[Unrequited Love] Heart-wrenching Love Songs | A Roundup of Tear-Inducing Crush and Breakup Tracks
“Even though I know it won’t be rewarded…” Once you fall in love, it’s not so easy to stop your feelings, is it?
You tell yourself you can’t go on like this, that you have to end it, but when you see them, you just can’t hold back your love.
In this article, we introduce love songs that portray the pain of unrequited love and lay bare those unspoken feelings.
Listen to them when you’re tired of loving.
They’ll gently wrap around you, saying, “It’s tough, I know.”
- Unrequited Love Song: A heartrending love song dedicated to you who are going through a painful romance
- [Songs of Infidelity] A collection of forbidden love songs about unattainable romance
- [Unattainable Love] A love song about two people who feel the same way but can’t be together
- Bittersweet love songs to listen to when the person you like already has a girlfriend or boyfriend
- Tear-jerking unrequited love songs that will break your heart: timeless classics about unattainable love
- [Lingering Feelings Songs] A curated selection of heartbreaking love songs and uplifting romance tracks
- Unattainable Love: A Heartbreaking Love Song About Falling for a Married Person
- “I Want to See You”: A love song that makes you cry when you listen to it while you can’t meet
- Songs that depict a teasing, suggestive attitude | Love songs to listen to when you're in unrequited love or a painful relationship
- [Today's Unrequited Love Song] Guaranteed to Make Your Heart Flutter! A Sweet and Bittersweet Love Song
- A heart-wrenching story that tightens the chest! A Showa-era unrequited love song
- [To Those in Love] Relatable Love Songs to Listen to When You’re Crushing Hard
- A classic song about a forbidden love
Unrequited Love: A Collection of Heartbreaking Love Songs | A Comprehensive Introduction to Tear-Jerking Crush and Breakup Songs (231–240)
Say you like me.aimyon
This is a song from Aimyon’s second album “Nik umarekk o Yo ni Habakaru,” released in 2015, that sings about a slightly endearing—almost frightening—maiden’s heart.
I feel like Aimyon’s second album confronts themes of “life” and “death,” so this track, positioned as a pure love song, stands out a bit as an oddity.
The lyrics, in which a girl who was cheated on and dumped vents her bitterness and resentment, might be highly relatable for women who’ve been through the same.
It’s amusing how the title “Suki tte Itte yo” (“Say you love me”) starts to feel more like “Say you love me, now.”
Love even your melancholyKoresawa
A heartwarming pop tune by Koresawa that delicately portrays the feelings of a girl living with the negative emotions everyone experiences.
Released in August 2020, this first single is a re-recording of a song long regarded as a legendary hidden gem.
Set to a gentle, acoustic guitar–driven sound, it conveys the strength to move forward while harboring vague anxieties and loneliness—and learning to accept them.
It’s the perfect track for anyone who resonates with the stance of not denying any feeling but choosing to love them, or for those who want to keep looking ahead even while carrying a touch of melancholy.
all night longOnda Masanori
A single song that portrays a love that can never be fulfilled, leaving a lingering sense of bittersweet sorrow even as the wish is kept hidden in one’s heart.
Carried by a melody that sticks in your ears, time flows quietly and solemnly, as if the two, despite knowing each other’s feelings, cannot escape the nighttime world that traps them.
Released by Masanori Onda in February 2025, this work captured the hearts of many struggling with love.
Listening while watching the music video—so full of aching sadness—will deepen your empathy for the pain of an unattainable love.
Why feat. Emimi NodaTakase Tōya
A heartbreak ballad distinguished by a beautiful, soul-stirring melody.
Toya Takase’s emotional vocals and Emi Noda’s clear voice brilliantly capture the bittersweet feelings after a breakup.
Released digitally in January 2022 and included on the album “13-gatsu 1-nichi” (The First Day of the 13th Month), this song resonated with many listeners who relate to the joys of love and the pain of parting, drawing attention on charts across Asia.
It’s a track I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who feels the loneliness that deepens at night or the emptiness of losing someone dear.
If It SnowsDREAMS COME TRUE
This song poignantly captures a woman’s aching feelings as she falls for a man who already has someone to spend special days with.
Released as a single by DREAMS COME TRUE in 2006, it embodies the saying that you don’t choose to fall in love—it happens.
Before she knows it, she finds herself in love with someone she can never be with.
Her anguish as she carries these impossible feelings will surely resonate with anyone experiencing unrequited love.
On a lonely winter night, give it a listen.
Asking for the impossibleJohn Darling
“Naimononedari” is a heart-wrenching song whose music video tells the story of a woman who is set to marry tomorrow, only to run into an unforgettable former lover the day before.
The lyrics convey her turmoil as she wavers between the reality of getting married and the love she can’t let go of.
She wants to run back to him, but puts on a brave face, telling herself, “I wouldn’t be happy even if I were with him.” At the same time, you can feel her aching desire to think of him just for now.
It’s truly a song that portrays an unattainable love.
The lyrics and music were written by Yohei Hashiguchi of wacci, also known for the hit song “I Became Someone Else’s Girlfriend.”
Street Loveindigo la End
No matter how much you love someone, it won’t come true; even if you tell yourself to forget, the memories that remain won’t let you.
Torikoi is a song that writhes in the anguish between unresolved feelings for a love that has already passed and the irrepressible longing that insists you still love them.
It’s a track included on indigo la End’s 2019 album Watashi Shōsetsu, Growing Wet.
The opening lyrics subtly suggest an affair.
For those harboring feelings they can’t tell anyone about, or suffering from a love they can’t forget, this song feels packed with emotions they want to let out but just can’t.