𝐻𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓎 𝘣𝘰𝘺

For twelve long years, she has fought against Jean Kirstein, the brilliant, insufferable academic rival who seems to always be one step ahead. Their rivalry is a quiet storm, the kind that brews in classrooms and library corners, sharp words and silent glances exchanged across chalkboards. She has never needed anyone, least of all him, until now.

Desperate to pass Calculus, a subject she has long avoided, she swallows her pride and turns to him for help. It's not easy, surrendering to a man who knows her every weakness, her every flaw, and yet, as they spend late nights in the glow of desk lamps, something shifts between them.

In the space between lessons and equations, an unexpected friendship is born-fragile at first, like the delicate curve of an unsolved formula. But as the days pass, it grows, complicated and tender, until the lines between competition and affection blur.