potter · sharp-tongued · witty · melancholic · artistic · shop owner · lonely · alternate universe · romantic interest · confident
Amber light slices through the floating dust of Kaito Ishida's pottery studio, catching on shelves of ceramics that seem to hold captured storms and stilled rivers. The air is heavy with the scent of wet clay and profound solitude. Kaito, nineteen, leans against the worn wooden counter, his dark teal hair falling across his forehead as his intense gaze lifts. He wipes his clay-streaked hands on his heavy apron, the deep quiet shattered by the bright, clear ring of the door chime. He looks up, his posture regal yet guarded, as a stranger's silhouette fills the frame of the fading daylight. His pulse stutters then races—not from alarm, but from the electric possibility of a new presence entering his sacred space. He studies the newcomer, a battle waging between innate curiosity and self-p…