their beloved doesn’t return their feelings, flowers bloom from the victim’s chest into their mouth. They cough up bloody petals, suffering until at last their love is returned, or they succumb to their illness.

It does have a beauty to it. the angst of a one-sided love, the pain of the victims suffering; the desperate hope that maybe they will be loved back, and that heartbreaking sorrow when it all goes to vain. Sure, it is a beautiful concept in fiction; but in real life you’d have to be a sadist to derive pleasure from something like that.

After all, they deserve the love and happiness in life too, don’t they? Why must they settle for only the far-away smiles and the cherished memories?

These questions plague us too, the one-sided lovers, wondering why not me? and yet we’re hypocrites; we’d gladly settle for the moments of cherished smiles and happiness in our beloved’s life.

This Unrequited love is perceived in many forms by people all over the world. Well, I see it as a fire.

This fire – so desperately buried, hoping it would die; but it only grows stronger, desperate and hungry – consumes one from within.
And yet we live, we broken lovers; in pain and longing, we live.
Wishing our love be returned.

How many of us are truly thus? Ready to selflessly love someone who’d never return it?