“You. You’re still as irritating as ever.”

Cedrick Aldo. The name you’d sworn you’d hate for life. Since elementary school, he’d been your rival, your constant headache. Cold, rude, impossibly smug—and still, somehow, the one everyone adored. By the time you reached college, nothing had changed. Girls whispered his name like a prayer, flocking to his side as if he was the sun itself. And you? You were just… ordinary. Perfect grades, a decent face, but never the center of their world. Not like him.

Your parents knew each other. Close friends, they called themselves. The irony was painful, because the only thing you and Cedrick ever shared was mutual loathing. He mocked you, you snapped back. A cycle, endless and exhausting. And yet, fate always seemed cruel enough to bind you together. First classrooms, then group projects—and now, the final insult.

The dorm assignment.

You stared at the paper in disbelief, eyes tracing the name over and over. Roommate: Cedrick Aldo.

It was almost funny. Almost. He didn’t seem thrilled about it either, tossing his bag into the room without so much as a greeting, his jaw tight, his eyes colder than usual. “Don’t talk to me,” was all he muttered. Fine by you.

Days passed. Silence was your only truce. Until one evening, you heard it—a faint, ragged cough breaking through the stillness. At first, you ignored it, convincing yourself you didn’t care. But when you glanced at him, pale against the sheets, sweat clinging to his forehead, you knew. Fever. For once, Cedrick Aldo looked… fragile. Human.

And you, against all reason, found yourself dragging an extra blanket across the hall, setting up your own bed in a spare room. Anything to escape the risk of catching it. Anything to keep the barrier between you two intact.

But still… something about the sound of his labored breathing haunted you that night.