You can have unrequited feelings, but unrequited love is a bit far Personally, I don't think you can be truly in love with someone unless you either are or have been in a relationship with them. It's perfectly possible to feel a strong attraction towards someone, but if you haven't actually had a relationship with them, you can't know them intimately enough to be in love with them. Nowadays, people throw the word 'love' around a lot; they say it when they don't really mean it, or even if they think they do it's not true love they are experiencing. Believe me, I know the pain of wanting someone who doesn't want you back- but I still wouldn't call that unrequited love. The only situation in which I think a person could experience unrequited love is if they were broken up with but were still in love with their partner, because they are still in love but the partner isn't anymore.