After a while...

After a certain point, you no longer need to say "I love you" to express love.

Once a relationship reaches a certain age, two people stop talking about loving each other.
When a relationship becomes solid like the four strong pillars needed to build a house, whether you speak of love or not makes no difference anymore.

At some point, the word "love" undergoes a behavioral transformation—whether in romance or marriage.

Over the phone, you don't say "I love you" like new lovers do. "I love you" transforms into "Why haven't you taken your medicine yet? How many times do I have to tell you!"

Instead of expensive gifts on anniversaries or parties on birthdays, you send money through bKash for some ongoing installment and say: Pay the installment tomorrow.

The childish "If you don't eat, I won't eat either!" doesn't happen anymore.
The couple who once stayed up all night choosing baby names now stays up late, busy with career studies. Instead of buying flowers or bangles-watches-ties, the two go together to buy essential textbooks for class.

At some point, the very meaning of the word "love" changes.

"I can't live without you" is no longer said. Instead, when either person is late coming home, worry etches itself into the wrinkles of a furrowed brow...wondering if something bad has happened to them.

Gone are the dramatic dark lipstick, strong perfume, or brand-name suits-ties or punjabis-jeans worn to impress in the early days. Hair barely tied back, greasy-headed in old clothes and worn-out sandals, they sit at the tea stall having deep discussions about urgent matters: "Where would be best to get father's treatment, how much can we save from this month's salary."

Love no longer resides in the use of words—it transforms into care, into tenderness. Without becoming a household, it becomes unnamed domesticity. Two flowers are strung together on the same thread.