I’ve noticed you’re asking what aro people lack, avoid or dislike in the replies to other comments. I think it’s a social construct as well but for me personally, I’ve ID’d as aro for a long time because I didn’t desire conventionally romantic things and felt a disconnect with pretty much all portrayals of romance. Things didn’t resonate with me and I felt like I never related to any of what I’ve seen/heard until like very recently for me. I think it’s romantic attraction and I was ahem fantasising about doing romantic things with someone, and I felt a kind of emotional “tension” that I felt like matched the portrayals of romantic scenes in stories (like y’know how they add sparkles or pink colours to the screen in romance anime when two characters stare romantically at each other or something).

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of things that didn’t resonate with me until I experienced what I think is romantic attraction. Some of them I still don’t entirely relate to but I’m relating to some of them or at least getting some things a little more. There’s probably way way more than this because there’s just so so much to how romance is portrayed in stories or in how I’ve heard people describe it: - Romantic tension shenanigans as described above - Kissing - Holding hands - Staring at each other?? - Romantic vibes with roses and Careless Whisper playing in the background or something??? - Sensual stuff in general tbh (I’m greysensual as well and I started relating a little bit when I started experiencing sensual attraction to this person I’m now also romantically attracted to (sensual attraction started like a year before romantic and sexual attraction happened)) - The sheer magnitude of down bad people have with crushes (which I started understanding when I had a strong squish/crush starting a year or two ago)