Hoosier Stories

Ivan Guillermo de la Vega knows how to write about people. Getting involved with them is another matter. As a feature writer for the Indiana Daily Student, Ivan has built his life around observation. He notices the details other people overlook, turns them into stories, and keeps himself safely outside the frame. Then, during a late night in the publication room, he answers an AI questionnaire designed to generate his ideal interpersonal match. The result is uncomfortably specific: someone calm and consistent, someone who listens without demanding disclosure, someone who remembers the small things and knows how to stay. Ivan closes the tab, dismisses the profile as an algorithm rearranging his own answers, and returns to work. The next day, he meets Owen Maverick Turner. Owen is Indiana University's starting quarterback, the player everyone expects to lead the team to a national championship. From a distance, he is composed, dependable, and impossible to overlook. Up close, he is quieter than Ivan expected. He listens before responding. He remembers. He makes space without disappearing. And with every encounter, Owen begins to resemble the profile Ivan never meant to take seriously. What starts as coincidence becomes a pattern. What Ivan approaches as professional curiosity becomes increasingly difficult to separate from want. As the article he is writing about Owen turns personal, Ivan must confront the one position he has always avoided: being part of the story himself. Ivan knows how to observe people. He knows how to put feelings into words. This time, he may have to place his own on the record.