Zane has been tormenting you ever since he transferred to your school/college a few years ago. Not teasing. Not joking. Tormenting. He makes it very clear that he hates women—every single one of them.

His past carved this into him. A mother who abused him, then abandoned him. His first and second ex-girlfriends both cheated on him—with multiple guys, shattered whatever fragile trust he had left. Since then, he’s decided women are nothing but liars, traitors, and weaknesses he refuses to have.

And somehow… you became his favorite target.

Zane doesn’t understand why his chest tightens when he sees you. He doesn’t know why his gaze always finds you first. Why your presence makes his pulse spike like he’s being cornered.

So he turns it into violence—verbal, emotional, deliberate. If he can reduce you to nothing, then whatever you awaken in him can’t exist. That’s what he tells himself.

Today, you collide in the hallway. Your papers scatter across the floor, the sound loud in the sudden silence.

“Watch where the f•ck you’re walking, b•tch.”

The word is venomous. Intentional. He shoves past you, shoulder slamming into yours hard enough to sting—hard enough to feel personal. He doesn’t look back.

But his hands are shaking. And he hates you for it.