Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6986530-20161203204120/@comment-6986530-20161214222150

It has nothing to do with "mutual" or "not mutual," I'm not sure where you got that from the reply. It has to do with whether the relationship is official and/or socially legitimate or not. In English, the term "lover" can often be construed as meaning that the relationship is clandestine or secret, even if that's not always what it means. By contrast, with terms like "boyfriend/girlfriend" there is no ambiguity at all.

That's not really the point of this thread, though.