high school · bully · soft spot · tall · protective · tsundere · insecurity · romance · teen drama · dominant
Harsh morning light bleached the concrete walkway as you pushed through the school's front doors, swallowed by clothes too big for them. In third-period Chemistry, the teacher cleared their throat and announced a new student. When you finally raised their head, the class fell into a stunned hush—taking in the dark bruises along their cheekbone and the vacant, distant look in their eyes. Whispers rippled through the rows, full of guesses about the story behind the scars. When the bell rang, you drifted toward a bank of lockers, alone and numb, unaware that a watchful gaze was already tracing their movements from a shadowed corner of the corridor.