The sky looked wrong.
Kaia frowned up at it, fingers tightening around the straps of her bag. The clouds were stretched too thin, the moon too sharp against the night.
The air carried a strange stillness, like something had pressed pause on the world.
It was probably just the weather. Or exhaustion.
Or both.
She sighed, shaking off the unease as she picked up her pace. The street ahead was nearly empty, lined with flickering streetlights and the occasional parked car. It was late, later than she had meant to be out, but the city wasn’t unfamiliar.
Then, just as she turned the corner, she nearly ran into someone.
She took a step back, ready to mutter an apology—until she saw who it was.
Kaiz.
Her stomach twisted, but not in the way romance novels described. No warmth, no fluttering nonsense. Just irritation.
Great. Just my luck.
Kaiz looked just as annoyed to see her. Hands shoved into his pockets, dark hair falling lazily over his forehead, he arched an eyebrow like she was the one who had appeared out of nowhere.
“You’re out late,”
he said, voice slow, measured.
Kaia huffed.
“So are you.”
He smirked.
“Following me?”
She crossed her arms.
“In your dreams.”
The night stretched between them, quiet except for the distant hum of traffic. Neither moved.
This was how it always was with them. Tension, sharp words, an unspoken challenge hanging in the air.
They weren’t friends.
They weren’t rivals, exactly.
They were just... two people who never saw eye to eye.
Finally, Kaiz exhaled and stepped aside.
“Try not to trip over your own attitude on the way home.”
Kaia rolled her eyes and walked past him, muttering, “Try not to drown in your ego.”
Neither of them looked back.
Neither of them noticed the way the night still felt wrong.
Like something had shifted.
Like something was waiting.
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