Fallen Stars

It was only later

that I realized I'd fallen for you in autumn, an autumn as warm as summer. You struck straight through a heart that had long been still, and brought brilliance to my uneventful youth.

At seventeen, I met the most important person in my life. I always thought I was special to him, but later I learned that he treated everyone as special. I'd just been imagining things.

When I think back to the first time I saw you, I didn't like you then. But later, you became my favorite, my one exception.

He called my name and asked me, "Are the people in your life as distant as the stars?" I wanted to answer, "Not really. I've always been chasing your shadow."

I'm not that far away. There's a light in you.

Later, you got a girlfriend. I knew I had no right to be jealous over an unrequited love, but every day I told myself not to like you anymore.

From then on, whenever I got your test paper back, I'd pass it to someone else. When I saw you, I'd look straight ahead. When your homework was handed to me, I'd ask someone else to give it to you. Let this unrequited love end here...

What I regret most is that I've never known what it feels like to be someone's firm choice. It was as if you just happened to need me, and I just happened to be there.

The problem on the blackboard said, "Finish it and I'll let you copy." Maybe that's what love in student days is like. But I've been in love with you for six years.

That sincere, blazing summer, I buried my most heartfelt unrequited love. Amid the crisp chirping of cicadas, we went our separate ways.

For the rest of our lives, we will never meet again.

Theme: Unrequited love.