What about threequarter-romantic then ? Either you're in love or you're not but you can't be inbetween.
Demi-romance(/-sexuality) isn’t about being in love or not being in love. It’s about being able to fall in love/feeling sexual attraction because your personal bonding requirement is fulfilled… and having zero romantic/sexual interest in anyone at all if the requirement is not fulfilled, possibly for long periods of time. It’s not uncommon for demis to not be interested in anyone for years, sometimes even over ten years or maybe even longer. Since demi-sexuality is probably easier to explain than demi-romance: Most people apparently sometimes consider other people they just met, including random passersby on the street, as sexually attractive but choose not to do anything sexual with those people for various reasons: maybe they’re not into casual sex and prefer to have a stable relationship first, or maybe they are already in a relationship and are faithful to their partner. Demi-sexuals on the other hand simply never are attracted to people they just met so they don’t have to choose not to do anything.
Not all of the above has to be true for all demis but it’s commonly mentioned. For example, it’s also possible for a demi to always be attracted to someone if their circle of friends/acquaintances is large enough and several people fulfil the strong emotional bond requirement. Since the strong bond is required but not sufficient, they’re not attracted to all of those people at the same time, though, or even at all. Probably.
Of course there are people who can't fall in love at first sight neither in a short amount of time but feel a strong bond with someone but isn't that what you call a friend ?
Friendship can be a strong bond and I’d guess it’s the most common way for demi-romantics/-sexuals to start a relationship, but it’s not the only option.
Maybe it’s a colleague who you often work together with and you realize you approach problems from the same angle and cooperate well and during coffee breaks you have a common interest to talk about. You might not consider each other friends, but it can certainly be a strong bond.
Or maybe it’s someone from your sports club who you meet regularly and get along with well.
Or maybe that person on the train you’ve been seeing every morning for the past year who often reads the same books you do, often buys the same new releases you do and when they read a book you don’t know yet, you buy it too and realize you like it too. You haven’t even talked once, but you might still feel a strong bond with that person over a shared interest.
Eh, I’m rating. It ’s kinda hard to explain and most people don’t seen to get what demi-romance/-sexuality is about. Or maybe I’m just explaining it badly. I’m just glad that my family mostly stopped asking about my lack of relationship and chose to bother my younger siblings in relationships about marriage and kids instead.