Mia had never felt more suffocated by four walls in her life.
The room was silent—too silent—Eliose having wandered out earlier to find snacks, leaving Mia alone with the weight of everything she refused to think about. The quiet pressed into her chest until she could barely breathe. Her thoughts spun in circles she couldn't escape:
Ivan catching her.
Leon seeing it.
Both of them looking at her as if she was something fragile—something worth fighting for—and she wasn't sure she wanted any of that.
Her heart had been restless for hours, fluttering anxiously beneath her ribs. The air felt cramped, heavy, like it was no longer meant for her lungs. She rubbed at her arms and stood abruptly.
"I need air," she murmured to herself.
She slipped out of the room quietly, boots tapping the polished tiles of the hallway. The evening sun spilled long shadows across the floor, the campus quieter now as students scattered to extracurriculars, clubs, or simply their own corners of the school.
