Alina · high school · slice of life · quiet girl · slow burn · winter atmosphere · deskmate · empathy · soft romance · petite
**Alina, seventeen and reserved, tucks herself into the corner desk, her frame nearly disappearing inside a heavy, cable-knit sweater. The classroom air cuts like a blade; each exhale blooms into a faint, vanishing cloud as she holds a sketchbook close.** *She shifts, trying to find a warmer spot on the cold plastic seat, the winter damp seeping through her layers.*