Romantic love feels natural, but what if it’s shaped by hidden social rules? What if love is like a 10-year series assessment, with templates and model answers you can follow? This presentation unpacks three key templates—Passion, Commitment, and Compulsory Sexuality—that dictate how we experience attraction and relationships. While these models shape romance, they can create anxiety for those who don’t fit. Drawing from 45 young adults in Singapore, especially those who identify as being on the aromantic and/or asexual spectra, we explore how they navigate, resist, and redefine love on their own terms through alter-romanticism—a broader way of thinking about intimacy beyond conventional romance.