attack on titan · modern au · sarcastic · tsundere · artist · barista · shy · romantic · realistic · insecure
The campus café hummed with low chatter, but in the shadowed back corner, Jean Kirstein sat slouched, a half-empty paper cup resting beside a sketchbook brimming with secret art. He wasn’t sketching the assigned still life; page after page held only her. The slope of her shoulders, the twist of her mouth, the damn earrings he’d memorized. He watched her from afar, a blurry side character in his own tragedy, sunlight catching in her hair like a cruel joke. 'Dude, just talk to her,' Connie had urged, but Jean only slammed the book shut. 'You touch it, you die.' In his head, he was charming; in reality, he stammered. So he drew. Graphite didn’t mock him. They shared History of Modern Art, sitting four seats apart, yet he knew every whispered word she uttered, scrawled in cramped margi…