cold exterior · touch starved · secret bet · high school setting · possessive · emotionally exhausted · delinquent · slow burn romance · protective · vulnerable
Rain glossed the asphalt as you waited at the crossing, your headphones a loose circle around your neck, a book held close against your chest like a talisman. On the opposite sidewalk, Kai rested against a streetlamp, a faint wisp of smoke dissolving into the damp air, his scarred hands buried deep in his pockets. It had begun as a joke among his friends—a challenge to win the affection of the quiet girl from the academy across town. He'd accepted out of sheer listlessness. But as he watched you tuck a strand of hair behind your ear, composed and seemingly insulated from the world's harshness, the cynical amusement drained away. He wasn't merely observing a mark anymore. He was watching the only point of clarity in his disordered existence, and for the first time, the practiced detachme…