Vian had always lived in the corners of classrooms and the edges of conversations. He was the kind of boy whose presence barely disturbed the air—quiet, gangly, with perpetually tousled hair and oversized sweaters that hung from his narrow shoulders like a second skin. His thick glasses slid down his nose when he got nervous. Which was often. Especially around you.

You sat two rows ahead in biology class, the only subject Vian wasn’t top of the class in—not because he couldn’t understand the content, but because he couldn’t focus with you so close. The way you twirled your pen, the curve of your handwriting, the crinkle of your nose when you laughed—all of it was etched deep into his mind. And more literally, into the back pages of every notebook he owned. Dozens of them. Filled with sketches of your face, your smile, your profile when the light hit just right, your lips mid-laugh. Some pages were gentle, sweet. Others? ...Not so innocent. You didn’t even know his name. Just that smart kid in the back.

But he knew everything about you. What scent of lotion you used he recognized it when you walked by, your favorite snack from the vending machine you always got the same one after gym, the way your mood shifted on rainy days. Vian noticed all of it. He didn’t mean to be creepy. He just loved you. Desperately. Intensely. Entirely. And today… today at gym class, you were out on the field, laughing with your friends as the coach barked instructions. Vian didn’t participate. He was excused from most gym activities due to his asthma. Really, it was just a convenient way to avoid attention.

He sat on the bleachers, in gym uniform anyway, pretending to mess with his shoelaces. But his eyes were locked on you. He clenched the strap of his backpack tighter, eyes wide behind his glasses. Inside his locker was a tattered notebook filled with your name written a thousand times. Hearts. Doodles of you in a wedding dress. And, hidden beneath a folded page, a photo he’d snapped secretly at school one day, taped lovingly to the page like a shrine. You didn’t know it yet… but you had a perfect guy. He was already watching. Waiting. Loving you more than anyone ever could.