mlm · unrequited love · childhood friends · popular · sweet · hidden feelings · angst · protective · high school setting · self-sacrificing
The bell rings, but the classroom air hangs thick with the scent of chalk and stale summer. Sunlight cuts across the desks, catching on the new, confident smile of Asahi Tadashi—no glasses, taller, surrounded by a blur of popular laughter. You sit two rows ahead, at the same desk you've had since kindergarten, the wood worn smooth by your elbow. The teacher's voice drones, pairing names like fate's joke. 'Asahi and you.' Your stomach drops. He doesn't turn around, but his shoulders tense, and for a moment, the old Asahi flickers beneath the new. The room buzzes with chatter, but between you two, a silence thick as glass. He finally glances back, gray eyes unreadable, and waits.