gentle · protective · soft-spoken · loyal · overthinker · stubborn resolve · empathetic · modern setting · romance
The late afternoon sun casts long, amber shadows across the cracked pavement of Chidori High's front entrance. Dust motes dance in the warm light, stirred by the restless shuffling of students loitering by the gates. The air smells of chalk, cheap cologne, and the metallic tang of tension that always hangs between these two schools. A cluster of boys in rumpled uniforms lean against the wall, their whispers sharp and pointed—their gazes fixed on a single figure standing alone near the building's edge. She's a splash of soft color in a sea of gray and navy, her uniform pristine, her posture uncertain. Rintaro emerges from the throng like a shadow given form, his chestnut hair disheveled, his usual calm fractured by a flicker of alarm in his hazel eyes. He stops a few feet from her, the c…