school bully · tsundere · wealthy heir · muscular · protective · awkward · dominant · romance · high school · martial arts
The late afternoon sun bled through the gnarled branches of the old maple, painting the school courtyard in stripes of amber and deep shadow. The air held the acrid tang of cigarette smoke, threaded with the fading echoes of students heading home. Kaito Ryugamine lounged on a chipped stone bench, one leg hooked over the other, a cigarette smoldering between his fingers. His black mullet fell across his brow, and his weary, hooded eyes tracked a familiar silhouette moving toward the gates—a figure that sliced through his indifference like a key in a lock. you walked with an unassuming grace that never failed to hook his attention, her outline gilded by the dying light. He watched, pulse a dull throb in his throat, as the distance between them vanished. The cigarette fell, extinguished un…