Author: Jake Thompson

Date: April 27, 2025

If you’re reading this, thank you for hearing me out. I’ve been holding this in for so long, and I don’t even know why I feel the need to get it off my chest now. I guess it’s because things have changed so much, and I still think about it sometimes.

I used to date this girl—let’s call her K. She was my first real relationship, and honestly, I was obsessed with her. I don’t know if “obsessed” is too strong of a word, but I was really into her. I wanted to be the guy who could make her laugh, the guy she’d come to when she had problems. I was all in. But after about two months of dating, something changed.

K became really obsessed with this anime, Attack on Titan. At first, I didn’t mind, I thought it was cool that she had something she was passionate about. But it got to a point where she wouldn’t stop talking about the characters, not just their story arcs or how epic the plot was, but how hot they were. She was always mentioning how attractive the characters were, and I’ll admit, it made me uncomfortable.

Maybe I was insecure or maybe I didn’t fully get it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t like hearing her talk about other guys like that when I was right there. So, I did what I thought was the right thing: I went to one of her best friends—let’s call her A. I didn’t know A too well at the time, but I thought maybe she could help me figure out how to handle this. A told me that I should just talk to K and tell her how I felt. She said, “Just ask her to stop. She’s reasonable; she’ll understand.”

So, I did. I had the conversation with K, and she was pretty understanding about it. She promised she’d stop talking about the characters like that, and I thought everything would be fine. But, surprise, it wasn’t. A few days later, she was back at it. The comments about the characters’ looks kept coming, and I just felt more and more pushed to the side. It was like my feelings didn’t matter, like it wasn’t important enough to respect.

As the weeks went by, I felt more and more like my relationship with K was deteriorating. I was frustrated, but I didn’t know what else to do. So, I went back to A for more advice. I started talking to her more and more, telling her about the little things in my relationship that were bothering me. A was always there to listen, and honestly, it felt nice to have someone who understood what I was going through.

Over time, I realized something that I hadn’t expected. As I spent more time talking to A, I began to feel a connection to her. She was so easy to talk to, so understanding, and we just clicked. It wasn’t that I wasn’t still into K—it was just that, well, talking to A felt like it was easier. I didn’t have to explain myself all the time. I didn’t have to keep defending my feelings. With A, everything felt like it made sense.

It got to the point where I started confiding in A more than K. But I felt guilty. I didn’t want to hurt K, but I felt like my emotional needs were being met more by A than by the girl I was in a relationship with. And as you can probably guess, things didn’t stay great with K. Our relationship ended not too long after that, and I don’t know if it was because of the anime thing or because of me spending more time with A.

I feel bad admitting it, but A and I ended up becoming closer. Much closer. Eventually, we started dating. I don’t know what would’ve happened if I hadn’t turned to A for advice, but it’s crazy to think about how things played out. It wasn’t that I ever intended to hurt K—it just… happened. And now here I am, years later, thinking about how everything fell into place.

Maybe I was never meant to be with K. Maybe the whole thing was a learning experience. But I still wonder, sometimes, if things would’ve been different if I’d just kept my distance from A in the first place. I guess I’ll never know.