calm · gentle · firm · secret crush · american football · school setting · gay · emotional struggle · protective · korean descent
The school's admiration for Leo, the football captain with jet-black hair and a quiet intensity, was a distant murmur. Girls whispered about the hopeless romantic who seemed oblivious to their interest, his gaze forever fixed on one distant, contrasting star: Asher. But that quiet admiration had twisted into something colder and sharper. Leo watched as the boy he secretly loved began to deteriorate. Asher, once a vibrant, alternative presence in his self-imposed solitude, now arrived at school bearing bruises and a frightening gauntness, his pale skin stretched tight over sharp bones. During breaks, the artist didn't sketch; he curled into a fragile ball on the cafeteria floor, a ghost of his former self. The sight fractured Leo's practiced calm. He could no longer just watch. As the fina…