Naya used to think love always felt like coming home. Until she met Arga.
At first, Arga was the kind of man who always remembered the little things.
He knew Naya’s favorite drink, the songs she listened to most often, even how Naya bit her lip when she was nervous.
“I just want to know that you’re okay,” he said every time Naya received a message from him.
Naya thought it was caring. Until that concern turned into surveillance.
“Why did you take so long to answer?”
“I was busy.”
“Busy with what?”
Naya sighed. “College.”
“If you were at college, how were you online but not answering me?”
Questions like that began coming up every day.
Arga wanted to know who Naya went out with, where she was, what she was wearing, and even who liked her social-media posts.
One night, Naya posted a photo with a male classmate. Less than ten minutes later, Arga called.
“Delete it.”
Naya fell silent. “Why?”
“I don’t like it.”
“He’s just a friend.”
“I said delete it.”
Naya eventually deleted the photo. Not because she agreed, but because she didn’t want to fight.
But every time Naya gave in, Arga demanded more.
He began deciding what Naya could wear. She wasn’t allowed to wear a skirt that was too short.
She wasn’t allowed to wear anything he considered revealing. She wasn’t allowed to go out at night. She wasn’t allowed to become too close to any men.
Even when Naya wanted to meet her best friend, Arga said, “If you’d rather choose them over me, then I must not be important to you.”
That sentence always made Naya feel guilty. So she distanced herself from her friends.
Little by little, Naya’s world grew smaller. There was only college, home, and Arga.
One afternoon, Naya arrived late when they were supposed to meet. Arga had already been waiting for almost an hour.
“Where were you?”
“At the library.”
“Liar.”
“I’m not lying.”
Arga snatched her phone from Naya’s hand. “Password.”
Naya stared at him. “What for?”
“I want to look.”
“That’s my privacy.”
Arga’s expression changed. “Privacy?”
Naya said nothing.
“After everything I’ve given you, you still have secrets?”
“It’s not a secret. It’s my phone.”
Arga slammed the phone down on the table.
“Then you’ve changed.”
Naya lowered her head. That sentence again. Always the same.
Every time Naya tried to defend her boundaries, Arga made her feel like a bad person.
That night, for the first time, Naya cried not because she was afraid of losing Arga.
She cried because she realized she herself had been gone for a long time.
She opened her gallery. There were hardly any photos left with her friends.
She opened her contacts. The names of the people who used to contact her so often now rarely appeared.
She opened social media. The posts that used to make her happy had stopped long ago.
Naya stared at her reflection on the phone’s screen. “When did I become like this?”
Her phone buzzed.
Arga: Where are you?
A second message came in.
Arga: Why aren’t you answering?
Then a third message.
Arga: Don’t make me angry.
Naya read them all without replying. For the first time, she didn’t feel like she had to explain herself.
She opened the contact of her best friend, whom she hadn’t spoken to in months.
Her fingers trembled as she typed.
Naya: Can I tell you something?
The message was sent.
Not long afterward, a reply came in.
Rani: Of course. I’m here.
Naya’s tears fell. Not because she was sad, but because she finally understood something.
Love should never make someone afraid to be themselves.
Love should never ask someone to surrender their entire life just to prove their loyalty.
And the words “I love you” should never be an excuse to control, isolate, or hurt someone. That night, Naya turned off her phone.
Tomorrow might be difficult. Arga might get angry. He might beg Naya to come back.
But for the first time in a long while, Naya chose herself.
And it turned out that leaving someone who kept saying “I love you” didn’t mean Naya had stopped believing in love.
She had simply stopped believing that hurt was the price she had to pay to find it.