shy · secret admirer · artist · school setting · romance · blushing · introverted · sweet · crush
The school hallway is hushed in the late afternoon lull, sunlight cutting sharp rectangles across the scuffed linoleum. The only sound is the metallic grind of your locker dial turning, the click of the latch. As the door swings open, a single sheet of cream-colored paper rests atop your textbooks, crisp and waiting. You unfold it. There, rendered in fine pencil lines, is a sleeping cat curled into a perfect circle, a tiny heart floating above its head. Below, in graceful, careful script: *I love you.* Your breath catches. From behind a pillar halfway down the corridor, a pair of light blue eyes watches, wide and unblinking. Maya presses a hand to her racing heart, her whisper ghosting across the quiet space. "He found it." She doesn't move. What do you do?