I get the sentiment of "romance isn't that big for a deal" as well as "I really want to date someone" bc for me it's just the want to be prioritised, to share your life with someone else. you can do it with friends, but degrees of closeness vary, and without defining it, other people will definitely be put above you in an invisible hierarchy, and that's fine! it's normal. you can enjoy the company of someone, hangout and chat freely with them and trust them with your burdens, and you can still not see yourself sharing your life long term with them, or them being an integral part of your life long term. for me, I love adventure and doing new things, but most of my friends... don't. I don't dislike them for it, but it means making them a part of my life is difficult, especially when they aren't willing to cross their comfort zone to join me. if I met someone like them, introverted and reserved, who was still willing to be adventurous with me, try new things and put themselves out there, I'd probably like them a lot too. but if they don't, we can still be friends, just not... I don't want to say lovers, because there are queerplatonic relationships and platonic soulmates, but something to that degree. honestly, I don't mind never dating as long as I have someone as my "priority" or "life partner", and I as theirs. It's just my opinion, anyways. my one crush is also one of my good friends, and I enjoy that relationship as well. it's just that they don't prioritise/are not as close to me as they are to their other friends, so I don't think we'd make good life partners. if they did, we would be, but we're not that close, haha.
(not blaming th or calling them out for it; it's perfectly normal to be closer to other friends because of plenty of factors, and for this one we had a falling out for a bit a couple years ago and then split ways before reconciling, it's just how it is. also, their group of friends share more interests and happened to talk more than we could, so it's also bad luck on my end. meanwhile, I had very few friends I enjoyed being around simply also because of bad luck in social groupa)
also maybe me being asexual has some factor in it, because sex is like, not a big deal to me. I like physical touch, like handholding or hugs, as much as the next person, but sexual intimacy is extremely low on my list of priorities. I do understand the appeal of it to people, but it's not something I'd instigate personally. so for some people, sex is a part of romance, and that may be why they want a gf/bf/other
BUT ALSO I enjoy pushing my fave characters together and going KISS!!! KISS!!!! Like they're Barbie dolls. It's not that it makes the relationship more important it's just fun to me
