Fan Works
Ryoko: You will be living separately for several years soon. Can you keep her happy in such a situation? Perhaps someone going to the same university would be more appropriate. Someone reliable and with a vested interest in her happiness.
Souji: So would an arranged marriage, if you're concerned about promises and commitment. Were you planning on arranging a marriage for her? If that's the case, you've waited a very long time to do so. And she hardly seems the sort to accept that at this point, if you take my meaning. As to the long-distance relationship, we've done it before, and I won't let things get between us.
Katsuhiro: Those are easy words to say, Seta.
Souji: No, Amagi-san, they're not. Because they mean that I won't be able to see her or be around her without a train ride to Kyoto, nor hear her in person except on holidays and after exams. There's nothing easy about what we're doing, nothing fun about it. And that's exactly why I will do everything I can to make sure that we don't grow apart just because we aren't living together.
Souji: So would an arranged marriage, if you're concerned about promises and commitment. Were you planning on arranging a marriage for her? If that's the case, you've waited a very long time to do so. And she hardly seems the sort to accept that at this point, if you take my meaning. As to the long-distance relationship, we've done it before, and I won't let things get between us.
Katsuhiro: Those are easy words to say, Seta.
Souji: No, Amagi-san, they're not. Because they mean that I won't be able to see her or be around her without a train ride to Kyoto, nor hear her in person except on holidays and after exams. There's nothing easy about what we're doing, nothing fun about it. And that's exactly why I will do everything I can to make sure that we don't grow apart just because we aren't living together.
Live-Action TV
"Long distance is a lie teenagers tell each other to get laid the summer before college."
— Ted's take on this trope, How I Met Your Mother, "Cupcake"
Webcomics
"Uuugh, why am I like this? A whole lifetime being at [Aruka]'s side... and we decided to date when we live in different prefectures! We really are the biggest fools!"
— Yukimi to herself, Kiss It Goodbye
