I know that the unrequited love plotline is not exactly new. But most people do read to escape, and by escaping, they are inclined to choose a happy sort of feeling in stories rather than a hard slap in the face realistic approach (as such this romantic plot angle implies). At least for me, I gravitate more toward series that I know will be fun or happy than ones that will make me sad. I do occasionally seek out reads like these, but I don’t want another reason to dampen my spirit further.

I read a web comic/toon before called By Chance, We… And… (우리는 우연히 그리고). It’s about a guy who accidentally meets his ex-girlfriend after all these years. The thing is, their breakup wasn’t very smooth. There were lots of things that weren’t cleared up when the girl broke up with him and left. And the guy was guilty that he did have a major fault in why the relationship fell apart. The story was a narration of their past, from the moment they met to the last time they talked. It was all kinds of sad, and I, the hopeful person that I am, thought that they’d have a second chance! I mean, aren’t we all rooting for true love? Now, spoiler caution: (please highlight the text if you don’t mind getting spoiled—but you already have a hint as to what happened to them, now do you?) They didn’t end up together.

Despite my reservations about RL relationships/romance, I’m a hopeless romantic. And I’m the type of reader who easily swoons over cutesy kinds of relationships. I’m a self-confessed notorious shoujo/josei reader; hell, I ship couples in series that originally have no romance or dedicate just a small percentage to it! Unrequited love is usually not my thing, but I applaud authors who do it well. I mean, not everyone who falls in love gets reciprocated.

Honestly, I rarely read romances where they didn’t end up together. And not because the partner is unavailable, like the guy/girl died. No, not that. I mean he/she didn’t fall in love with the story’s lead. Or they chose not to continue the relationship, those types—more so the former. If I factored in the number of second leads who were unsuccessful in love, yeah, most of them had that, but that was because their main role was a hurdle to the main couple (the harsher truth, I know!). But I have rarely read that characters didn’t end up together because they weren’t just in love with the MCs! I think it’s a great exposition, but hardly expressed.

“I’d been wondering for a long time if love that never bears fruit means anything. If something vanishes and is gone, it is the same as something that never was.
Well, now I know the answer. It does mean something. The meaning was right here.”

— Takemoto Yuuta (Honey & Clover; Chapter 64, Vol. 10)

I think this is one of the reasons why I so loved Honey and Clover 「ハチミツとクローバー」 by Chica Umino. It was how she wove these characters’ love lives, and ultimately none of them have a prosperous relationship with the person they originally fell in love with. Takemoto was in love with Hagu, but Hagu liked Morita. Morita did like Hagu, but she chose her uncle to accompany her during her long rehabilitation. Ayu loved Mayama, but Mayama liked Rika (who was a widow and has an unclear relationship with Hagu’s uncle). See? All of ‘em were sort of entangled in this weird web of romance! As Takemoto stated, falling in love was easy for him. But the girl falling in love with him too—yeah, he knew. Even Ayu, who was hopelessly in love with Mayama, had a hard time letting go because, to her, denying the fact that she fell in love, although he didn’t return it, would mean that her feelings were just lies. And she couldn’t accept that her feelings weren’t true if she decided to move on from him. Yeah, these fellas are complicated. But that’s the beauty of Honey & Clover—how skillfully humor and drama were intertwined. Based Umino-sensei’s writing! *bows down*

I still prefer HEA stories to sad ones, but I think a dosage of realism once in a while isn’t bad. I, for one, think that there’s still a sliver of hope in these kinds of stories. It might not be reciprocated, but from the bunch I read, none of them regret falling in love despite the outcome; that itself is something positive!

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How about you? Do you occasionally want an unrequited love ending? Do you also believe in the saying that “it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?” Share your opinion with me!