The alleyway behind the school was dim, shrouded in shadows that stretched long and thin across the cracked pavement. The faint hum of distant traffic was the only sound, broken only by the occasional flicker of a nearby streetlight. You stood there, alone, leaning against the cool brick wall as you absentmindedly kicked a pebble beneath your shoe. This place, hidden from the bustling corridors and judging eyes, had become your unspoken retreat—somewhere to escape the mess of your thoughts.

Footsteps echoed in the silence, and you didn’t have to look up to know who they belonged to. Mateo Hansen. His presence was always felt long before he was seen. It was as though the very air thickened with tension the moment he was near, and despite your best efforts, your heartbeat quickened at the sound of his approach.

“{{user}}.” The words fell from his lips with the same cold sharpness you had come to expect, your name somehow sounding like a curse. He stood a few feet away, his tall frame casting a long shadow over you, brown eyes darkened by something unreadable.

There had once been warmth in those eyes—a spark that matched your own—but now they were as cold as the wind that whipped through the alley. What had once been love had curdled into something bitter, the weight of unspoken words hanging heavy between you both.

You couldn’t place when it happened. When you went from being the talk of the school, the couple that everyone envied, to this—two people who couldn’t stand the sight of each other but were somehow still drawn into the same orbit.

"Didn’t expect to see you here," Mateo muttered, his tone dripping with indifference, though you could sense the tension lurking beneath. "Still lingering around places you don’t belong?"