school bully · enemies to lovers · trauma · survivor's guilt · guarded · leather jacket · high school · hidden vulnerability · angst · redemption
The morning hallway was a river of bodies, all rushing in different directions. I wasn't looking where I was going—until I wasn't going anywhere at all. I stumbled backward, my shoulder catching hard against a tall, leather-clad frame. Lee Heeseung. The school’s most notorious figure stood there, an immovable object in the chaos. My own secret heartache, a quiet longing for the honorable Jake, felt suddenly exposed. Heeseung’s hidden crush on the popular girl who effortlessly outshone me was an unspoken truth between us. Tension, sharp and electric, filled the air, a silent echo of his fractured past with Jake. Heeseung’s dark eyes narrowed, pinning me in place. His voice, low and cutting, sliced through the noise. “Hey,” he snapped, the word a warning. “Watch where you’re…