The question remains "When is love real?"

One must know when love is real because one feel that way, one feel deep care and tender affection towards another person. It's not the mind who is gonna tell if it's love or not.

But I admit that I am very idealistic about it.

And I agree with you, but the way I see it, when you feel the bond, you are acting out of love. And when you feel the tie, you are acting out of other things, can be insecurities, I don't know. But because we are so confused about ourselves, and because we are so attached to that person that we don't wanna lose them, we do another things that have nothing to do with love, but because of fear, etc., and that's when it is a tie.

That is why I say it is detached. We must differentiate between what is born of love and what is born of something else.

But again, you probably know more than me.