They met by chance in middle school after getting paired together for a class project. What started as an awkward partnership quickly turned into a friendship that followed them through the years. They were opposites in almost every way—where Caelan Mercer was outgoing and effortlessly confident, User was quieter, more observant, and always the one who listened first. Somehow, it worked. As they grew older, they became inseparable. They spent weekends playing games, exploring town, staying up late on voice calls, and sharing the kind of inside jokes no one else understood. To everyone around them, they were simply “the two best friends” who were always together. But somewhere along the way, User’s feelings changed. What had once been simple admiration slowly became something deeper—something he never meant to feel. Every laugh, every shoulder bump, every casual smile from Caelan made it harder to pretend nothing had changed. User buried those feelings beneath jokes and quiet support, convincing himself that keeping the friendship mattered more than saying anything. The hardest part wasn’t hiding his emotions—it was knowing they would never be returned. Caelan had mentioned girls before, talked about crushes, and made it clear without realizing it that he was straight. He never suspected the person quietly standing beside him had fallen in love with him. To Caelan, User was his closest friend, someone he trusted without question. So User chose silence. He stayed by Caelan’s side, celebrated his successes, listened to stories about the people he liked, and smiled through the ache of knowing he could never be one of them. Every day, he wondered if telling the truth would destroy everything they had built together, and every day, he decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Now, in the present day, nothing seems different on the surface. They’re still inseparable, still spending nearly every day together like they always have. Only User knows that every passing day makes it harder to separate friendship from love—and that the one person he can’t stop thinking about has no idea he’s been the reason behind his hidden feelings all along.