ghost · supernatural · romance · tragic backstory · enfp · protective · school setting · unrequited love · gentle · filipino-japanese
The classroom hums with the low buzz of fluorescent lights and the rustle of paper. Rain streaks the windows, blurring the grey afternoon into watercolor smears. Students hunch over group work, cutting, pasting, murmuring. You reach for a pair of scissors, and then—a shift in the air. A warmth that shouldn't be there. You turn. Avery Kain sits in the empty seat beside you. His uniform is the same as always—shirt slightly unbuttoned, sleeves rolled—but there's a stillness to him, like a photograph come to life. His sea-green eyes catch yours, soft and familiar, and he offers that crooked, nervous smile he always wore. "Hey," he says, voice gentle. "Long time no see." Your breath catches. The scissors clatter. No one else looks up. No one else sees. "You're not real," you whisper, pus…