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No one in this world can read minds.

But sometimes, you just know.

You know when someone is lying to you. You know when they are pretending to be okay. You know when they say, “I’m fine,” but they are anything but fine. It’s not a superpower. It’s not some supernatural gift. It’s just paying attention when most people aren’t.

I learned this the hard way.

When I was young, I got into an accident. I lost my hearing, not completely, but enough. Enough to make every conversation feel like a risk. Enough to make me terrified of people finding out.

I was ashamed. Not because of the accident. But because I thought, if I can’t hear them properly, what will they think of me? The embarrassment felt worse than the hearing loss itself. And the idea of people feeling sorry for me? That repulsed me more than anything.

So I stopped relying on words.

And I started watching people instead.

That changed everything.

Here is what I figured out during those years: people almost never say what they actually feel.

When they are happy, they act nonchalantly. Unbothered. Sometimes, even rude. When they are angry, they either go completely silent or make a sarcastic comment that stings just enough. When they are sad, and this one surprised me the most, they laugh. Loudly. Heartily. Like nothing is wrong.

People mask their emotions. They do it every single day. And most of the time, we don’t even notice.

But here is the thing about masks: they slip.

People say eyes are the windows to the soul. I used to think that was just a pretty saying.

It isn’t.

Eyes are the one thing people cannot fully control. When someone looks at you, and their pupils dilate, that’s not something that they decided to do. That’s their body making a choice without asking them. Scientifically, it signifies their attraction to you. Interested. Whether romantically or just genuinely, something about you is pulling them in.

And when someone is truly happy? Their eyes twinkle. Not metaphorically, — literally. There’s a light that shows up in the eyes during real happiness that no amount of fake smiling can replicate.

Sadness does the opposite. The eyes go heavy. Slow. Even when the mouth is smiling, the eyes are always a few seconds behind, still carrying whatever the person is trying to hide.

If you want to know what someone actually feels, look at their eyes. Not their words. Not their face. Their eyes.

Now faces: faces are trickier.

Faces lie all the time. People are actually quite good at controlling their expressions. Smile when they’re hurting. Look calm when they are raging inside. It takes practice, but most people have been doing it since childhood.

But here’s what I noticed: the mask always gives itself away.

When someone tries to hide their happiness, their face twitches. Just slightly. The corner of the mouth wants to go up, and the person pulls it back down, but for one tiny second, it escaped. When someone is suppressing anger, their jaw locks. Tightens. Sometimes they press their lips together just a little too firmly.

You won’t catch it if you’re just talking at them.

But if you sit with them. Have an actual conversation, a genuine conversation. Listen while also just observing quietly, the mask slips. Every time. And in that one unguarded moment, you see exactly what they are feeling.

This one is the most underrated of all three.

People forget that the body has opinions. And unlike the face, the body doesn’t get the memo to hide them.

If someone likes you, they come closer. Simple as that. They lean in. They face you. Their entire body orients itself toward you like a compass finding north. And if they don’t? Their bodies turn away. Subtly. They might be looking right at you, but their feet, their shoulders, their chest, all quietly pointing toward the exit.

You don’t have to overthink it. Just notice: are they moving toward you or away from you? Sometimes, that one question tells you more than an hour of conversation.

Reading people’s emotions is not about being suspicious of everyone. It is not about catching people in lies or feeling clever.

For me, it was survival. When I couldn’t hear the words properly, I had to find another way to understand what was happening around me. And what I found was this: the truth is always there. Hiding just beneath the surface. In the flicker of an eye. In a jaw that tightens for just a second. In a body that quietly leans away.

People show you exactly how they feel.

Most of the time, we’re just not looking.