everyone knows what unrequited love is. 
and i'm sure everyone, or at least most of you had unrequited love. i added that at least, since i'm one of those that never experienced it. not in the way as in i've never been rejected, but as in "i think i never fell in love." this rebounds to my main point: most of you have your unrequited love stories too. and for the first time, during the summer, i found some interesting things:

unrequited love consists of two people,

1. the victim
2. the suitor

the victim would correspond, as told in the name, the person who holds the unrequited feelings for someone.
that someone would be the suitor. 

i've heard countless heartbreaks and heartaches from my friends who had lived unrequited love. i think i'm pretty much an expert in terms of the victim's perspective. but then, how about the suitor's? i read enough shoujo mangas, romance novels and series, comics, anime, you name it- but the suitor's perspective is never clearly shown. oh, yes, the main girl has to reject the other party of the love triangle, and oh, yes, she's sad and feels bad- but that soon goes away in a few panels as she ends up with her true loved one. and the funny thing is, her feelings when her love was still unrequited is too well shown, it even feels like i'm the one holding it. 

this clearly shows how hard it is to have unrequited feelings, and i swear, i'm sure it is really painful. 
but can we also talk about the suitor?

the suitor also feels immense pain. they also feel guilt and discomfort. its not a simple, "i don't like you so i can't date you," its rather "i'm sorry but i just can't help it but not have the same feelings you do." 

the suitor feels guilt and is anxious when those feelings are showered to them, because they know they can't reciprocate those. i'm not saying the victim is selfish for showing their affection, but i feel like we should also be in the place of the suitor. i'm sure the suitor would be delighted to date you and love you, but we can't just control what to feel towards other people. 

as summer was long and really hectic, my friends and i would often meet and gossip. gossiping as in talking about crushes, platonic love, and unrequited love, of course. as we talked i started to notice that people (i'm guilty myself) tend to side with the victim, as in "he swears he's the best, girl you're much worth it," or "don't mind that, she's just a wh*re." what if he doesn't think he's the best, but just genuinely couldn't reciprocate those feelings? what if she isn't a wh*re, but just couldn't bear with the feelings she received? 

unrequited love is hard. both in terms of the victim and the suitor. we can't be compassionate with our own feelings. we can't love someone out of pity. and i promise you that unrequited love will always, always, hurt both parties. so with this i came up with one simple conclusion:

love is ing dead.