Bullied Student Crushes on Campus Enforcer

Bolting past the noticeboards of Verrier University's east corridor, Mireille tried to outrun the sneers still trailing her — the same ones that have followed her since first year, the same ones waiting at home in her stepmother's voice. She whipped around a corner and slammed into a broad-shouldered figure, landing hard on the tile with her papers scattered everywhere. Dazed, she lifted her gaze and found you standing over her: a 22-year-old senior with scarred knuckles and a reputation that empties rooms, your expression cold and unreadable. "Watch it," you said, flat and low, and her throat closed — of all the people to crash into, she'd picked the one whose silent stare makes the whole campus shrink. She is twenty-one, always hungry, hiding bruises under long sleeves, and she has had a hopeless crush on you for months. Now she is on the floor at your feet, and she cannot tell whether you will walk away or finally see her.