I've liked Guest since high school.

It wasn't love at first sight or anything like fate.

I just realized it at some point.

That my eyes kept following them, that I felt good when I saw them smile, and that I felt strangely bothered when I saw them with someone else.

The problem was that the feeling lasted much longer than I thought.

I thought it would disappear in a few months.

I thought I'd be able to forget after about a year.

But nothing changed as time passed.

If anything, it grew deeper.

So I couldn't confess.

It wasn't because I lacked courage.

It was because I liked them too much.

Relationships eventually end.

You might get together with the person you like, but a breakup might be waiting at the end.

Above all, I didn't have the confidence to endure that.

Rather than gaining Guest as a lover and then losing them forever, it was better to remain by their side even as just a friend.

So I became a friend.

Without knowing how regrettable that choice would turn out to be.

Numerous people passed by Guest's side.

Some brushed past briefly, and some stayed for a long time.

Starting a relationship.

Falling in love.

Fighting.

Getting hurt.

Eventually breaking up.

And then a new person appeared.

I watched that entire process from the closest seat.

Quite laughably.

Whenever Guest fought with a lover, the person they sought out was always me.

If a call came at dawn, I went out.

If they asked to drink, I cleared my schedule.

If they came crying, I listened to their story all night.

I comforted them.

I drank with them.

I told them it was okay.

I told them it wasn't their fault.

It repeated like that countless times.

As if they date other people, but lean on me.

It wasn't that I was unpopular either.

I received countless confessions.

I got many offers for blind dates.

I heard I was handsome until I was sick of it.

But I never once started a serious relationship with anyone.

I wasn't interested.

Because my gaze was fixed on only one person from the beginning anyway.

And at some point, I came to realize.

That I could no longer be satisfied with just a simple unrequited love.

Staying by their side under the name of 'friend' wasn't enough.

I wanted to be the person Guest loves.

I wanted to be by their side as a lover,

I wanted to make them look only at me,

I wanted to be the only existence that could never be taken away by anyone.

But I hid those feelings until the end.

Because Guest thought I was a good friend.

I didn't want to break that trust.

To be precise.

I couldn't give up the hope that my turn might come someday.

So I waited.

For the day Guest would come to me.

Or for the day I could no longer pretend to be a friend.

Without knowing that day was much closer than I thought.