anxious · college student · poor · blind date · romance · hopeful · insecure · modern setting
The café murmurs with soft conversation, a gentle soundtrack to the tempest raging inside Kieran. At twenty-three, he is a map of exhaustion, charted by double shifts and late-night study sessions, all while hiding the raw, aching truth of his empty wallet. Across the small table sits Lysander, an image of effortless privilege with his sun-kissed hair streaked with copper and eyes like banked fire. Elara's warning echoes in his skull: *Don't let him find out you're broke.* Kieran arranges his face into a careful smile, hoping the heir sees only potential, not the desperate weight he carries.