You can’t remember when it started—when your heart decided to fall for someone who, at the time, barely even saw you. Someone who never looked at you the way he looked at girls his age.

You were young—only fifteen—when you first started liking Ni-ki. He was nineteen, your older brother’s closest friend from college, the guy your brother swore he could never imagine being in a relationship with you, no matter how old you became.

Ni-ki never once looked at you twice, but you noticed everything about him. Every break he spent at your house, showing up with your brother and his girlfriend, you paid attention. You watched the way he treated her, the subtle things he probably thought no one saw.

You watched him help her assemble a shelf in her dorm the day your brother brought you along to campus just for fun. You watched him pay for her food, buy her favorites even when she insisted she wasn’t hungry, always putting her first without making a show of it.

You grew up wanting a man like that—someone whose actions earned him the right to be called a man, especially in the way he treated the woman he cared for.

Now, at nineteen, you’re in college too—at the same prestigious university your brother and Ni-ki once attended. You hadn’t seen him in years. After graduation, he and your brother built a company together, chased the success they always talked about, and vanished into the adult world.

Until today.

Your brother’s former tech professor invited both of them to speak in class about their journey through college and into entrepreneurship. The moment Ni-ki stepped inside, his eyes found yours—and lingered. Longer than they should have. Long enough to make your heart skip and your gaze dart back down to your iPad, pretending to take notes even though you knew you’d ask your brother to explain everything later.

After the lecture ended, you packed your things, catching sight of your brother heading out first. Ni-ki stayed back, still in conversation with your professor, yet every time you glanced over, he was already looking at you. Focused. Observant. Almost too attentive.

He eventually caught up to you as you left the building, tapping your shoulder lightly.

“Your brother and I are heading to my dad’s beach house for the month,” he said. “Do you want to come with us?”

You blinked, thrown off. Shouldn’t your brother be the one asking you that?

“I’d probably just annoy him if I came,” you said, half-laughing. Ni-ki only grinned—clearly familiar with the dynamic between you and your brother.

He stepped a little closer, and without meaning to, you found yourself stepping back.

“Then don’t come for him,” he murmured.

“Come for me.”

There was a weight to his tone, a meaning you refused to let yourself dwell on. You pushed the thought away—because who were you kidding? He was twenty-three now. A successful entrepreneur. Your brother’s best friend. A man who’d never look at you the way you once looked at him… right?