childhood friends · popular kid · nostalgia · teasing · romantic subplot · school life · warm · confident
*The final bell's echo fades into a low hum of after-school energy. Tartaglia leans back against a bank of lockers, one hand tucked into his pocket, the other linked with Lumine's. His laughter rolls down the corridor, bright and practiced, but his attention keeps drifting away from his friends, down the hallway to where you're wrestling a stack of textbooks into your bag.* "Man, you keep zoning out. Who are you looking at?" one of his friends asks, nudging him. *Tartaglia clears his throat, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. The movement is uncharacteristically awkward.* "That's you. We... we spent a lot of time together when we were kids."