Chapter 1 (The Meeting)
Alex didn’t believe in beginnings anymore.
Beginnings only meant one thing — endings were coming.
It was his first day at the new school. The hallway felt too bright, too loud, too alive. Laughter bounced off the lockers like it belonged there. Like everyone belonged there.
Everyone except him.
He adjusted the strap of his bag and kept his head down. That was his rule.
Don’t look too confident.
Don’t look too shy.
Don’t look like you’re trying.
Just exist quietly.
That was safer.
When he stepped into the classroom, conversations slowed — not completely, but enough for him to feel it. That tiny shift in the air. The way people quickly look and then pretend they weren’t looking.
He was used to it.
The teacher introduced him. His name sounded unfamiliar in the room, like it didn’t belong to him anymore.
“Take the empty seat at the back,” the teacher said.
The back.
Of course.
Alex walked toward the seat, trying not to trip over his own nerves.
And that’s when he felt it.
A stare.
Not the quick curious kind.
The heavy kind.
The kind that lingers.
He didn’t want to look.
But he did.
And across the room, leaning lazily in his chair, was a boy with sharp eyes and an even sharper expression.
Aaron.
His gaze wasn’t confused.
It wasn’t welcoming either.
It was assessing. Studying. Almost… irritated.
Their eyes locked for one second too long.
And something shifted.
Alex quickly looked away first.
Because holding eye contact felt dangerous. Like stepping too close to the edge of something he didn’t understand.
He sat down.
He could still feel it.
That stare.
Throughout the lesson, Aaron didn’t laugh with his friends the way he usually did. He didn’t look bored. He didn’t look amused.
He kept glancing back.
At Alex.
At the way Alex tapped his pen when nervous.
At the way he bit the inside of his cheek while concentrating.
At the way he avoided looking at anyone directly.
Aaron didn’t know why it bothered him.
Why does he look like that?
Why does he look like he’s already expecting something bad?
It annoyed him.
No.
It unsettled him.
When the bell rang, chairs scraped loudly against the floor. The room exploded into noise again.
Alex stood carefully, waiting for the crowd to thin before leaving. He preferred being invisible.
But fate doesn’t always allow invisibility.
As he stepped into the hallway, someone bumped into him — hard enough to make his books slip from his hands.
They hit the floor.
Laughter.
Not cruel. Not yet. Just casual.
Alex knelt to pick them up quickly.
And then a shadow fell over him.
Aaron.
He didn’t kneel to help.
He didn’t move at all.
He just stood there, looking down at Alex like he was trying to figure out a puzzle.
“You always this clumsy,” Aaron said, voice calm but edged with something unreadable, “or is it just first-day nerves?”
It wasn’t loud enough for the whole hallway to hear.
Just loud enough for Alex to feel small.
Alex didn’t answer.
He handed brushed against one of his books at the same time Aaron’s shoe lightly pinned it down — not crushing it, just enough to stop him from pulling it away immediately.
A tiny pause.
A tiny power move.
Aaron leaned down slightly.
“You should look at people when they talk to you.”
Alex slowly lifted his gaze.
And there it was again.
That strange tension.
Aaron’s expression was teasing. Almost mocking.
But his eyes?
His eyes weren’t laughing.
They were searching.
For something.
Alex gently pulled the book free. Aaron didn’t resist this time.
“Sorry,” Alex muttered — even though he wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for.
Aaron straightened up.
A corner of his mouth lifted.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “You should be.”
And then he walked away.
Leaving Alex in the middle of the hallway, heart beating too fast over something that shouldn’t have mattered.
He didn’t know yet that this moment would become a pattern.
He didn’t know that those sharp words would become daily.
He didn’t know that the boy who looked at him like a problem
would soon become the reason he wanted to burn love out of his chest completely.
But something about that first look…
Didn’t feel like hate.
And that scared him more.
