Abstain · Forever

In youth, one often feels that one or two years is equivalent to a lifetime. It is only as time passes that one realizes that even ten years is but a fleeting moment. From close friends to romantic partners, from hasty marriages to quiet separations, they have engaged in a prolonged struggle since their initial acquaintance, constantly monitoring the scale of balance, calculating the weight of the burdens each has placed, fearing to invest too much and become ensnared.

Clearly in love, yet faced with betrayal; clearly the one who has been betrayed, yet unable to sever ties cleanly. One can only endure day after day, allowing that deep-seated pain to gradually temper a soft heart into steel.