The lacerating pangs of unrequited love have been felt by many men, including the likes of Apollo and Ernest Hemingway. It is so hard-hearted to torment a man with the sight of something his heart so badly aches for and tease him persistently with the promise of romantic fruition, when in reality, this promise of attainment is just a cruel illusion. History preserves the name of a certain hapless Mr. Tantalus who was damned to eternal suffering by which he was made to stand in a pool of water that stood beneath a fruit tree with low branches. This might just seem like an ordinary rap on the knuckles but what was totally cruel was, that despite having a fruit-bearing tree right over his head, he could not eat it as the moment he would try to reach the fruit a nasty gale of wind would waft the branch away and evade his grasp. Moreover, after making several futile attempts to pluck the fruit, when the poor thing would become all exhausted and parched, and bend down to quaff some water, the water would flow away! Oh boy! That's really cruel. This story, however, has a massive appeal in modern times, for there are many who find themselves in a 'tantalized' situation. Given below are some things that only our modern Tantalus (read friendzoned guys) can dig. That ugly and ego-striping feeling when a woman tells a guy how much she likes him, enjoys spending time with him, without having any inhibitions because he doesn't try to make a pass at her! Please get out your wand, direct it to the ground and utter the spell Diffindo! It will crack open the earth after which you can jump in it. Oh yes yes, we are just friends―those innocuous coffee dates, movie times, chatting for hours on the trot, unbosoming of secrets, those seemingly platonic pecks and hugs are things that two BEST FRIENDS DO WITH EACH OTHER. This tagging suddenly deprives you of your vitality. Aaaaaahhhhh. You could use another Harry Potter spell here to spite your miserable life. If only you could throw a bucketful of ice on this woman's head, shake her out of her ignorance, and bawl out on her face "I am here, I WAS ALWAYS HERE". She sees you as this NICE GUY who needs to have a CUTE girlfriend, and so, she takes all the pain to introduce you to her supposedly CUTE friends and sets you up for dates. If only she could take a little more pain to understand that IT'S HER WHO YOU FANCY and not her girl friends. You are truly devastated for being in such a situation―firstly your emotional make-up is not as frail as this woman you love, so you are already kind of in a fix as to how to comfort her, and secondly, as 'a brother', you can't really cheer her up as you often fantasize! Aaaahhhh. It goes without saying that when you carry a torch for someone, you are ready to carry their shopping bags. So, you become an exemplar version of modern chivalry, hold the shopping bags, take her out for meals to garish and fancy restaurants all at your expense, lend your ears to her girly talks, help her select a nail wear color (also help her to put it), watch mushy movies with her, and other myriad things that under ordinary circumstances could have made you feel emasculated. Lord. This is really sad. One day she arrives at your door, all garbed up fancy, sporting that 'come-hitherto' look and wearing a sensual smile on her mouth; this all really makes you want to fly and kiss your lucky stars, but you are soon back to cursing them as you realize that all this was NOT FOR YOU BUT FOR YOUR ROOMMATE. You are doing just about everything and anything that you can within or beyond the bounds of friendship, by now you can tell the food that she likes to nosh on when she's upset, or that mawkish episode from her favorite anime that she watches when she feels romantic. Despite all this, you know that she will never be able to get her head around the fact that YOU LOVE HER SO MUCH. Every time you find yourself in the 'fork-in-the-road-moment', where you know that you will have to man up, make a decision, and live with it, you feel paralyzed by the fear of losing her forever. While you cannot brook up with her 'not knowing', the fact that pouring your heart out will change the equation between the two of you (may be for the bad) is equally unbearable. You have really grafted hard to become a perfect guy, you have moved heaven and earth to make this girl feel happy, you have been at her beck and call, you have faced embarrassment at the hands of your friends over your romantic wretchedness, you have deprived yourself of sleep, food, and 'pal time' so that you could be at her disposal and have some sweet tormenting moments with her, and WHAT IN THE NAME OF LOVE YOU HAVE GOT?! Jokes apart fellas, as a girl I can warrant you the importance of being vocal about your 'feelings' for a girl. You may not necessarily get a definite answer to your question or the reciprocation as you would expect, but a girl needs to be told how special she is to you. So, if you want to break free from the bars of the friendzone, then you better convey your feelings to the girl without further ado!