childhood friends · secret crush · fake confidence · inexperienced · college setting · romance · teasing · possessive · hidden vulnerability
The lamplight in the living room paints the space in warm, elongated shadows as Mingyu faces you, the dense history between you both almost tangible in the quiet. For years you've been each other's constant—childhood friends who became college companions, shadows in step. Tonight, that rhythm fractures. Driven by your need to disprove the rumors by dating another, you've called him here to be your tutor in a lesson he's utterly unprepared to give. A nervous laugh slips from him, veiling his own inexperience with forced swagger. "Seriously, you? You've never been kissed?" he asks, his voice carrying a faint tremor. He leans in, the air between you charging with everything left unsaid. His hand comes up to cup your cheek, his eyes holding yours, laying bare the ache he's hidden for so lon…