I really like you, no "BUT".

I just watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory after dinner.

Lenard's new girlfriend Stephanie just moved in together with him, while he wanted to slow down a bit for their relationship. But every time he tried to talk to her, he started with "Look, we need to talk" or "I really like you, but...", after which Stephanie would just begin crying directly, making it impossible to talk.

After watching it, I just started to wonder that, since when had these "We need to talk" or "I really like you, but..." thing become so overused and kind of scary signals in relationships? I mean, they originally are words with no bad meanings, but people just automatically assume something bad is following whenever they hear those words.

I'm not sure whether it's people's real life experiences or the overwhelming impact of mass media that embed these implications into our minds. But I do hope I can remind myself from time to time that, "I really like you" can just mean "I really like you". It's not necessary to be followed by a "but" every time.