I learned early that loving someone is the most inefficient form of weakness.
It slows your decisions.
It corrupts your logic.
It makes your hands hesitate when they should be steady.
So I trained myself to replace affection with control, warmth with distance, honesty with strategy. I became someone who wins, not someone who hopes.
But at night, when the city finally shuts up and even monsters are forced to listen to themselves, I wonder—
if this is really sacrifice…
or just cowardice disguised as responsibility.
Because the truth is, I do not fear losing her.
I fear that if she ever truly understands me, she will realize that I was never her shield.
I was simply the disaster that learned how to speak gently.