That warmth in your heart, the entwined hands, the sunny smile, throw pillow fights: it’s what romance films and novels tell us falling in love would be like. In all your years of growing up, you’ve been fed many perspectives of what love is. So, you search over your shoulder for ‘the one’, that person that would make you fall in love at first sight.

In reality, falling in love is scary and nerve-wrecking. While it happens differently for people, it takes one simple thing to prove you’re genuinely in love: trust. If you have trust issues, then it might be difficult for you to let someone in close enough to fall in love with them. But the truth is, you have probably let someone in without knowing it. You probably feel things for someone without realising how much you do.

Yes, it’s scary at first; there may be ups and down where you feel scared and nervous, but also joyful. It’s a conflicting emotion that jumbles around your heart and mind, but it’s ironically the best feeling. If you haven’t felt these emotions yet, you still can. Everyone falls in love at least once. It’s not an immediate thing (contrary to what the films and novels portray), but a gradual phase.

That emotion feels like you’re taking a leap into the unknown. It’s extremely thrilling and exhilarating. Once it happens, get ready for the best ride ever. But you have to know the signs to look out for, because just maybe you’ve fallen in love already without knowing it.

It’s amazing how much we believe we know about love just by what we’ve been told. You probably love the idea of falling in love but have no idea what the signs are. Here are a few of them:

1. Trust is easy

Even if you’ve found it hard to trust anyone else, with this person you just let go. You trust this person at least 95% with your emotions, and tell them anything and everything. You can’t bear to hide anything that involves you from them.

2. You check your phone constantly

You’re always on the look out for “that” call. Every time your phone rings or you get a message, you hope it’s them. You want to talk or chat with that person all the time.

3. Everything seems better

When that person is around, everything just seems better. You catch yourself enjoying everything when that person is by your side.

4. You want to do things together

Also, you realise you want to do everything together, even the smallest things like grocery shopping. You want them there by your side. Think about it, who do you always want to call to be with you all the time?

5. You catch yourself smiling

Whenever that person’s face or something they said pops into your mind, you smile. You smile randomly, even when in a public place.

6. You enjoy things you hate

Whenever you’re with that person, you suddenly like what they like, even if you ‘hate’ it normally.

7. You feel more comfortable around them

You tend to be more yourself around that person than when you are around anyone else.

8. Your body language

You suddenly want to get really close and personal. You find yourself touching that person every chance you get, juts to maintain physical contact.

9. You want everyone you know to love that person too

You want them to like that person the same way you do. Even if you aren’t aware of how you feel, if you have introduced that person to everyone (including your family), then you just might be falling in love.