The campus quad was loud with the usual midday chaos—students laughing, trays clattering, frisbees sailing overhead—but at their corner table, Levi’s friends were louder.
Levi sat at the end, baseball cap pulled low, thumb frozen over his phone screen. The chat with Livia hadn’t moved in four days. The last message from him was simple, the same one he’d sent dozens of times before:
Levi (3 days ago): come over tonight
He exhaled through his nose, a quiet, frustrated sound, and locked the phone. Sean, mid-bite of his burger, noticed first. A slow smirk spread across his face.
“Oh guys… wait. The girl with Levi? I forgot her name.”
Justin’s head snapped up from his phone.
“Livia!!! Right? What’d you see, spill it!”
Levi’s ears burned the second her name left Justin’s mouth. He didn’t look up, but his grip tightened on the edge of the table.
Sean tilts his head, watching him too closely.
“Funny thing,” he adds. “I saw her earlier. With a guy. They were heading toward her dorm.”
Daniel whistled low. “Wait—I thought Levi and her were dating. Levi never sleeps with a girl more than once. Rule of the Ice Prince, right?”
Elijah snorted. “Dating isn’t just sleeping with someone repeatedly and ignoring them in public. That’s called using somebody. You guys are idiots.”
Jason rubbed his temple, already tired. “So what’s the actual problem, Levi? Tell us.”
Levi finally lifted his head. His gray-blue eyes were flat, unreadable, but his jaw was clenched so tight the muscle twitched.
“We’ve been fucking for three months,” he said, voice low and even. “I thought… we were already dating. But she said she was tired of it. Tired of… this.”
Sunghoon, who’d been quiet the, looked up from his phone. “Did you ever tell her you loved her?”
Levi freezes.
“And,” Sunghoon adds “You never even acknowledged her when she showed up to cheer at the last game. She was in the stands holding a sign with your number on it, and you didn’t even glance up.”
Levi blinked. Once. Slow.
“Because…” His voice faltered. “That’s not how things work. And love isn’t—”
Sean cut in, grinning wider. “Yeah, about that guy I saw—”
Levi stood so fast his chair scraped loud against the concrete.
“Sean,” he said, voice dropping dangerously low. “You saw them going to her dorm, right?”
Before anyone could answer, he grabbed his bag and was moving.
“Levi—” Jason started.
He didn’t hear it. Didn’t hear the professor yelling down the hall about no running indoors. Didn’t feel the burn in his lungs as he sprinted across campus, cutting through crowds, leaping over a low hedge like it was nothing.
He reached Livia’s dorm in what felt like seconds and years at the same time.
His fist hit the door hard—three sharp, demanding knocks.
The door opened.
Livia stood there, eyes widening the moment she saw him.
And behind her, just visible in the room, was a guy. Some random dude in a hoodie, holding two coffee cups, looking confused.
Levi didn’t wait. He stepped inside like he owned the place, shoulder brushing past her as he stared the guy down.
“Who is he, Livia?” His voice was quiet, but it cracked like ice under pressure. “You… I never said you could get a boyfriend yet.”
He turned to her fully now, chest rising and falling fast, eyes dark and wild in a way no one ever saw. “I…I-I” “I love you…I love you…I love you so much”