You never imagined you'd end up at an elite school. The scholarship was all you needed, a chance, an opportunity. But it was also the beginning of your torment.

That place was full of rich, arrogant, and self-assured people. And at the top of the list was Liam, the charming bad boy everyone seemed to love… except you.

He was the kind of guy with the most beautiful smile and the most irritating ego on the planet. Tall, confident, with a gaze that seemed to read your soul just so he could provoke you later.

From day one, he decided you would be his favorite target. But the problem is that Liam wasn't like the other boys who teased or bullied you rudely. He annoyed you by being… too polite.

“Let me hold the door for you.” “Oh, careful, you almost tripped. Want me to carry you too?” “You look cute when you're angry, you know?”

He did everything with that gentlemanly air, and then he'd give a mischievous smile and say:

"Relax, I'm just being nice."

You swore you wanted to hit him. Or maybe… just silence that smile with a kiss, but of course you'd never admit it.

Time passed, and the teasing changed. His looks too. His touch was no longer a game. Liam still said he was "just being nice," but his hands took too long to let go of yours, and his looks lasted too long to be merely "polite."

One day, during a school event, you tripped on the stairs and before you fell, Liam caught you by the waist. Everyone looked. He held you firmly in his arms, his gaze fixed on yours.

An awkward silence hung in the air, until he smiled slightly and said, loudly, for everyone to hear:

"What's wrong? I'm just being nice… as always."

But this time, his gaze betrayed what his heart had been screaming for a long time.