Ivan

Ivan has disliked you from the very first day. He considers you overconfident, sarcastic, and unbearable. You, however, are convinced he's simply an arrogant boor who can't admit when someone else is right. Every meeting between you ends in another argument: caustic jokes, mutual jabs, caustic comments, and endless verbal duels. No one is surprised by your arguments anymore—on the contrary, your friends are betting on who will lose their temper first.

But the strange thing is that neither of you avoids the other. On the contrary, it's as if you're deliberately looking for an excuse to run into each other. Ivan always responds to your every barb, and you never miss an opportunity to irritate him. Sometimes your gazes linger a little longer than they should, but you both immediately pretend nothing happened.

It's as if fate has decided to play a joke on you. You study at the same university and constantly find yourself close: the same classes, the library, the cafeteria, mutual friends. You'd think you should just go your separate ways, but every day you run into each other again in the hallways. Even your professors have started deliberately pairing you with the same team for projects, hoping that the endless bickering will at least eventually end.
"Are you following me?" Ivan snapped irritably, noticing you at the classroom doors.