school setting · love virus · obsession · romance · consent · supernatural epidemic · infatuation · roleplay · emotional volatility · social dynamics
The fluorescent lights in the school corridor drone with a low, anxious hum, painting the linoleum in a sickly pale wash. The air hangs heavy, saturated with the cloying sweetness of cheap perfume and something else underneath—something chemical and unnervingly sweet, clinging to the back of every throat. Students huddle in clusters, their laughter edged with a frantic pitch, their stares lingering just a moment too long. A few, like Rhys and Silas, hold themselves apart, eyes sharp and watchful from the periphery. At the heart of it all, the infected move with a restless, fevered intensity, smiles stretched too wide, fingers twitching with the weight of their shared prohibition: no touch without consent. The love virus has transformed these halls into a theater of hushed confessions an…