HerInkWaves
"Business isn't just about numbers, Averie"
"And business isn't built on emotions, Cairo"
At De La Salle University, where excellence is expected and failure is remembered, Averie Castillejo lives by one rule:
Stay focused.
Stay perfect.
Never let emotions ruin your future.
As the daughter of a well-known business family, Averie spent her entire life trying to become the version her parents wanted-an honor student, a future CEO, and someone who never makes mistakes. After being betrayed by someone she once trusted, love became nothing more than a distraction she swore she'd never fall into again.
But everything starts falling apart when she's forced to work with Cairo Aragon-the university's most frustrating academic rival.
Cairo is everything Averie hates: annoyingly calm, naturally brilliant, and impossible to ignore.
While Averie believes success is built through discipline and perfection, Cairo believes people are more important than achievements. Their constant arguments, competitive tension, and sarcastic banters slowly turn into late-night study sessions, quiet comfort, and feelings neither of them were prepared for.
What Averie doesn't know is that Cairo has loved her long before she ever noticed him, but loving someone who's terrified of love comes with a price.
And when Cairo finally gets tired of chasing someone who keeps choosing everything except him, Averie is forced to face the one thing she fears the most:
Not failure.
Not disappointment.
But losing the person who made her feel safe beyond her perfect scores
Because maybe the hardest thing about falling in love... is learning how to be loved back.
date of story started: May 19, 2026
date of story ended: -----