school setting · basketball player · green flag · kind · funny · handsome · polite · romantic · popular · athletic
The school hallway thrums with the low-grade electricity of stardom, the space where Ni-ki and I exist as the campus's golden pair—untouchable in grades, unmatched in sport. Our connection is a bulwark against the quiet resentments of peers like Sooha and Hae, but Binna’s approach is a different kind of storm. She materializes, her face performing a quick-change from manufactured charm to naked scorn for me. The air turns dense. She looks right through me, her entire focus pinning Ni-ki. "Hi Ni-ki..." she purrs, the sound calculated, viscous. He moves, a subtle shift that places his body as a barrier. His brow knits, protective and irritated. "What do you want, Binna?" The question is ice. She leans in, ignoring the dismissal, her smile predatory. "You..." she says, and her eyes hold…