Love Is Blind’s Anna and Blake Reveal What Led to Their Early Departures

Warning: this story contains spoilers from the first 6 episodes of Love Is Blind season 9.

Anna Yuan and Blake Anderson sent shockwaves through the pods after ghosting their connections on Love Is Blind season 9.

Patrick Suzuki arrived at the pods for a date with Anna, 28, only to realize that the hairstylist had ghosted him. After Blake, 34, was informed of Anna’s departure, the accountant also left the show, unbeknownst to his other connection, Megan Walerius.

After bonding with Blake over growing up with immigrant parents and discovering their “similar sense of humor,” Anna admitted that she became overwhelmed by their budding relationship.

“I started seeing myself being pretty vulnerable, and it scared me a little bit because this is an intimate part of my brain,” she told Tudum of her connection with Blake. “These are very sensitive topics for me.”

Anna also worried how her parents would react to seeing her on the show as they didn’t understand her decision to take part in the dating experiment from the start.

“With my parents being immigrants and having a language barrier, I’ve always naturally been their helper,” she shared. “When I told them, ‘Hey, Mom and Dad, I’m going on this show, they’re going to take my phone, they were like, ‘Are you being kidnapped?'”

She found it especially difficult to navigate their intimate conversations being filmed for the show, saying, “It’s not that I’m just sharing it with whoever I’m dating or the other women — this is going to be broadcast for people.”

Finally, Anna made the decision to walk away, which she doesn’t have any regrets about.

“I don’t think I regret it because I don’t think the connections were strong enough to have a successful marriage from there,” she said.

However, Patrick saw things differently as he recently told PEOPLE that he believes an engagement would’ve happened with Anna, had she stayed on the show.

“1000%, yeah, for sure,” the construction manager said. “It sucked [she left]. And a part of it is [because] the last thing her and I talked about … she told me, ‘Don’t break my heart.’ And I told her I wasn’t going to.”

“So it definitely, definitely stung pretty hard to not see her the next day,” he added.

Though Anna knew it was right decision for her, that doesn’t mean it was easy. She recalled breaking down and wondering, “What am I doing here?” 

“I was a wreck,” she said. “My eyes were almost swollen shut from crying. I was embarrassed.”

The decision to leave was equally emotional for Blake.

While he said that informing Megan of his departure “wasn’t even on his radar,” he now says it made him feel “horrible.” 

“In the moment, I think I was almost exclusively concerned with where my head was at, my emotional state, and I really thought I was doing the right thing,” he admitted. “So I didn’t play that out, which feels clumsy and foolish. If I could go back, I definitely would change that.”

“In a pod date, you’re trusting that someone’s going to be there on the other side,” he added. “When you go in, you’re getting butterflies, adrenaline’s pumping. It’s a nerve-racking experience, and I certainly found comfort in knowing there’s someone going through the exact same thing.” 

He concluded: “So what hurts is knowing that someone was going through that, and I wasn’t there to metaphorically catch them.”

Despite the painful exit, Blake ultimately came to the same conclusion as Anna.

“At that point in the experiment, Anna and I hadn’t talked about a proposal or an engagement. It certainly felt like we weren’t close to that,” he shared. “We certainly had a good bond and friendship.” 

“I don’t want to speak for her, but I think she made the right decision for herself at the moment, and I’m proud of her for doing that,” he continued.

Noting that he’s “practical to a fault,” Blake explained that he “realized that  a proposal wasn’t in the cards for me.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Episodes 1-6 of Love Is Blind season 9 are streaming now on Netflix, with the next batch dropping on Oct. 8.