The next morning, the campus looked the same — but for Ayan, everything was sharper, louder, more suffocating. Or maybe it was just because of him.
Kairo was already leaning against the classroom doorway when Ayan arrived, sunlight spilling across his shoulders like it had been designed to draw eyes. He wasn't talking to anyone, but the easy smirk on his lips said he'd been waiting.
Ayan didn't spare him a glance. He walked past as though Kairo were just another shadow on the wall.
"Cold as ever," Kairo muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. "Careful, you might freeze yourself first."
Ayan stopped only long enough to flick his eyes over him — bored, sharp, dismissive. "You overestimate your importance. I don't need to waste heat on you."
The words were clean cuts. Kairo's smirk twitched, like it wanted to falter but refused.
---
Later, in the student council room, the tension returned full force. They'd been assigned another shared task — drafting a presentation, side by side, again. One table. One set of papers.
Ayan slid into his chair with surgical precision, flipping through the folder. "I'll handle the outline. You'd only slow me down."
Kairo pulled his chair closer, the scrape of wood against tile deliberate, his presence brushing against Ayan's space. "You make it sound like working with you is punishment. Don't flatter yourself."
Their shoulders nearly touched. Ayan didn't move away.
Instead, he angled his chin, voice soft but razor-sharp. "You're in my space."
Kairo leaned in just slightly, so close the edge of his scent ghosted between them. "Maybe you should get used to it."
For a heartbeat, neither breathed. The quiet of the room swelled, thick and unbearable.
Then Ayan's hand darted across the table, snatching a sheet of notes — but Kairo's hand came down at the same time, pinning the corner. Their fingers brushed. Heat surged like a live wire.
"Let go," Ayan said, tone deadly calm.
"Make me," Kairo murmured.
The air snapped, sharp and electric.
---
Kairo's patience thinned when Ayan finally yanked the paper free, eyes glittering with triumph. "Predictable," Ayan said. "All bark, no bite."
That line — that one line — cracked something.
Kairo's hand shot out, gripping Ayan's wrist. Not painfully. Not gently. Just tight enough to stop the world for a second.
Their eyes locked. Fire against ice.
Ayan's breath hitched — not that he'd ever let it show.
Kairo's voice dropped, a low rasp near his ear. "Careful, Ayan. Keep pushing me, and you'll find out exactly how much bite I have."
For a second, it seemed he might follow through. That the chain between them would finally snap.
But then, with a sharp inhale, Kairo released him. He leaned back, the smirk returning like armor. "Not today."
Ayan's wrist still burned from the ghost of his grip. His expression, however, remained cold, untouchable.
"Coward," he whispered.
Kairo only smiled, sharper than ever. "Patience."
---
That night, they were worlds apart — but both lay awake.
Ayan's hand hovered over his phone, debating, refusing, hating himself for thinking.
Kairo lay with an arm over his eyes, heart pounding in his chest like it hadn't calmed since that grip.
Neither slept. Neither broke.
The breaking point hadn't passed.
It was only waiting.
---
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