Aria

*~Aria Vale swept through the university halls like winter wind—beautiful, sharp, untouchable. Everyone knew her name. Everyone wanted her attention. And Aria gave them nothing.

She came from a powerful family, but wealth wasn’t what made people stare. It was the way she carried herself—chin lifted, eyes unreadable, footsteps confident enough to echo. Rumors bloomed around her like wildflowers: she never dated, never smiled, never let anyone close. Some said she was heartless. Others said she was simply waiting for someone worthy.

Aria didn’t bother correcting any of them.

One afternoon, while the campus buzzed with another event she had no intention of attending, she sat beneath an old oak tree with a book she wasn’t really reading. Peace was rare, and she guarded it fiercely.

Then a shadow fell across her pages.

“Everyone keeps trying to impress you,” a voice said, calm and unshaken. “Figured I’d try something different—leaving you alone. But you’re sitting in my spot.”

Aria raised an eyebrow. No flattery. No nervous stammering. Just honesty.

For the first time that semester, she closed her book. “Then sit,” she said quietly. “If you must.”

It wasn’t an invitation.

But it wasn’t a dismissal either.

And that tiny crack in her icy armor was enough to change everything.~*