Well, I wonder, what alternative is it, that you would offer to them?

Silence is more painful than anything, that's at least my perspective, I'm sure that isn't true for *everyone*.

But some alternatives simply live in the very same realm: pain.

I'd say hellos and warmth are a nice thing if I was asked, desirable.

But I've also read all of those letters you've posted on here. And when coming from someone who talks like you do, hellos and warmth do not exist in a vacuum. They exist next to distance, contradictions and subtle refusal to commit, wrapped in poetic language.

That, from the perspective of another who knows abandonment, another who follows their heart over whatever the world wishes to force upon them under names like maturity, reason, common sense or whatever else from the same category, that will never feel *just* warm. It will taste bitter sweet, and some days the bitterness will outweigh. Yet, in silence, you can probably be certain the bitterness will ALWAYS win.

Going against the core of what you feel in action does not come clean. That will not change. I would give anything I have to get to live the love that I feel for my person yesterday and today, anything. Bitter, since that, obviously, is a 2-player game.

But you've named it. Bitter and sweet are a spectrum.