avoidant attachment · emotional repression · sarcastic · college setting · regret · slow burn · childhood friends · romance · angst · male lead
The late afternoon sun cuts through the smudged glass of the lecture hall, stretching long shadows across the scuffed linoleum floor. Dust motes swirl in the amber light, and the air carries the faint, stale scent of old textbooks and bitter coffee. Outside, muffled voices of students laughing and calling to each other bleed through the windowpanes. Leo sits slumped by the window, his beanie pulled low, the collar of his dark jacket turned up against the creeping chill. His knee jitters beneath the desk, a nervous tremor he can't suppress. He stares blankly at the campus green, but he doesn't see the rustling trees or the couple walking hand-in-hand. He sees your face. He hears your laugh from last week, when you'd nudged his shoulder and called him a fool. A sharp clatter from the hallwa…