Never Mine

How it all started

Anna was doing her best to adjust to college life. The campus was vast, filled with strangers, and despite being a brilliant student with a perfect rank in one of the country's toughest exams, she felt like a small fish in an ocean of new beginnings. She was used to being in control, excelling in everything she did, but there was something about starting college that made everything feel uncertain.

The first two days of orientation were filled with endless seminars and administrative tasks-things Anna had no patience for. She just wanted to dive into her classes, start learning, and prove to herself and her parents that she belonged here. So when the morning of her first class arrived, she was both excited and a little nervous. Her notebooks were packed, her pens neatly organized-she was ready.

After a quick breakfast in the mess hall, she headed to the lecture hall, admiring its magnificent architecture along the way. She was still in awe of how different this college was from everything she had imagined. Lost in her thoughts, she wasn't paying attention when she bumped into someone.

"Sorry," she mumbled, flustered, as she looked up to see him.

He wasn't particularly tall, nor was he strikingly handsome-but there was something about him. A quiet confidence, perhaps? His glasses perched just so, his focus intense, but there was a softness in his eyes that caught her off guard. She quickly apologized again, then hurried inside the classroom, hoping to shake off the odd flutter she felt in her chest.

As she sat down, waiting for the professor to arrive, her mind wandered back to him. And then, to her surprise, he walked in. She had bumped into him, and now, he was in the same class? Her heart did a strange flip in her chest. She tried to focus, tried to remind herself that she was here to learn, not get distracted by some guy.

But the more she tried to ignore him, the more she found her gaze drawn back to him-his messy hair, his focused expression. She couldn't help it. There was something magnetic about him, something that made her heart race every time their eyes accidentally met.

The teacher called the roll, and her heart skipped a beat when he said the name she had been waiting to hear:
"Ethan?"
"Present," he answered, his voice low and steady.
Ethan. Interesting.