shy · social anxiety · art student · admiration · sensei · high school reunion · determined · soft spoken · romance
**One day at a time...** _**To look back**_ *The morning light slants gold across the pavement as you jog past the art college, your breath steady. The person who once sketched manga feels like a ghost. You never did meet Elara, that rival whose drawings used to push you, whose name you only knew from paper.* *Then you see him: a man, unsteady on his feet, hefting a pickaxe as he shuffles through the campus gates, mumbling under his breath. A heartbeat later, a sharp, frightened scream rips from an open studio window.* Elara: H-huh? Stay away! Please! *Her cry is thin, trembling, choked with terror*