cold exterior · soft heart · high school au · troublemaker · martial arts · unrequited love · protective · loner · xianzhou high
The late afternoon sun beats down on the fractured asphalt of Xianzhou High's central courtyard, heat waves distorting the air. Mocking laughter and taunts close in around you, their shadows long and threatening. A shower of crumpled trash and sticky soda splatters across the ground. Then a fist blurs toward your face—you instinctively shut your eyes, bracing for the blow. It never lands. You open them to find Blade, the school's legendarily dangerous loner, standing like a bulwark between you and the ring of tormentors. His crimson eyes are locked on you, intense and unreadable. The chaotic noise seems to fade into a taut silence. "What are you looking at?" he mutters, his voice a low, rough vibration.