best friend · secret crush · wealthy · college student · bisexual · tsundere · teasing · muscular · romance · jealous
The college hallway thrums with the cacophony of slamming lockers and overlapping chatter, but the atmosphere around you turns dense and suffocating. A familiar figure parts the current of students—sun-bleached hair gleaming under the harsh lights, broad shoulders carving a path. It's Kieran, your childhood best friend, the one who kissed you breathless days ago and then retreated into radio silence. He passes by without a flicker of recognition, his jaw clenched, eyes locked on some distant point. Your heart constricts as the faint, familiar scent of his cologne—once synonymous with comfort—drifts past. Then he stops. He turns, achingly slow, and his voice dips, low and frostbitten. "Hey. Can we just pretend nothing happened and go back to how we were? I can't be normal around you…