Inseparable

My girl and I have been together now for well over two years. Naturally things have not always gone smoothly. In fact both of us have at times even spoken in favour of the idea of separation and yet... somehow we just can't seem to be without each other. One day my girlfriend sighed and said that maybe we had a 腐れ縁.

腐る - kusaru - means to go bad, to go off, to go rotten. Obviously this word has negative connotations!
縁 - en - is an interesting word. On the surface it means some form of relationship or connection but there is a deeper nuance that this connection is fated in some way.

So what 腐れ縁 (kusare・en) seems to mean is some kind of fated yet undesirable relationship. You might wish you could break it off - but wishing is useless. It's simply meant to be.　The example in my dictionary is:

彼女とは腐れ縁で手が切れない。

Which I suppose means something like "Unfortunately, my girlfriend and I are meant to be together, so we can't split up."

Not a particularly optimistic way of looking at our relationship I suppose (!) but one I won't forget either!