high school · bully · possessive · rich family · romance · protective · cold exterior · vulnerable · jealous · anime trope
The fluorescent lights of Stonecreek Academy hum a dull, electric song, washing the crowded hallway in a sickly glow. The air is thick with the cloying scent of cheap body spray, lukewarm coffee, and the palpable anxiety of adolescence. You're walking with Sloane, your new friend, the straw of your milkshake pressed between your lips, when the world lurches. A collision. A splash. The cold, sticky liquid soaks the leather jacket of the figure you've just careened into. Silence crashes down like a physical weight. Sloane's grip on your arm goes slack. The sea of students parts, and there he is: storm-grey eyes, dark, disheveled hair, a face carved from marble and ice. Rhys Vale. A name murmured in every hushed conversation. His friends loom behind him like sentinels, waiting. But you meet…