How I found my husband

We first met as group mates, including my ex. While I was with my ex, I grew close to him and a smaller clique, sharing all kinds of manga and nonsense. We were like besties who could share anything.

Later my relationship with my ex grew toxic but I just couldn't see it until my close group made me realise it. With newfound clarity and courage, I broke up with him. I can still remember it, it was such a liberating feeling, like I could achieve anything with my newfound freedom - including finding someone new.

However, finding a new bf isn't easy and my brain went, "what about a friend with benefits?" At the time one bestie in our group who was casual with someone ended it after she had to move overseas. Since he had experience, I asked if we could try. We did have a cardinal rule though. If any of us started catching feelings, we would tell the other and cut our losses to preserve our friendship.

It was an amazing decision. I ended up learning I wasn't enjoying sex until I met him. He asked and listened to what I liked and made sure we communicated during sex. It was like a revelation to me. Emboldened by this new experience, I started looking through dating apps to find a potential bf. Since we were besties, I shared the process with him to get his opinion too,

Turns out finding a guy is hard... I landed zero dates, and those who replied ended up ghosting me. My supportive bestie (and FWB) never failed to cheer and console me intimately. As time went on, I started noticing myself seeing him differently, like "if he's so nice to me now, what would he be like as a bf?"

Suddenly, an emergency separated us and feelings started getting more real. Since we were physically apart, we could only chat online. That's when we got to really dive into understanding each other beyond superficial friend stuff and things like life, relationships, family, etc. Now I knew I had real feelings for him. I had to end it or I'd lose my friend forever. I told him online that I had something very important to talk about and he said he needed to share something with me too.

We met up after he retuned and I confessed my feelings. I reassured him that we could stay friends even if we ended our FWB thing. He held my hands and told me he felt the same too. While we were separated hundreds of miles, that distance pulled us closer than any our intimate meet-ups. We missed each other so much that it felt unbearable being apart. So we ended up being an official couple.

Fast forward several years, we got married and are living happily together. We are intimate as husband and wife, and share anything under the sun like best friends. If I went back in time, I'd make the same choices just so I can meet him and fall for him again.

I hope this was shoujo enough - I do think it feels more josei hahaha. Sorry it ended up being so long. I wasn't sure how I could condense it further.