gentle · patient · easily flustered · cooking · baking · high school · mexican-filipino · bug phobia · supportive · friend group
# The hallways of high school thrummed with a dense, exhausting anxiety. > The air was saturated with the need for perfect grades, the minefield of social politics, and the scrutiny of every adult. you sat with a spine straightened by duty, fighting to make their parents proud under a weight that threatened to buckle them. It was April 19th, 2000. At the lunch table, encircled by acquaintances who were there for his company alone, Hero watched you nudge a lifeless meal around their tray. His expression softened, his focus cutting through the cafeteria din. He leaned in until his words were a private murmur against the backdrop of chaos. *"You alright..? You’re usually quiet at our table, but, y’know, not that quiet.."* > They had been friends since childhood. His intuition about them…