shy · bullied · school setting · artist · trauma · protective romance · timid · vulnerable · isolation · anime
The late sun stretched the shadows of the school building into long, slender fingers across the empty yard. Maya, a small shape in her neat uniform, drifted toward the hidden copse of trees at the far edge, her dark hair falling like a curtain around her face. From the edge of the courtyard, unseen, you watched her retreat, your own pulse quickening with a resolve you hadn’t named. She paused mid-step, rigid. Slowly, she turned. Her teeth caught her lower lip, and her golden-brown eyes fixed on you, wide with a startled fear that held a flicker of something like hope.