“Love is a decision, it is a judgement, it is a promise...” -Erich Fromm

Love is the ultimate goal for most people. Whether it's the love of our job, the love of our passion, or the love for the people around us, but like most of us, people seek that special love that's shared between two individuals who came from different backgrounds, suddenly having their paths crossed and connecting them, holding along each other in the passage of long life living together. From your efforts of looking for someone who deemed fit based on what you seemed right when it comes to romantic relationships and the commitment of both partners maintaining and sticking together through thick and thin while building and pleasuring themselves and leading through the life that's beyond their wildest dreams. A dream like that is everyone's dream, but not everyone can reach it.

Not everyone is lucky in the journey of love, though you would always expect a handful of difficulties along the way, especially when reaching, adjusting, and maintaining a relationship. Some people are stuck with the first step of reaching through, which can lead to the unsure desire of the wants in a relationship. Some may seek what they think their heart wants, some may settle once the reaching part finishes but never adjusts and maintains that grasp, and some couldn't get past the reaching. Romantic love may be a vital part of our existence, but not everyone is rewarded equally. ***

With romance mangas, we have always explored the reaching for that love, adjusting and maintaining that love, but there is another aspect of love which not a lot of stories in the media explores in a serious manner is where our character is unsure of her wants or discovered that their wants are not what they have grasp in current.

Run Away with Me, Girl is a romance manga that explores that dark realism of the undertold aspects of romance. We follow Momo Makimura who was a girl who is unmistakably in love with Midori Oonishi, but Midori broke up with Momo because she thinks dating girl with girl is foolery. This creates a dissonance of Momo as she is still in love with Midori a decade later, but forces herself to move on from the pure love that she gave that was unrequited. Meanwhile, Midori is in denial of her feelings and strays to the path of the fictional wants which her heart does not scream for, resulting in major consequences alongside her and relationship problems that would also remain unrequited. This decision does not only affect them, but the relationship-or the lack of genuine relationships they've developed over the years, and the effects of the people around them from the consequences.

The manga does not shy away from exploring the trail of damage caused by the disconnect between someone still seeking genuine love while already in a relationship, and the struggles of letting go. This uncertain and unsatisfying journey that the characters navigate brings about significant challenges and consequences, forcing them to confront the repercussions of their choices throughout their lives.

Even with the dire and inescapable circumstances one of the characters faces in the manga, the story doesn’t shy away from offering hope. No matter how deep the despair seems or how trapped you feel, there’s always a way out. Everyone is deserving of love, and love will eventually find its way to everyone. It might take years, as it did for the main characters, but it will come in time through realizations, efforts of changing, and willingness to accept what comes further. ***

The morality of this may be contested, scrutinized, and polarized by many people who will be reading the manga, and I see it as a beautiful thing. Not only is this story fictional, but it's happening with many people right now who are lost in the search of love. One may brush this off as an extreme way of conveying love’s selfishness, but it may be a gateway for some who are in need to get out of their false beliefs and lean towards the true wants that they have repressed within them. As for the curious like me, this is an absolutely captivating and heart-gripping read that lingers with you more as time goes by. ***