It didn't hurt because it ended.
It hurt because it functioned.
Love behaved like a fault I kept mistaking for design.
Each return felt deliberate—
as if the damage had intent.
I learned you the way a system learns failure:
not to prevent it,
only to recognize when it was happening again.
There was no collapse.
No violence.
Just the quiet confirmation that nothing had changed.
I stayed long enough to prove
that hope can be mechanical,
and choice can look exactly like a loop.
Some errors don't break you.
They keep you operational.