[Unrequited Love] Heart-wrenching Love Songs | A Roundup of Tear-Inducing Crush and Breakup Tracks

I stillmilet

milet “I still” Music Video (Theme song for the film ‘Unknown Girlfriend’)

This is a heartbreak song that sings of a poignant, aching love.

It’s common to look back and think, “If I had never met you, maybe I wouldn’t have been hurt this much…” But that’s the thing about love—you can’t just stop yourself there.

The more you try to forget, the more that person lingers in your mind, and perhaps all you can do is wait for time to heal it.

This piece was written as the theme song for the film “Shiranai Kanojo” (“Unknown Girlfriend”).

Together with this work—where milet takes on her first-ever role as a heroine—it is sure to resonate with the hearts of many.

usmilet

milet 'us' MUSIC VIDEO (Theme song for the Nippon TV Wednesday drama 'Gisou Furin' [Fake Affair])

This song, whose opening lines grasp your heart as if turning an earnest feeling into a voice, is “us” sung by the singer-songwriter milet.

It was also used as the theme song for the drama ‘Gisou Furin’ (Fake Affair).

milet’s clear, steadfast voice feels like it passes straight through your heart.

It’s a poignant track about two people in a precarious relationship that could tip either way, unable to say the words “I love you.” It’s so painful when you can’t bring yourself to say what you want to say.

I can’t help but relate to the frustration of hating to leave things as they are yet being unable to take that first step.

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Kado(guchi) Shichigatsu

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To Those Who Know the Blue of the Skyaimyon

Aimyon – A Person Who Knows the Blue of the Sky [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

A song sung by Aimyon, “A Whisker Away to the Blue Sky” (Sora no Aosa o Shiru Hito yo), also served as the theme for the film of the same title.

It’s a heart-wrenching track about recalling the time spent together while facing the pain of parting with someone precious and the sorrow of never seeing them again.

As you’d expect from Aimyon, the melody is very catchy, easy to listen to, and refreshingly bright.

That contrast with the lyrics may be exactly what makes it hit so hard.

If you listen to it while going through a difficult love, the tears will surely flow.

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sasashina

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You are a cigarette; I am a soap bubble.Lovely Summer Chan

You are a cigarette; I am a soap bubble.

A melancholic guitar-pop song by Lovely Summer Chan that delicately depicts the end of a bittersweet love.

Featured on her major-label debut album “LSC,” released in November 2016, the track expresses the faint feelings for someone out of reach and the fragility of having no choice but to accept it.

Through the contrast between “cigarettes,” a symbol of adulthood, and “soap bubbles,” which vanish in an instant, it strikingly portrays the distance between two people who can never truly meet.

It’s a highly relatable song that offers comfort to those who strive to move forward even while suffering from an unrequited love.

Song for…HY

Song for…

A song by HY that sings of the ache of not being able to have that simple, obvious kind of love—falling for each other, liking each other, and being together.

It’s a heartbreak anthem cherished by many fans, who say it “tightens the chest” and is “impossible not to relate to.” The honest feeling of just wanting to see the person you love ends up hurting someone, making it a forbidden love.

Even though you were supposed to have met by fate, you can’t be together—the true pain of that might be something only those who’ve been through it can really understand.

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yuri

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petalback number

back number – Hanabira (full)

A heartbreaking breakup song that overlays the fleeting memories of love with cherry blossom petals.

The lyrics delicately portray how memories with a lover linger everywhere in the city, turning even everyday scenes into amplifiers of pain.

While still holding on to love, the reality is that they will never meet again.

This song carries a message that gently embraces that hurt.

Released in April 2011, it was featured as the ending theme for JAPAN COUNTDOWN.

It is sure to resonate deeply with anyone who has experienced a painful romance.

ConclusionSenchimirimentaru

Sentimental『Last Words』Music Video

A profound love story chronicling meetings and partings that cannot last forever.

Born from the desire to capture memories with a loved one in music, this heartrending ballad emerged after nine years in the making.

Crafted with heartfelt care by Atushi from Centimillimental, the song was chosen as the theme for the September 2024 release Given The Movie: To the Sea, drawing attention for its beautiful harmony with the film’s world.

It’s a song that gently stays by the side of anyone struggling with a relationship and carrying a bittersweet ache in their heart.