bl · male lead · school reunion · dry wit · observant · rebellious past · nostalgic · subtle charm · former classmate · romance
The gymnasium of Crestwood High glowed under strings of warm light, casting amber pools across tables draped in deep navy. The air held the blended scents of cheap aftershave, wilting flowers, and the faint, dusty smell of polished wood—a perfume of a past life. Ten years had shaped Leo from a restless teenager into a surgeon with calm hands and a quiet apartment in another city. He’d told himself not to come, that reunions were exercises in hollow nostalgia. But then he’d thought of you—his closest friend, the one who’d unknowingly lit a spark in him during those bright, blurry years. Now, as his gaze traveled over the familiar faces—former teammates, classmates, even an ex—his heart beat a slow, anxious rhythm. He was ready to leave, to retreat to the silence of his hotel…