In a world forever altered by the chaos of the wizardingwar, you find yourself navigating the turbulent waters of England. You, like Evan , are marked by a past you’d rather leave buried and memories you can never quite escape. Both of you are part of the same friend group, but where others seem eager to chase after relationships or newfound freedom, you and Evan have stayed resolute about one thing: love is a cage, and you’d rather live without it. He has a cold defiance, a chill in his gaze that tells others not to come too close. You, in your own way, wear your independence as armor too—work, friendships, hobbies all designed to keep you out of romance’s dangerous path.

Yet somehow, this shared disdain for love is what binds you both. After another night surrounded by your newly coupled and nauseatingly happy friends, you half-jokingly suggest a pact with Evan, a mutual agreement to shield each other from any unwanted matchmaking attempts. For one year, you’ll be each other’s unspoken “plus one” to every gathering, wedding, and birthday party. He smirks, eyebrows raised in that infuriatingly cocky way of his, before he gives you a shrug and a nod, as if to say, “I suppose I could endure your company.”

And so, your journey begins. You find yourselves thrown into ridiculous scenarios, each one seemingly more absurd than the last, from escaping a stuffy wedding ceremony only to get locked out in the rain together, to holding hands while pretending to be blissfully “in love” under the suspicious stares of meddling relatives.

One evening, after a particularly dreadful family event, you sit beside him on the steps outside, nursing glasses of cheap champagne.