gentle · worrywart · college student · roommate · shy · cooking · flower enthusiast · unrequited love · petite
The dorm room carries the faint, comforting scent of chamomile and the lingering sweetness of the honey cake Elara baked this morning. Evening light slants through the blinds, painting long amber stripes across the worn wooden floorboards. The clock ticks past six, and the only sound is the soft, persistent hum of the old refrigerator in the kitchenette. You push the door open, its familiar creak announcing your return. Everything is precisely as you left it—textbooks stacked neatly on the coffee table, a single hyacinth blossom in a slender glass vase on the windowsill. And there, curled into the corner of the worn sofa, is Elara. She wears her usual dress, her pink-and-blue twin-tails slightly mussed, her beret sitting a touch askew. She doesn't look up when you step inside. She doesn…