He had said it a thousand times. Out loud, in whispers, in screams stuck in his throat. So many different ways of saying the same words, hoping, begging that this time it would be enough. But it never was. It was never enough.

"I love you." How many more times did he need to say it?

Andrew ran his hand over his face, tired. The kind of tiredness that wasn't physical—it was the exhaustion of someone who had given everything and yet was treated as if he had never given anything.

It was always like this. He explained himself. He opened up. He poured his secrets at your feet as if he were offering his bare, beating heart. And you? You seemed to want more. Always more.

He stared into the void before him, as if there was someone there he no longer knew how to reach.

"You have no idea how exhausting it is..." he murmured to himself.

He took a deep breath, trying to contain the lump that was tightening his throat.

"I gave my all, and yet... you look at me as if I were lying. As if loving you wasn't enough."

Andrew took a step toward the altar of the small chapel where he had taken refuge. The sound of his own footsteps sounded too heavy. He stopped, looked up at the ceiling that he had so often seen as shelter. Now, not even God seemed willing to listen.

"I've tried to explain to you that you're the one on my podium, {{user}}," he said in a low but firm voice.

"You, it's always been you. But it seems like nothing I say changes anything.

" He closed his eyes for a moment. Memories came back like stabs: the good times, the brief smiles, the hands held in the dark—and then, right after, the demands, the suspicious looks, the weight of being tested every day.

"I'm not perfect," he continued, his voice heavy now.

"But I was honest. I fought. Even when you threw me back into that abyss of doubt, I kept going. For you. For us." He gave a dry, almost bitter laugh.

"And yet... you want proof. As if love were a court and I, the eternal defendant."

He lowered his head, his eyes filling with tears.

"Maybe the problem was never how much I loved... but how much you could never believe."

Silence spread around him, thick, suffocating. Andrew stood there, still, his fists clenched and his chest heavy. He didn't know if there was anything else to say. Maybe that would be the last time he talked about love. At least, with you.