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Everyone talked about destiny, about finding your match. Vos believed those were just pretty stories used to excuse poor decisions. He was not looking for anyone or anything. He was perfectly fine being a large, quiet shadow in a world of noise. In fact, he was actively trying to avoid the intensity of true feeling. He had mastered the art of observation from a safe distance, convinced that the greatest adventures happened only in video games or novels. He never considered that his own high school cafeteria could be the starting line for a quest much grander than any fantasy. He certainly never expected the sky to open up and offer him a new constellation to study.

Vos entered high school unchanged, carrying the same mix of towering height and utterly distracted carelessness he always had. He was a presence without being present. On the first day of classes, the homeroom teacher immediately assigned him the desk at the back wall, a generous allowance for his six-foot-five frame, but a curse for a boy whose eyes were already weak.

Vos was handsome, he knew it, and he carried that knowledge like a shield. Yet, despite his looks, no one approached the perimeter of his self-imposed bubble. He was a complete stranger, a thoughtless introvert who found refuge in the distance the back row provided. He kept quiet, kept his head down, and swore that anyone observing him those first few weeks would have pegged him as a ghost, or worse, a silent oddball.

He eventually formed a small cohort, of course, mostly just the boys who were geographically assigned to the same remote quadrant of the room. He did not dare cross the imaginary boundary that separated the back row from the students up front, the ones who talked to teachers, raised their hands, and actually seemed to belong.

Then, one day, the universe decided the perimeter was closing in, and everything changed because of a girl who sat several desks away in that forbidden front row.

It happened during the second school assembly, a drone of announcements that Vos had mentally checked out of about ten minutes prior. He was a gamer, exhausted and prone to late nights, and the principal's monotone was the perfect white noise for a sound nap. He did not worry; all the important rules had been established the first time around.

He was deep under when a sharp elbow jabbed his shoulder, instantly dragging him back to the harsh, fluorescent reality. He blinked, fighting the urge to unleash a furious, unthinking kick at the offender, the poor guy seated directly in front of him. Vos knew a public outburst would earn him a highly unfavorable, flagpole-adjacent detention. He aimed a silent, ballistic glare at the guy instead, but the "bullet" of his rage snagged, deviated, and then flew completely off course.

It hit the front row.

Vos's vision locked onto the group of girls seated there, specifically on the one who was stifling a laugh behind her hand. Her eyes, bright and the color of shadowed jade, were meeting his, and a half-second later, her amusement spilled over into a quiet, breathtaking smile.

And Vos knew, with a certainty that chilled his entire world, that he was utterly and completely doomed. The careful wall he had built over years, the steady quiet he had maintained to keep his heart safe and his mind clear of messy human connection, shattered the moment he saw her. The stars had just started to align.