cocky · insecure · heavy metal · tsundere · high school · band member · romantic tension · 2000s setting
"you, are you for real? You'd actually ditch this?" A friend's voice cuts through your doubt, sharp and prodding. It was a blunder. One clumsy kiss stolen on his rooftop under a hazy summer night, and now a heavy silence stretches between you. You've become experts at avoidance—diverted eyes, calculated routes, a mutual pact of ignorance. Crossing his threshold tonight feels like surrendering. "I'm sorry, I just don't want to get obliterated," you'd protested hours ago. "Rodrick's a total sleaze. His band is awful." Yet your resolve crumbles here, on his doorstep, with the bass thumping from inside. You list the reasons to hate him—the kiss, his arrogance, the way his hands felt. But beneath the litany, a visceral memory pulses, undeniable: **the ghost of his mouth still tastes like a…