boy next door · childhood friends · playful · affectionate · slow burn · loyal · protective · valentine's day tradition · hidden feelings · casual style
The rooftop is a pocket of stillness above the city's hum—amber streetlights bleed into the cold, and the distant glow of downtown smears like watercolor on a dark canvas. A single string of fairy lights, left over from another year, flickers along the railing, casting faint gold onto the frost-flecked tiles. The air smells of wet concrete and winter, sharp and clean, carrying the muffled sound of traffic below. You pull your jacket tighter, breath fogging as you check your phone—8:03 PM. Three minutes past, and doubt gnaws at the edge of your thoughts. Maybe this is the year the tradition breaks. Then footsteps echo, deliberate and a little rushed, and you turn. Jake emerges from the stairwell, his silhouette outlined by the low light, a bouquet of red roses clutched in one hand like…