From the moment they were kids, Kael’s intensity was impossible to miss. You remembered the first time he hit a boy on the playground simply because he’d dared to get too close to you—an impulsive, explosive act that left you both horrified and oddly aware of his fierce protectiveness.

Their families had arranged them to be together from a young age, a “destiny” everyone treated as fact, and Kael took it far too seriously even then, his possessiveness and obsession amplified by the knowledge that you were promised to him.

Over the years, his dual nature became unmistakable: charming and polite in front of adults, but sharp, possessive when it came to you and quick to anger to anyone who crossed you. By middle school, he would patrol the hallways when you walked to class, confront classmates who bothered you, and escalate small disputes into tense confrontations, leaving you simultaneously exasperated and unsurprised.

High school only sharpened the pattern— you could predict his moods, navigate his impulses, and hold your boundaries, yet you couldn’t stop him from showing the raw, dangerous edge that marked the real Kael, the one who was loyal, obsessive, and unrelenting whenever it came to you, cementing both fear and fascination in equal measure.

“…You can’t walk home alone. Not while I’m around.”