We have been a couple for about two years now. We went to high school together and became friends my sophomore year and his junior. We were both in serious relationships at the time that were also very unpleasant, and we found ourselves spending more and more time together, helping each other get over all the hurt our significant others were causing us. I first met him because he was skipping class in my theatre class. He was incredibly shy and hardly talked to me, but our eyes continually lingered on one another.
That week, I went out to dinner with my older brother, and he was across the shopping strip getting him stereo system installed in his car. On a whim, I decided to approach him, and we spent a few hours just talking and listening to music in his car. Interesting enough, one of the first things he talked about was Ragnarok Online, and how he wanted me to come play with him. From that moment on, we always had a connection. My boyfriend at the time was very suspicious, which I found odd because I thought of Daniel as just a friend, not allowing myself to admit how beautiful I thought he was and how well we got along. As the year progressed we spent more and more time together, until I was with him more than my current boyfriend. We just had so many common interests and complementing features. We would just hang out, watch anime, and play video games. He introduced me to MMORPGs, praising RO the entire time. (He had been playing religiously since beta.)
He quickly became one of my best friends, someone I could honestly talk to. When my boyfriend and I broke up (to be more specific, when he cheated on me) he was there, also freshly single, and we supported one another. But, I never let myself entertain the idea of the two of us being together; it just seemed to good to be true. As we entered my junior and his Senior year, I was so attracted to him that it was painful. After a good friend of mine reassured me I had a good chance, I approached him with the idea of dating. I can still remember every detail of our first date. He picked me up, he was wearing a black shirt of a local Martial Arts school he went to, and we went to a talent show at our school. In our seats, I told him my hand hurt (because I had written a few 6 essays that day at school) and he gave me a hand massage. When he was finished, he kept my hand in his, and I spent the rest of the show shivering because he made me feel so alive; I was in heaven. That night, he dropped me off, gave me the sweetest hug, and I walked into my house in a fog. My mom took one look at me and said (and I`m not making this up), "Jillian, you`re in love." I was giddy. I was insanely happy. I was completely and totally head over heels in love with him just after our first date. I felt very stupid that i had not realized what we could have had earlier. I was even more upset when he told me he had liked me since we met. But he was mine then, and I am never letting go.
My junior year was an incredibly hard year for me. I suffered very bad injuries and had to have surgery and therapy. There were many different things that happened, sickness in my family, very bad social problems what could have gotten me into very much undeserved trouble. It was like everything bad that could have happened to me, did happen. If it were not for him being there, I don`t think I would have gotten out alive. He kept me sane and loved me through out everything, and when he was in pain, I did the same for him. Our relationship grew very mature, and we realized we could not be without one another. We`re like to pieces of a puzzle, made to fit together perfectly. All my weaknesses are his strengths, and visa versa.
On Christmas that year, Daniel gave me a computer for one sole purpose. And on Christmas day, he hooked it to the Internet and downloaded Ragnarok Online. That night I created my first character and I have been addicted ever since. He helped me play, make my builds and is still advising me to this day. He himself was not playing, having been absent from the game so long, all his old friends had left, and he did not want to start back behind people he had been so ahead of. So he spent his nights half playing other MMORPGs, half watching me play RO. When Iris came out, he was so excited--this was his chance to start over, a blank slate. And I was excited because I could finally play with him. Now we probably spend 70% of our time together hunting on Iris and I am so happy to play this game we both love.
He graduated from high school, but I am still in my senior year. But we see each other almost every night and are trying very hard to prepare for a long future together. I know I will never find anyone so perfect for me again, and I love him more than I even thought possible. We throw around ideas about kids and marriage and houses, not urgent but simply the prospect of it happening years and years down the road. When the marriage system came out on RO, I was very excited and immediately wanted Daniel and I to marry. I want our relationship cemented like that in the game, to feel the connection to him that might help me understand how the real connection of marriage will feel in real life. And I`m positive he feels the same. We don`t even care about the skills it gives us (though they`re nice!) we just want the experience and ability to feel so officially a pair. The ability to say, "I love this person so much I eternally link myself to them."
He is my soul mate. There is no doubt in my mind about that. When I am with him, I still shiver from happiness just like on our first date. Before I met him, I wasn`t a fan of the idea of settling down, but now, all I want in life is a home and a future with him--not fame or money, just him and a life together--for richer or poorer, sickness or health. He has always loved, cherished and supported me, in the game and in real life. I want the rest of Iris to know how much we love each other. We spent the last two weeks hunting a wedding dress, and after about 70 OBB, received one. Now all we need is the tux, and nothing will stop us. We would be honored if the GMs would attend our ceremony.

I would like to include a few poems and verses I have written for him:

Frozen Fruit

I had almost forgotten the taste of your lips
A horrible flavor of frozen fruit
From that rancid gum you always chew,
And had made me addicted to.
We were standing outside
Shivering from the heat of each other`s eyes
And the wind that cat-footed around us
afraid of breaking our concentration.
Is this what happens when lovers quarrel?
When they defy the laws of passion,
and succumb to their flawed human nature?
I let my thoughts dither from the emotions coursing through me
And I began to wonder if snow was really making an appearance
I shook stronger in accord.
Out of instinct alone, I gaze at you.
My eyes trying to stay neutral
Trying not to show my anger
Trying not to show my love
Trying not to show my need for your arms around me
Trying not to show my regret.
Showing nothing,
But smeared eyeliner.
You had tried to leave once before,
Walking out the door then stopping a foot away.
I had followed.
You knew I would.
We never leave upset
We always forgive and forget.
Because we`re real,
Not those melodramatic teenage romances,
We`re real.
Upon thinking that, I swallow my pride.
I show a little of that need,
I shine a little of my apology
And you wrap your arms over my body
Crushing me against your shirt.
And we forgive and forget together.
We remember why we love each other
What makes us both so different,
And we forget our petty argument
As you kiss me softly in the cold, abusive air.
And I can`t feel the anger.
I can`t feel the sadness,
Only the taste of frozen fruit,
And your hands on my waist.
Love is real.

“Somber or thoughtful, love?”

Chaotic beauty
Was in the seat next to me
A tranquil mix of confusion and heartbreak
Who always seemed
To get himself lost in his own mind
For it is a mind easily complicated
A mind that looks beyond the true
A mind that never hints his feelings
A mind that hold close to unknown guidelines
An enigma
I stare at him
Lost in his own obscurity
Lost in some great theory
Lost in the decline of society
Softly I ask
“Somber or thoughtful?”
He turns, and for a moment
His eyes blink free
I’m graced with a hallowed smile
He replies “thoughtful”
And I wonder if it’s thought about me...
Because I’m so lost in him

Here is a brief verse I wrote for him on his 18th birthday:

Drama

There is a comedy and a tragedy to life. Though they live opposed to one another, they compliment and contour in a wholly necessary manner, for one is hydrogen, the other is oxygen, forming a life giving liquid of harmony. Life and death, pain and pleasure, humor and sorrow, all are companions, walking hand in hand and step in step. Male and female. Like the fitting of a body against another, the molding of a hip to a hip, and a touch to a kiss. Passion and tenderness, Love.
Life as we know it is created by opposite attractions. Polar ends gluing the earth together. A needed, appreciated thing. Entertainment: comedy and tragedy. The world in which I live in is a play of comedy and pleasure. An easy life, this I know, but a constant life, and this I enjoy. But him, oh he lives in a world of tragedy, a plain of the complete understanding of pain, something I never hoped to comprehend. Our two lives, we came together on a shaky foundation of common interest, a bridge between our two worlds; neither of us fully expecting the onslaught of emotions and changes we were both to endure.
It began slowly… a smile here, a touch there, a laugh a grin a smirk, until one day, a new boy and girl were created, neither of them really belonging to themselves, but part of a much greater whole. The boy, well he was brighter, kinder, happier, and the girl?
She was in love.
But you know the girl I speak of is me, so I supposed I’d rephrase that.
I was in love. I am in love.
And now, I’m no longer a comedy. I’m not longer one sided and ignorant in my understanding of the world.
And him?
He is no longer a lone tragedy. Instead, we met together in the creation of something new. Something of comedy and tragedy, something beautiful—Love. Pleasure and pain, passion and romance. That is us. Sensible fallacy. Discipline and compassion. Honor. Pride. Joy. Depression. Obsession. Hope. Admiration. Intelligence. Every aspect of human emotion compressed like a hot iron, over coming both of us, removing HIM and HER, and making us ONE.
Eighteen years ago today, my lover was made. My soul mate, my match, the only one I could ever love.
So, today I rejoice. For I am in love with him, and he is in love with me.
Perfection.
And lastly, a poem he wrote in which he told me he loved me for the first time:

What is love?

Just a thought in our heads?
Is it the heat of passion,
Or breakfast in bed?

Love can be happy.
Love can be sad.
It`s something you want.
It`s something you feel.
But as you`re wondering
What love really is...
Your white knight
Is giving you his.