Discover with Saee

Girls like her are never really loved.

That’s the truth no one wants to admit — not in public, not even in whispers. It doesn’t make for a nice story.

She isn’t the one men fall head over heels for. Not the one they write songs about. Not the one they cross oceans or break rules for. She’s the dependable one. The practical one. The one they turn to when they want comfort, or maybe convenience.

But not love. Never love.

She grew up watching the same things everyone else did — the dreamy love stories that came packaged in 16 episodes of a K-drama, the whirlwind romances of Bollywood, the aching tenderness of C-dramas and J-dramas. Women like her were always there too, on screen — but never as the ones being loved. They were the supportive best friends. The reliable sisters. The background noise to someone else’s fairytale.

Yet somehow, somewhere, she still believed she could be the main character in her own story. That if she just waited long enough, gave enough, became enough, someone would look at her like the men in the movies look at their heroines.

But real life doesn’t play out like fiction.

In reality, she’s too plain. Too heavy. Too “serious.” Not flirtatious enough. Not effortless enough. Not sexy, not delicate, not the kind of beautiful men want to show off.

The only thing she’s ever really had was her family name — the kind that made people respect her in public and use her in private. Even marriage was never about her. It was about what she represented. A convenient alliance. A shortcut to power.

And when she tried to talk about it — her need for love, her desire to be someone’s first choice — she was ridiculed, even in places meant for healing.

“Why do you still want a man?”

“You’re strong. Independent. You don’t need one.”

Maybe not. But she wanted one. Still wants one.

Not for survival. For love. For warmth. For meaning.

But here’s the part most stories leave out — women like her, who cross into their 40s without ever really knowing what it means to be held with love, often never will. Not because they’re broken. But because the world only writes love stories for certain kinds of women.

And she isn’t one of them.