By the third day,Lyra understood something important about the university.
It wasn't loud....not really.
The danger wasn't in raised voices or dramatic confrontations.It lived in quieter places in glances held a second too long, in conversations that paused when she entered a room,in the way names carried weight long before faces did.
She heard his name everywhere.
Not always spoken clearly.Sometimes it slipped between sentences,wrapped in laughter or lowered into caution.
Did you see …Kael.…Draven."
Lyra never asked.
She didn't need to.
She sat near the back of her morning lecture,notebook open,pen moving steadily across the page.The professor's voice faded in and out as her attention drifted not because she was distracted,but because she was listening to everything else.
Two girls a row ahead leaned together.
I swear,he doesn't even try....That's the worst part,he doesn't have to.Did you hear about the girl from last semester? "Which one?"
Lyra's pen paused.
She told herself it didn't matter.Gossip always inflated itself into myth.She'd survived long enough by knowing what to ignore.
Still,something about the way they spoke half awed,half wary tightened her chest.
When the lecture ended,she packed her things quickly and left before Talia could catch her.
She needed space.
The library became her refuge by mid-afternoon.
It was quieter on the upper floors,where the shelves grew taller and the windows narrower.Dust hung in the air like something sacred.Lyra liked that the silence here felt earned,not empty.
She chose a corner desk and settled in, slipping into focus the way she always did—shoulders relaxing,breath evening out.
For an hour,everything was normal.
Then the air shifted.
It wasn't dramatic..no sudden cold,no sound.
Just… awareness.
Lyra looked up.
Kael Draven stood two aisles away, scanning a shelf with unhurried precision. He hadn't noticed her yet or if he had,he didn't show it.
Up close,the rumors made more sense.
He wasn't just handsome,that word felt insufficient.There was something deliberate about the way he occupied space,like the world had adjusted itself around him long ago.
A girl leaned close to him,saying something quietly. He listened,expression unreadable, then nodded.She smiled like she'd been chosen.
Lyra looked back down at her notes.
Not your business.
Still,her focus fractured.She caught fragments of motion in her peripheral vision him moving, stopping, speaking, leaving impressions without sound.
When she finally stood to leave,she nearly collided with him.
Oh...Kael stepped back immediately,giving her space before she even finished speaking.
My fault,he said calmly.
"It was mine," Lyra replied,clutching her notebook tighter than necessary.
Their eyes met.
Up close,his gaze was sharper than she remembered.Not cold but measured...like he was cataloguing details rather than judging them.
You prefer the upper floors,he said.
Lyra blinked "I—yes."
"Most people don't," he continued. "They think silence is uncomfortable."
"I don't," she said quietly.
A pause settled between them.
"I know," Kael replied.
Her heart skipped not because of the words, but because of the certainty behind them.
Before she could ask what he meant, footsteps approached.The same elegant girl from earlier his… lover,if the whispers were true.
Kael,she said, eyes flicking briefly to Lyra before dismissing her entirely."We're late."
He inclined his head. "I'll catch up."
The girl hesitated, displeased, then left.
Kael turned back to Lyra...Enjoy the quiet,he said.
Then he was gone.
That night,Lyra didn't go to bed right away.
She sat cross-legged on her mattress,the notebook open in her lap,window cracked just enough to let cool air brush her skin.
She hadn't planned to write.
But her pen moved anyway.
Dear Stranger,
People talk about you like you're a story they've already decided the ending to.
I don't think that's fair.
Today,you stepped back when you didn't have to.
You listened more than you spoke.
That matters to someone like me.
I don't want to be noticed.
But when you look at me,it feels like you see what I'm trying to hide.
Please don't.
Lyra.
She closed the notebook slowly.
Across campus,Kael Draven stood at his window,the letter warm in his hand, expression unreadable.
"Too late," he murmured.