Suddenly, the P.A. system crackled to life, cutting through the quiet hum of design class like a knife through silk.
"Good morning, students of Jade High." The school president's voice filled every corner of the room, smooth and unhurried, the kind of voice that had learned early how to command a space. "There will be a quick meeting at the conference hall. I want everyone to head there immediately."
Chairs scraped. Bags rustled. The room exhaled into motion.
Jessy appeared at Aine's elbow like she had materialised from thin air. "Aine, let's go."
"Sure," Aine replied, gathering her things.
The conference hall was already thick with bodies and low conversation by the time they arrived. Aine found a spot near the middle, unremarkable, unnoticed, exactly where she preferred to be.
At the front, Jokull stood with the easy confidence of someone who had never once questioned whether he belonged in a room. He waited for the noise to settle the way the sea waits, without effort, without impatience.
"Good morning once again." His voice carried effortlessly. "Our junior school has selected representatives to inspect the grounds before graduation, which will take place here for their final students. If you see any new faces, make them feel welcome and show them the warmth of Jade High." He paused, letting the words land. "Also, Miss Mendoza will be joining us, so please be on your best behaviour."
Another pause. Deliberate this time.
"The representatives are: Aine, myself, and my assistant. Thank you."
The silence lasted exactly one second.
Then the hall erupted.
"How?"
The word rippled through the crowd in a dozen different voices, disbelief wearing the thin disguise of a question. Heads turned. Eyes searched. People who had never once looked in Aine's direction were suddenly looking very hard.
Beside her, Jessy grabbed her arm with both hands, eyes wide and shining. "I'm so happy for you, Aine. You deserve it!"
But the crowd had found its voice now, and it was not a kind one.
"Who is Aine? We don't even know her." The murmurs sharpened into something uglier. "How can she represent us on such a grand occasion?"
Aine stood very still. She had learned long ago that stillness was armour.
Jokull's voice cut clean through the noise. "That's the principal's decision." His eyes found Aine across the room with quiet precision. "Aine, please wait behind after this."
What a hell of a day, Aine thought, her stomach twisting slowly.
Jessy pressed close, her voice dropping to something only Aine could hear. "It's an honour to be chosen by the school president. Just chill."
Easy for her to say.
The hall emptied in waves until the silence that remained felt enormous. Only Jokull and Aine were left, the space between them suddenly very different from what it had been in a crowd.
He stepped closer. His presence had always been like that, commanding and strangely gentle at once, a contradiction Aine had never quite been able to resolve.
"Aine," he said quietly.
And there it was. That thing she spent considerable energy pretending did not exist.
In the private, honest corners of her mind, the ones she never opened to anyone, she knew the truth she tried so hard to ignore. Jokull was everyone's dream. The kind of person that rooms reorganised themselves around, the kind that made people forget what they had been about to say. She was not immune to that. She had never been immune to that, however fiercely she pretended otherwise. Their first real encounter had been in the library, quiet and accidental, a moment that had lodged itself somewhere beneath her ribs and refused to leave, a signal she did not want to acknowledge because acknowledging it meant feeling something, and feeling something meant risking something, and she had nothing left to risk.
"I want to take you out after school today," Jokull said. "Just wait for me in your class."
Aine swallowed carefully. "Sure… I think I can leave now."
"Wait." The word came quickly, softer than the ones before it. "Are you okay?"
She nodded.
She moved toward the door. She almost made it.
Jokull's fingers caught hers, gentle but certain, stopping her mid-step. Aine looked up before she could stop herself, her heart doing something she refused to name.
"What is it?"
"I told you to look for me," he said, his voice dropping low, "but you never did."
The space between them felt thinner than it had any right to be.
"I felt like you were too busy for me," she said. "And I don't like your fans attacking me whenever they see us together."
Something shifted in his expression. Softened and intensified at once, which should not have been possible but was, with him, always possible.
"What if I say I'm a fan of you?" The words were quiet, almost careful. "Why won't you look at me? We've even kissed before."
"It was a mistake," Aine whispered.
The air between them went very still.
"So everything that happened… was a mistake?" There was something underneath the words. Something that sounded, if she listened closely enough, like hurt.
"I wasn't well that day," she said. "I was scared too."
"But you didn't resist our kiss." He let that sit for a moment. "Weren't you scared then?"
Aine looked away. She could feel the warmth creeping into her cheeks and hated herself for it. "I really liked it… I won't lie."
She had not meant to say that.
Before she could recover, before she could find the wall she usually kept so well maintained, Jokull moved. Gently. Deliberately. He cornered her against the wall, his arms framing her on either side, not trapping her, never that, but close enough that the rest of the world ceased to feel relevant.
His fingers found her chin, tilting it up with a care that was almost unbearable.
Aine dropped her gaze immediately to the floor.
"You're such a complicated person, you know that?" His voice was barely above a murmur, warm against the quiet. "And I like that about you."
He leaned closer until the distance between them was nothing but a breath, thin and trembling.
"I'm still waiting for my answer, Aine."
"It will ruin your reputation," she said, her voice coming out softer than she intended. "Being seen like this with me, as school president…"
"I don't care if I lose my reputation because of you."
The certainty in it shook her more than she expected.
"What if your fans attack me?" Her voice thickened with tease at the edges, just barely.