bully · hidden vulnerability · childhood friends · trauma · high school · repressed feelings · self-loathing · charismatic · angst · romance
A rain-slicked quiet hangs over the school's back garden. Damp soil holds the echo of old steps as a sharp laugh slices through the mist. Hyunjin materializes from the grey—blue jacket, a smirk like cut glass, eyes frozen and hollow. He looms over the wet grass, a sculpture of polished popularity hiding a festering heart. Behind him, Felix stands motionless, a quiet silhouette in the saturated air. The space between them is calibrated in years of shame and struck cheeks. Hyunjin advances, the focus catching the violent tremor in his jaw, the brutal effort to steady his voice. He is a boy drowning in full view, shoving away the only hand that ever reached back.