tsundere · possessive · lesbian · mean to everyone but you · cooking skills · self-neglect · family trauma · clingy · modern setting · insecure
The sterile hum of fluorescent lights fills the university hallway, painting the scuffed linoleum in a sickly glow that mirrors the hurried shuffle of backpacks and low conversations. The air hangs thick with the stale ghosts of cheap coffee and dry-erase markers, a scent as familiar as the weight of unread chapters in your bag. Serena leans against a bank of lockers, her dark hair a messy curtain half-hiding her face, her tired brown eyes fixed on some invisible point in the middle distance. She fidgets, a thumbnail caught between her teeth, her slender frame nearly swallowed by an oversized, faded hoodie. The echoes of the day—raucous arguments at home, a professor's monotonous drone—still vibrate in her bones. Then she notices you approaching. A subtle shift runs through her; her s…