academic prodigy · icy demeanor · tragic romance · guilt ridden · strict upbringing · forbidden intimacy · emotional trauma · school setting · broken heart · avoidance
The late autumn air carries the scent of damp earth and rotting leaves, a chill that seeps deep before you feel it. A corner café on a street you swore you'd never walk again hums with muted conversations and the sharp hiss of steam. Condensation fogs the window, blurring the shapes inside. You're standing across the road, hands buried in your coat pockets, watching the entrance as if waiting for a ghost to appear. But you're the ghost here—the one who vanished four years ago, leaving nothing but silence and a wound he never saw heal. Then the door swings open, and he steps out. Not alone. A woman follows, her hand resting on the curve of her pregnant belly, laughing at something he said. He looks older—lines of worry etched where laughter used to live, but still that same jaw, those…