How We Went From Just Friends to Lovers — 4 Real Stories

Everyone tells you love finds you when you least expect it. But nobody tells you it might find you in a person who’s already seen you at your worst.

The one who has comforted you through all your failed relationships, situationships, and talking stages, who knows your meal order based on your mood, and who’s heard every story and still laughs without judging you.

It doesn’t happen all at once. There is a before, and there is an after, and in between both is the eternal question: how the heck did it happen?

To give you a sense of what this electric trope feels like or take you down memory lane, we asked around, and everyone had a story.

S’Funmi

Our love story actually grew out of a difficult moment, though it wasn’t trauma bonding. After I lost my mum, school resumed, but I stayed home for a while to grieve. During that time, she kept checking in, asking when I’d be back.

When I finally returned, I made it a point to go and see her, and that visit changed everything. I realised how good she made me feel, how being around her made everything else fade into the background.
That was the moment I knew it wasn’t just friendship anymore. And about four months after that moment, we officially became a couple.

Initially, I feared I’d lose her in any capacity. Whether as a friend, a confidant, or anything at all. She always felt like home, and she still does. At some point, my friends joked that she was “snatching me away” from them.

I loved that we were friends first. It made the love deeper and gave us something real outside of the romance. There was a foundation, a familiarity, a comfort that made everything feel more grounded.

The hardest part of ending the relationship is knowing that nothing else would probably come close. When you’ve loved with that level of familiarity and depth, the idea of anything after it feels almost impossible to match.

Adigun

My ex (we are no longer together, oops) and I had a love-hate dynamic before we got close, and what changed that to the point of us dating was how she treated me. She became warmer and friendlier towards me.

It was on a Sunday, and I was surprised to get a text from her complimenting how I looked… and everything just clicked from there.

We were childhood sweethearts, so we had more time to ourselves, from walking together to her place after midweek service to seeing each other on the street…blissful moments.

At some point, I wished we had remained friends instead, but it was a short-lived wish, as her circle began to change and I became the one who had to keep up.

I believe it went exactly the way it was supposed to. Twenty friends can’t play forever, but the separation hit really hard.

O’Funmi

Sincerely, if anyone said I’d date this person, I would laugh it up and tell them, “you gats be kidding, bruh.” Guess what? We never dated!

But somewhere along the line, I sort of fell in love with him. He seems to get me more than most people; our conversation flows naturally, and we can talk for hours about our future, past, present and everything that’s going on in our lives.
It was like a safe place, a happy place, and I subconsciously found myself always in his space. I mean, that’s where I want to be, and, someway, somehow, he started looking attractive to me.

I’d like to assume he loves me too, but with boys, you never can tell how they truly feel. It all started when I fell asleep in his room one afternoon while he was working on something on his laptop. I woke up to him smiling down at me and telling me, “Welcome to the land of the living.”

The sight was beautiful, and I was grinning like an idiot. Then we started talking about something while maintaining eye contact, of course. You know that situation in movies where you both are suddenly staring at each other.

You hold the gaze for a longer time than necessary, short of words, with obvious desires in your eyes… That’s when it hit me… That I want to kiss this boy… then I shook my head and told him I’m going home.

The second instance was when he told me he asked a girl out, his course mate… it was heartbreaking.

I told him I love him, but he said he’s at a point in his life where he can’t keep a serious relationship, and I’m not someone he’d like to pass time with. Anyway, I’m way over it but it was fun while the mushy feeling lasted.

Gbemi

I’d call him ‘R’. ‘R’ has always mentioned he initially didn’t like my guts for doing something I still deny to date because I don’t recall doing it. But he has always watched my stories, and somehow, we got talking.

From talking, we became friends. He was present. He listened and studied me like an exam expo. It felt good to have someone know every aspect of you: the good, the bad and the silly. I started liking him way before I confronted and acknowledged my feelings.