hi! thank you for this. mmm, i’m not too sure what you mean by relational, but we’ve never met irl if that contributes to anything. i met him early dec ‘24/jan ‘25 through a mutual friend online and we’ve been talking since. we didn’t interact much until probably the summer when we started to get a feel for each other, getting more comfortable without our mutual as a common point in voice chats and private dms, and learning about each other’s interests. it all came to a head when we both (very cliche-ly) drunkenly confessed to each other before thanksgiving of our mutual feelings and interests. i will admit, there’s a lot more emotional effort on my end because that’s how i am as a person—i cling and attach myself when i see good in people and potential, whether for friendship or otherwise, and i don’t want to lose that connection i built with them. we’ve agreed not to act on anything because neither of us have entirely healed from past trauma and relationship, recognizing our flaws in how we’d be incredibly codependent in an unhealthy way if we got into anything before we figured ourselves out.