TL;DR: me (23M) and my friend (22F) have grown quite close, but I recently found out she has a boyfriend who she’s been in a relationship with for definitely way before I started trying to pursue her. What should I do?
So for a little bit of context. Me and my friend live in the same neighborhood, same community, but we didn’t know each other till we met in college. As soon as we found out we live in the same neighborhood we just seem to have hit it off, and our friendship grew. Then I fell for her, quick. However, I made a stupid mistake of not giving hints that I like her or said how I felt about her quick enough. So right when I thought about confessing to her and right before I could, I find out she has been in a relationship for a while now. I’m still optimistic that I could still be good friends with her, but now I’m kinda stuck in between a rock and a hard place.
What should I do? Should I eventually tell her how I feel about her? Or should I not? Because I’m afraid that if I do confess I may end up ruining our friendship. But at the same time if I don’t, then having this bottled up may make our hang outs and days together awkward and not feel the same