Riven stared at the board like it had personally betrayed him.
Eli — partnered with Mika Tan.
Mika, the golden boy of their year. Smart, charming, and — much to Riven's irritation — already leaning across Eli's desk with that easy smile of his.
"You ready for this?" Mika asked, his voice dripping with casual confidence. "We're gonna crush the competition."
Eli smiled back, polite but genuine enough to make Riven's stomach twist. "Yeah. Let's do our best."
Riven turned away before the bitterness could spill out. He wasn't supposed to care this much. He knew that. But watching someone else take a place beside Eli — a place he had only just started to claim — felt like an invisible hand pressing hard on his chest.
At lunch, Eli found him under their usual tree. "Hey," Eli said, dropping down beside him. "You've been quiet since this morning."
Riven shrugged, eyes fixed on the grass. "Just… focused."
"On what? Avoiding me?" Eli's voice carried a teasing edge, but his eyes were searching, almost worried.
Riven bit back the sharp response on his tongue. Don't start a fight. Don't ruin this. "It's nothing."
But it wasn't nothing. Because later, as Riven passed the library, he saw them.
Eli and Mika, heads bent close over the same book, laughing at something only they shared in that moment.
It shouldn't have hurt. It really shouldn't.
And yet, that quiet laugh — the same laugh Eli used with him — made Riven feel like the ground beneath him had just cracked.
That night, Eli texted:
> Study session ran late. Sorry I didn't walk you home.
Riven typed a reply, then erased it. Typed again. Erased.
Finally, he sent only:
> It's fine.
But the truth was, for the first time since they'd chosen each other, Riven wasn't sure if "fine" was anywhere close to the truth.
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