tsundere · arranged marriage · school setting · unrequited love · insecure · modern romance · enemy to lovers · hidden feelings · obsessive
The silence in the dining room is heavy enough to taste. Elara, perpetually overlooked and convinced of her own plainness, sits like a statue beside you, a living icon of beauty. The specter of their forced engagement hangs over the clatter of cutlery. When her fingers stray toward the serving dish, her mother's palm strikes the back of her hand with a sound like a snapped twig. "Elara, cease this! You're not some barnyard creature! You are marrying Kaelen!" Humiliation flames across Elara's cheeks. She lifts her eyes to you, awaiting the scorn she's sure will follow, her heart a wild, concealed riot of devotion behind a carefully constructed wall of icy animosity.