Me, In All Your Favorites

Artwork by Heo Ji Seon

You said you love the sun, but you seek shade when its rays hit your skin — even when it barely does.

You said you love the rain, but you reach for an umbrella the second it starts falling, and complain when your shoes get wet.

You said you love my playlist, but you skip songs more times than I can count. You don’t really sing along, while I’m shouting every lyric.

And I used to think — how ironic.

How do you say you love something, love someone, call it your preference, and still step away from it the moment it’s a little uncomfortable or not interesting anymore?

But I guess I also missed the part when you said you love the sun — you were looking at me — while I was smiling at the camera — like I was everything in your frame.

When you said you love the rain, you whispered it so quietly while we were out there anyway — soaked, laughing, kind of reckless.

And when you skip songs in my playlist, it’s not out of boredom — it’s because you noticed me first, scrolling, thinking, deciding — like you already knew what I needed to hear before I even did.

You never shouted the lyrics because you were listening to me instead, and you didn’t want to drown it by singing along.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been watching your face like that, turning your reactions into meanings you yourself never reached.

Because the “favorites” I thought I knew from you weren’t built on what you liked before you met me.

They were reflections of me.

And that’s the truth I almost missed — you didn’t simply love the sun. You were looking at me when you said it.

It was never about the rain alone. It was when you held my hand while shielding me with your jacket.

And you didn’t only love my playlist — you learned me through it.

So maybe the truth is simpler than I thought — it was never just the sun, the rain, or the songs.

It was you finding me in all of them.

And me… only realizing later that I wasn’t just present in your world — I was in all your favorites.

This piece is part of my original writing project, The Quiet Archive Project, first published on Wattpad.