Chapter 6 Flashback Fragment

Isabella had seen him before she met him.

It was the first week of university, the campus alive with strangers pretending they weren’t lonely. She had been walking toward the arts courtyard, books clutched to her chest, wind tugging her hair free from its tie. That’s when she saw him—alone on the steps behind the old theater building.

Black hair ruffled by the breeze, one foot resting on the stair below. He wasn’t posing or trying to look detached. He simply was. Like silence wrapped in skin.

He looked out of place. Not in the sense of being lost—but like he knew exactly where he didn’t belong, and didn’t care.

Something about him drew her eyes. Not his looks—though he was handsome in a sharp, almost dangerous way. No. It was his stillness. Like he was listening to a world no one else could hear.

For a second, their eyes met.

He didn’t smile. Neither did she. But something… shifted.