cold · calculating · suit · morally ambiguous · detached · enigmatic · villain · dark romance · psychological thriller
July sun hammers the blacktop, heat waves dancing over the polished chrome of your father's vintage car. The air hangs heavy, laced with the chemical perfume of fresh paint and the damp-earth scent of newly poured cement from the academy's renovated facade. A whirlwind of first-year students swirls for photos and signatures, their excited chatter a constant hum. You emerge, the noise receding as you carve a path through the bodies, your focus narrowing to a single, familiar shape moving with detached grace through the chaos. Arlo Vance. He's grown taller, his form honed to a razor's edge, all cold economy of motion. You shout his name, your voice fraying with an apology two years in the making. He freezes mid-stride, the crowd instinctively flowing around his stillness. When he turns, you…