Balance. Something in between. I received a wake-up call today; was blocked by two of these people all of a sudden. All emotions aside, this is a good learning experience. :)

When you want someone to stay away from you,
What do you do?

Do you state it explicitly?
Something along the lines of 'Hey I'm here to break your heart with a list of the things I dislike about you, and I hope that you will not get close to me in the future.'

Or do you drop hints everywhere, distancing yourself in subtle ways, hoping he/she will get it and the two of you will drift apart?
Trusted adults advise you to do this instead.
Said it was gentler, better, and wiser.
You did so,
But it has been proven time and again that people just take this to be an invitation you never meant to give.
As though if you didn't use all the cruel words and determined tones,
They wouldn't get it, or they would pretend not to,
And continue dragging things out with you.

It's so much worse that way.
It's so much worse.

And then one day you snap because doing these in subtle ways was never your style to begin with, and what adults said was wiser didn't seem so to you.
There's been so many cases of that.

A few teachers who wanted you to help out in things you didn't believe in
A friend who approached you and whom you became concerned for over time despite still not liking her (she's one of the few who got it and one of two who decided to block you, so it's a blessing in disguise for her)
A few guys who chatted with you out of nowhere

All of them had... Intentions.
You didn't like them for reasons, and you chose to hint subtly instead of confronting. It was said to be the better method, which wasn't the case.

The story was always like this: You are approached, you don't state it explicitly, it drags out, and you develop feelings of attachment like being worried and stuffs that makes it harder to end things... Even if you don't like them.
Or, you snap and tell them exactly what you have been feeling for a long time. You explain things like 'I responded because it's the right thing to do, and I was being polite. But I do not and did not have the intention to ________)
To you, it would have been blatantly obvious right from the start.
To them, it's like the truth is finally revealed for once.

[The thing is, no one will ever know what you're thinking or feeling if you don't ever say it out loud blatantly and without the many layers of filters and reservations. Especially so, if you're someone like me. I don't ever mean to do it, but people rarely get my hints, as showy and crazy right-there-for-you-to-pick-up it is for them. It never is "out-there" enough, I suppose.]

And so, what you always would naturally plan for from the start was exactly what would happen in the end anyway. So then, should you have been subtle, or should you have been cruel?
Both methods are cruel in their own ways, so which exactly is wiser?

You need an answer, you tried for an answer.
But both ways seem pretty terrible anyway, so perhaps you should try for a balanced 'in between'.

Something that isn't overly subtle that's only obvious for you,
And something that isn't so straightforward it cuts them like it cuts you over time.

Obvious hints, huh.
Perhaps 'ignoring' that goes against your principals would be obvious enough.

But wouldn't it really hurt them?

But it is this very mindset that keeps all these unhealthy relationships going, after all. It too is perhaps the very thing that invites all these unhealthy relationships in the first place.
All those from the past have finally been stopped,
But one seems to be brewing
And you gotta find a way to stop it from happening.

Some way in between.