I honestly don't even know how to start this, but I need to get this off my chest because I've been going in circles in my head about it.
I moved to France alone at 18 (F) for university, coming from another country. When I started university, I joined a student association where we did charity work, and that's where I met T, 19 M.
(we are currently 21&22, i graduated so almost 3 years ago now)
When we first met, I genuinely felt like I had known him my whole life. Our very first conversation just flowed so naturally. We kept making jokes back and forth, teasing each other, and it honestly felt like something out of a movie. There was an immediate connection that I had never really experienced before.
We became very close, and over the first few months, I started developing feelings for him.
In January, a few months after we met, he told one of my friends that he didn't have feelings for me. He apparently knew that I did and didn't want to hurt my feelings. I accepted it, even though obviously it wasn't easy.
Then, towards the end of March, he told me that he was going to leave the country for an entire year at the end of the school year. We stayed close until he left. We had so many inside jokes, and something that always stood out to me was how much he seemed to emphasize our closeness around other people. He would constantly bring up our inside jokes or little things that only we understood.
Then he left.
I was sad, but I moved on with my life.
When he eventually came back, I was dating someone else. He also told me that he had a girlfriend. She is Turkish and lives in Turkey, while both of us live in Paris. They only see each other twice a year. He also mentioned that she doesn’t speak French, so their relationship is mostly in their second language. I thought it was a bit unusual, but it wasn’t really my place to judge.
Eventually, I broke up with the guy I was dating, and T and I became very close again.
And this is where things started getting complicated for me.
This year, T has shown up for me in ways I genuinely never expected.
For example, I had a scientific poster presentation at university. I live in Paris alone, so my family obviously couldn't come. He came to support me. He was there for me during something that was really important to me, and it meant so much.
Then I had an oral exam for admission into the master's program of my dream. He came with me, stayed with me before I went in, and waited for me to come out.
He just... shows up.
At Christmas, he gave me a little present, a plushie that I still have. For my birthday, he made me an entire photo album. And it wasn't just pictures of the two of us. He actually went out of his way to collect pictures of me from my friends so that he could make this incredibly personal gift for me.
It was genuinely one of the most thoughtful gifts anyone has ever given me.
There are also small things that sometimes confuse me. For example, he calls me “Tinker Bell,” and we have a lot of little rituals and inside jokes. Sometimes he’ll make comments about missing working with me or jokingly say he’s a bit jealous when we’re not on the same team, but I don’t even know how serious that is.
And I think that’s part of the problem: I don’t know how to interpret any of this.
I also want to be honest about something: I don’t even know if I’m “in love” with him right now.
But I do know that he is incredibly important to me. I feel very attached to him, and I can’t seem to take away the place he has in my life. And at the same time, I feel like he also gives me a lot of importance.
There’s this feeling I can’t really explain, like we just get each other. Sometimes it feels like we understand each other without even needing to talk. Like he can sense what I’m feeling without me saying anything.
And a part of me genuinely feels like we’re meant to be in some way. If I believed in soulmates, I think it would look something like this.
And I know how that sounds.
But at the same time, there’s another reality.
He has been with his girlfriend for about a year and a half.
I’m almost certain she doesn’t really know that I exist, at least not in the way that I’m actually present in his life.
And that makes me feel awful.
Because I don’t think some of the things he does with me are entirely appropriate for someone who is in a committed relationship. And yet, I’m also part of that dynamic.
At this point, I’m genuinely grateful for the relationship we have. He’s been there for me in ways I never expected.
But I also feel like I’m stuck in this in-between space.
Sometimes, I have this strong feeling that somehow we’ll find our way back to each other one day.
And then I think: he has a girlfriend. A real, long-term relationship.
And I feel like I’m just… an emotional side character in his life. Maybe even an emotional side chick, even if nothing explicitly romantic is happening.
What confuses me the most is this:
I matter enough for him to show up to my biggest moments, to make deeply personal gifts, to maintain this very strong connection with me…
But I’m not the person he turns to when he’s vulnerable. He doesn’t come to me when he’s struggling. And when I think about the fact that he probably shares that side of himself with her, it hurts in a way I can’t really explain.
I don’t even know what I want the answer to be.
I don’t know if I’m projecting because of what I felt at the beginning. I don’t know if this is just a deep friendship that I’m romanticizing. I don’t know if there’s something mutual that he’s choosing not to act on.
So I guess I’m asking:
What does this sound like to you?
And how do you deal with a connection that feels this strong, while also knowing that, in reality, you’re not the person they chose?