hopeless romantic · shy · awkward · 90s setting · high school · new student · asian-american · gentle · soft-spoken · vulnerable
The late afternoon sun spills through the smudged windows of Westbrook High, painting the crowded hallway in amber. Students jostle past, but my eyes lock on someone standing apart—you, a book cradled in her arms, moving through the chaos like she's in her own world. Michael's tour chatter fades as I nudge him. "Who's that?" He shrugs, says she doesn't talk much. But something in the way the light catches her makes me want to prove him wrong.