There are nights when love doesn’t feel like a promise, but like a loaded gun chamber.

“Hurts” was written on just such a night. Nikko stood still once again, paralyzed by his own self-doubt. He asked himself:

“Will I be able to set Charlie on the right path?”

How many nights before had he lain awake, making plans, playing out scenarios, searching for paths only he could take? It was a silent war within him: between the desire to protect her and the brutal realization that he might one day have to strike her so hard that she briefly falls, in order to truly see herself.

“Hurts” is the moment he accepts that truth is allowed to hurt.

The song tells the story of a man who sees the abyss of his lover—and his own. Nikko senses Charlie’s fear, her doubts, her urge to flee. At the same time, he senses his own weaknesses, his loss of control, his feeling of being overwhelmed. What kind of crazy game of love is this between them? Has he ventured too far out onto the water?

What if all his hopes and dreams shatter on the very day he’s brave enough to hold the mirror so close to her face that it pulls the rug out from under her?

“It hurts to be this way, I know… this is the price upon my soul.”

In “Hurts,” it’s not just the lyrics that speak, but also the silence between them.

The silent nights, in which every text message, every silence, every unanswered reply strikes like thunder. These thoughts, which settle like a dark fog over two people who love each other—but also push each other to their limits.

Is Charlie truly meant for Nikko? Or is this “I’ve always seen you” just a beautiful phrase lost in the noise?