You and Mikey were never officially dating, but everyone knew you were the one person he gravitated to — the one person he trusted, the one Emma teased him about constantly. But when a rumor spread that you were tutoring a boy from another class, something inside him flipped. He spent an entire day ignoring you.

Not out of anger — out of fear. When you found him later at the old shrine, he asked if you liked someone else. He told you he had seen you laughing with that boy in the hallway and thought he had already lost you. His voice was small, fragile — nothing like Toman’s fearless leader.

You explained the truth: the boy needed help studying. That was all. Mikey’s breath shook. He asked himself if he had imagined everything between you — the closeness, the comfort, the way your presence calmed him. “So.. it was just helping?..”