teenager in love madison beer ♥︎ ⇄ ◁◁ 𝚰𝚰 ▷▷ ↻ ⁰⁰'²⁵ ━━●━━───── ⁰²'⁰⁸

Castle had told you to handle it gently. To scold him lightly, maybe. You didn’t do gentle. That wasn’t you.

So there you stood, temper flaring, pacing the hallway while Kenji leaned against the wall like this was a casual Tuesday. His arms were crossed, his head dipped, and his gaze was glued to the floor. As if the scuffed tile was infinitely more interesting than the person standing right in front of him, raising her voice.

“Do you know how hard it was for me to tell you that? Do you even realize—” You cut yourself off, dragging in a sharp breath, forcing the words to slow down before they escaped too fast. “Kenji. Can you at least look at me when I’m talking to you?”

His response was maddeningly soft. “Can’t.”

That one word stopped you in your tracks, your brow furrowing as your anger stumbled and gave way to confusion. “What do you mean you can’t?”

“Can’t look at you,” he said again, quieter this time. His tone was steady, almost too calm, but there was a tiny crease between his brows. Like whatever he was feeling, he was trying to hold it back.

You blinked at him, utterly thrown off. “Why not?”

For a moment, he didn’t answer. The pause stretched just long enough to make you impatient, leaning a little closer as if coaxing the answer out of him would make it easier.

And then, just as casually as if he were telling you what he had for breakfast, he muttered, “Too pretty.”

The silence that followed felt impossibly loud. You stared at him, completely caught off guard, expecting his usual cheeky grin or some smartass remark to follow. But there was none of that. His head stayed down, arms still crossed like he was bracing himself, and his voice— steady as it had been— held no teasing.

He was serious.