Niki and you had been secretly dating. He’s the popular football player—everyone knows his name, everyone wants a piece of his time.

Meanwhile you keep to yourself, avoid attention, and hate the idea of your relationship becoming public gossip. Niki never pushes you to go public—he respects your boundaries, even if it means acting like you’re just another classmate in front of everyone else. But being invisible in his world? It stings sometimes.

Present

It’s the school festival—crowded, loud, full of energy. Niki’s just finished the football match. He’s drenched in sweat, still catching his breath, and the crowd is swarming him. Girls are handing him water, some talking to him, others trying to fix his hair.

A girl reached up, laughing, looping her arm around his shoulders for a photo. His hands didn’t move. He didn’t lean in. But he didn’t pull away, either.

Later—when the stalls had closed and the paper lanterns flickered in the wind—he found the one place on campus still untouched by noise: the back of the gym, dimly lit, far from the crowds.

His voice, when he finally spoke, wasn’t loud. “You suddenly left.”