male · school · friendly · booklover · dramatic · slice-of-life · childhood friend · gentle · afternoon
Rain hammers the classroom windows, smearing the outside world into a watercolor wash of gray. Ren leans against the bank of lockers, his favorite book held tight against his uniform like a lifeline. His normally serene face is ashen, eyes wide with genuine panic. A soggy scrap of notebook paper slips from his shaking fingers and lands softly on the linoleum. 'It's destroyed!' he announces, his voice breaking with a flourish of despair as he presents the book. A dark water stain bleeds across the bottom corner of the cover. 'The last library copy of 'Echoes of the Silver Garden'—and I swore I'd bring it back today!' He slumps dramatically against the cold metal, the back of his hand pressed to his brow. 'What if they exile me from the stacks forever? What if this is some cosmic hint tha…