When India woke up the next morning, Riri was already up and gone.

  “Huh, where did she go?” India muttered as she went into the common area. When she saw James sitting on one of the couches, doomscrolling, she called to him:

  “Hey, you haven’t seen Riri lately, have you?”

  “Oh, they and Everest both picked Alchemy as major, and they had a morning class today, so they’ve been gone for an hour.”

  “Really? What time is right now?”

  “Uhhh,” James squinted at the clock in the corner of his screen, “10am.”

  Oh crap. She had completely forgotten that classes started today.

  “Hey, its fine. Our first class isn’t until 11.”

  “Our?”

  “Oh yeah, I spoke to the daughter of the dean and her boyfriend last night. She had an entire document of who is taking what classes in our whole year. I managed to take a peek and, turns out, we’re in the same history class.”

  Oh, then she was panicking for nothing then.

  “Were they the ABB-looking guy and that ice-queen looking girl? .”

  “ABB?

  “Asian baby boy -like, the male version of Asian baby girl.”

  “Uh, yeah, I guess. His name is Mun-eo, and the girl’s name is Irina or something.”

  “I see. Between you and me, I think they have horrible music taste.”

  “Honestly, yeah. Mun-eo was wearing Yeezys last night. I mean, I like Late Registration, College Dropout, and -”

  “Okay, well, I should probably get ready then,” India said with a flick of her hair.

  When India walked into class with James, she was wearing an old BTS hoodie, a pair of black jeggings and a pair of checkerboard Vans with her hair done up into a messy ponytail.

  The lecture hall was old and grand, made out of mahogany wood and already filled with various , but there were a lot of seats, and they looked pretty comfortable with their plush velvet cushions.

  They found a few seats near the back of the room and got settled.

  The professor at the front of the room looked pretty normal, for about half a second, then they slithered out from behind the podium, revealing the bottom body of a snake.

  “Welcome to Historical and Crossssdimensional Studies” the teacher hissed, slithering over to power up the slides, “Now, I hope you all have your textbookssss. We have our firsssst humans joining ussss today, who wouldn’t know much about our world at all.”

  India did not have her textbooks. Instead, she just looked over James’ shoulder.

  “Now,” the snake-creature professor continued, “we cannot continue our sssssstudies without touching on the beginning of this universsssity, so lisssten clossssssely and turn to the foreword of your textbookssss.”

  “Thisss school was made possssssible by our 4 founders, the Great Dragon Hu, Fae Lord Dfeiji, Demon King Ssssmodeus and Lord Malavtok, who were dissssscriminated againssssst by the humans and denied higher education, and so, essssstablished their own universssity for all ussssss magical creature kind, the very sssschool which you all attend today and erased magical creatures from the hissssstory of those humans and made ussss mythical to protect Kagako from them by using their combined powers to sssseal the sssschool and other areas of habitation into thisss pocket .”

  “Though strangely, the ssschool seems to have made the decision to accept humans…” the professor remarked, looking at James and India, “with the caveat that they musssst have magic.”

  Wait, magic?

  Up until this moment, India hadn’t thought of herself as a very magical person. In fact, in her opinion, she was much more of the opposite. Just a regular average normal girl, minus the whole Lebron hooking up with her mom thing. But now this snake was telling her she had magic? Yeah, she could deal with the whole weird magic school thing, but this was a stretch too far. But beside her, James just shrugged.

  “Yeah, figured.”

  “What do you mean, yeah figured?”

  “Why else would they accept regular humans? They wouldn’t survive well in this world. No room in the workforce. Like, if I was an employer in, say, an accounting company, I wouldn’t hire a person with a finance degree over a person with a finance degree who can also fly and-”

  “But I don’t have magic.”

  “We all do, like I have indestructibility. You might want to read the pamphlets they gave us. It has a lot of information in it.”

  “He has a lisp.”

  “Well, he is a snake.” James said with a shrug.

  “Wait…” India slowly came to a realisation, “do Riri and Everest also…”

  “Yeah, they also have magic. Riri can see into the future, and Everest can, I don’t know, control dirt or something? He said Geokenesis and then refused to elaborate any more. Getting that guy to open up is like pulling teeth.”

  “Honestly, Riri’s power seems the most useful. She could probably see what questions are on the test in advance.”

  “I guess…” James paused, “by the way… I don’t know if Riri told you, but they go by they/them.”

  “Huh, really?” India said, shocked for the second time that day, “sh- they never told me.”

  India then spent the rest of the lecture only partially listening to whatever the snake teacher said. It wasn’t like it was on purpose or anything either. It just seemed that her thoughts were completely consumed by Xiao, and how she couldn’t spend time with him since he was a sophomore and therefore had classes halfway across the school. She only really snapped back to reality at the end of class, when James tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Hey, are you going to check out the club showcase this afternoon? It’ll be a good way to meet the locals, eh?”

  “I didn’t know that it was on,” India mused, contemplating for the umpteenth time since her arrival if she should have read the pamphlet, “Maybe Xiao will be there.”

  Honestly, that wasn’t a half-bad idea, and getting to see Xiao was even better.

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  But when the two made their way back to their dorms, as they turned the corner, they saw huge red letters painted above the doorway of their concrete dorm building. Their steps faltered as they read the words.

  HU MANS BEGONE!

  DIRTY PIGZ

  GO BACK FROM WHENCE YOU CAME

  India’s blood rose as she read it, vision blurring.

  “Oh, hey,” Riri said, waving at the two, “check this out, isn’t it interesting?”

  “Interesting??” Everest said, finally showing an emotion apart from deadpan: confusion.

  “Well, not interesting, but it’s still funny.” Riri said with a shrug, “Like it’s actually corny. Like I know several little boys on Xbox Live who could construct better insults than this.”

  James examined the graffiti for a few moments.

  “Yeah, I see it,” he said, stepping back, “they made a few spelling mistakes. Probably intentional, but still funny.”

  “What.”

  “WHAT?”

  India and Everest said at the same time, India’s voice much harsher. Riri and James were probably in denial about the implications of what was before them. They clearly weren’t wanted on campus, and might not even be safe here.

  “I’m going to the Dean about this,” Everest said, shaking his head, clearly offfended by it, but also probably at a loss for words regarding the others’ reactions.

  India stared at it for a moment longer before storming inside, marching into her room and slamming the door. Just when she thought things were going well at Kagako, this happened.

  Maybe I should have gone to community college.

  India blinked back angry tears, fishing through her backpack for her phone and earbuds to listen to her comfort music. She lay back on her bed, scrolling through her Spotify playlists.

  Riri walked in, rubbing the side of their head like they were in pain.

  India pressed play on her playlist, entitled “everything hurts”. She had made it last year when her pet hamster died.

  And I don’t want the world to see me

  ‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand

  When everything’s made to be broken

  I just want you to know who I am

  It wasn’t even just that there was this… racism happening here. India felt like there wasn’t anywhere she was welcome. Even home, with having to creep around the basketball legend’s affair, not being able to have friends over, never being able to spend time with her mother, didn’t feel like home. And, she didn’t even know where the shopping malls - if they had any - were around this place, so she couldn’t even indulge in retail therapy.

  wake me up inside

  (I can't wake up) wake me up inside

  (Save me) call my name and save me from the dark

  (Wake me up) bid my blood to run

  (I can't wake up) before I come undone

  (Save me) save me from the nothing I've become

  After the songs ended, India turned her phone off and sat up, watching Riri copy down notes from their lectures. India had classwork to do too, but she wasn’t gonna do it, like, why waste time doing that when she could be doing literally anything else?

  “Oh, hey, the music stopped. I’m guessing you’re feeling better?” Riri asked, not looking up from a rather threatening chart they were compiling of alchemy ingredients and their human world names.

  “I guess,” India frowned, her eyes falling on the sketchbook that she had brought with her, but was now sitting, unused. She picked it up and dusted off the cover, “I’m going to go out for a walk now,” she announced.

  “Oh, okay then.” Riri said.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  India was walking aimlessly in the courtyard between weeping willows that actually seemed to be crying and jacarandas whose petals carpeted the ground in purple, sketching eyes in her book, both trying to calm down, as well as kill time before the club showcase in a way that didn’t involve work. She wasn’t in the mood to draw anything else, so she just stuck with what she was best at: eyes - the window into a person’s soul. Her latest muse would be Xiao, with his piercing blue eyes. But as she walked, her ears were assaulted by a harsh, grating noise.

  She looked up to see the ABB guy and his girlfriend sitting under a tree (she forgot the names that James told her already), making out to Carnival by Kanye.

  Isn’t that guy a mentally ill nazi?

  And it was wayyy too loud. She couldn’t even hear herself think, let alone remember if Xiao had double or single eyelids. So India walked right up to the duo.

  “Hey, can you turn it down? You’re annoying the general population,” India snapped at them.

  The girl flicked her straw coloured hair over her shoulder and looked up at India with a death glare.

  “Who the fuck do you think you are?” the girl said, looking India up and down as if India was a human sized bug that she was about to crush with her stupid and ugly UGG boots.

  “Woah, woah, calm down, Irina, she’s got a point,” the guy said, turning down the music by one tiny increment.

  “Sorry, baby girl, won’t happen again,” he added, winking at India.

  India felt the sudden urge to throw up everything she had eaten in the past 48 hours, and it was clear that the guy’s girlfriend thought the same thing.

  “WHAT THE FUCK, MUNEO?” she screamed, with what looked like claws beginning to sprout from her hand, “did you just flirt with her?”

  India immediately decided she wanted no more part in this, and certainly wasn’t going to stick around to see Muneo get maimed, even if he did give her the ick. So she simply turned around and walked away. The club showcase would be starting soon anyway.

  India found herself on the quad, just in time for the showcase. It was full of stalls with a variety of colours, handmade banners detailing the various groups and clubs on offer, the club leaders doing their hardest to advertise and students milling about, looking through the aisles and aisles of tents. At first glance, she thought it looked a lot like the festivals India had been to at home, but then she noticed a stall runner transforming into a wolf to the amusement of some other students. India barely had time to process the sheer chaos of the club showcase before a neon-green dodgeball whizzed past her face, stopped midair, and whizzed back, nearly taking out her last remaining brain cell. She decided to head towards the stalls with less movement, but that didn’t appear to be too great of an idea either.

  Does that cake have eyes???? She thought to herself as she slowly moved past the rather unnerving display of the Baking Society, only to see someone familiar taking pictures of the ‘food’.

  “Oh wow, these are really cute!” Riri said as they picked up a raising cookie… with teeth?

  Cute? Does Australian wildlife fuck up your fight or flight reactions that badly?

  India shuddered at the thought and waited until Riri got away from the stand before approaching them.

  “Hey,”

  “Oh hi,” Riri said in reply, “come to check out the clubs as well?”

  “Yep. Have you seen Xiao?”

  “Uh, nah, I haven’t seen much of anybody actually. Everest and James ditched me as soon as they saw me heading towards the ‘culinary horror show’ as they called it, did you see them?”

  “No,” India said, disappointed.

  “Oh, here they are now,” Riri said, waving James and Everest over from the literature society stall. Everest looked like he’d been dragged to the showcase against his will, which, knowing Riri, was entirely possible, and most likely exactly what happened.

  “You two find anything good?” James asked.

  “Depends,” India said, nodding toward the stand they’d just abandoned. “Would you guys eat a brownie with teeth?”

  Everest glanced over, took one look at the cursed baked goods, and immediately turned away. “Yeah, no. I’ll stick with normality.”

  Before India could respond to that, James suddenly perked up, scanning something further away.

  “What about this one?” He pointed at the stall adjacent to the baking one, where a group of students in matching t-shirts were enthusiastically handing out flyers.

  “The Volunteer Group?” Riri asked.

  “Yeah,” James said, already heading over. “Come on, it’ll look good on our resumes.”

  Riri hummed thoughtfully, looking over the stall. “It’s actually a really good organization. They help with refugee support, environmental programs, mutual aid—”

  “Of all things, we’re joining this one?” Everest muttered, probably wishing he was back in the dorm.

  “Of course we’re doing this,” Riri declared, already signing their name on the interest sheet, “Daddy’s money isn’t going to do everything for you. Not here anyway. I’m gonna write you down as well!”

  Everest sighed deeply. “How ‘charitable’ of you…”

  India watched as they all signed up, then took a slow step back, not wanting to spend her holidays helping out impoverished werewolves or something. They were probably feral, anyway. She took another step back, bumping into something tall and muscular.

  “I’m starting to think you might be following me, haha. Fancy seeing you again.”

  She turned to find Xiao standing beside her, looking effortlessly handsome as usual.

  “Yes,” she said instantly, abandoning her morally superior friends to their philanthropy. India told herself that the weird warmth in her chest was just the sun.

  It wasn’t convincing.

  “Well, seeing as we are already here, want to take a tour with me, I can show you all the most entertaining stalls,”

  A tent labeled Future Seers Society had a long line of anxious students waiting to get their fortunes read. One girl with what looked like antlers walked away looking horrified.

  “What did they tell you?” someone in line asked.

  “That I’m gonna be a middle school teacher,” she whispered, voice hollow with despair.

  Xiao snickered. “Brutal.”

  A student at the Fencing Society stall was casually dueling a sentient sword that seemed to be winning.

  They pushed forward, past a debate booth where two students were passionately arguing about whether teleportation should have an age restriction (India did not have the brain capacity for that), until they reached a stall marked SPORTS (HUMAN).

  A basketball hovered lazily in the air, spinning on its own. A soccer ball was gently bouncing, as if testing out the concept of gravity. The green ball from before floated behind the stall, waiting for interested students.

  India eyed the scene. “This feels… incredibly cursed.”

  A blonde guy dressed in a tracksuit at the booth noticed them and flashed a fanged grin, “Hey, you’re one of the new humans, right?”

  “Why?” India asked, suddenly wary, remembering the graffiti on their building.

  “Maybe you can show them how it’s done.” He gestured vaguely behind him, where a few students - in human form except for an elf - were attempting (and mostly failing) to dunk a basketball without flying or using telekinesis. Then he noticed Xiao, standing next to her, and stiffened, “and hello to you too.”

  “Victor, is that really necessary?” frowned a nerdy looking guy, completely out of place at the stall, “we have the instructions from the human web.”

  “Come on, Rowan, hands-on experience is always better,” the blond replied with a grin, the easy-going tone of his voice quickly returning.

  But India’s attention remained on the nerdy dude. Something seemed strange about him, and it took India a second to see it.

  “I-is he human?” she whispered to Xiao, poking him on the shoulder.

  “Who, Rowan?” Xiao said, a bit of cheer gone from his voice, “He's a wizard. Think of wizards as less human, more pure magic in the shape of a human. You can't see it right now, but his hair glitters purple under sunlight. He's also the son of the Treasurer here and Victor's n-”

  Before he could finish, a distinctly overconfident voice interrupted.

  “We playing basketball here?

  Oh no.

  She turned just in time to see Muneo sauntering toward them, wearing a white Nike tech fleece, a gold chain glinting under the sun, and a smug expression.

  “Damn, what you doin’ here?” Muneo said to India, running a tattooed hand through his hair. His bangs flopped back into place with disrespectful accuracy.

  India did not want to do this right now. “Looking.”

  Muneo turned his gaze to Xiao, brows raising.

  “Ayy, who’s this?”

  “My friend,” India said, already knowing where this was going.

  Muneo nodded like he was filing that information away for future clownery. “Ohhh, okay. Like… just a friend?”

  Xiao gave India a deeply amused look, like he was enjoying this way too much.

  “Yes,” she said, slightly exasperated.

  Muneo smirked. “Aight, aight. So, you like sporty guys or what?”

  What???

  “What does that even mean?” she asked, baffled.

  “You know,” he shrugged, rolling up his sleeves to expose even more tattoos, as if that would explain anything. “Like, ballers. Fit dudes. Athletes.”

  India squinted. “Why would I care?”

  Muneo looked personally offended.

  “Ayo, Viktor, lemme sign up for basketball.”

  Oh my god.

  Muneo took the clipboard off the table, scrawling his name like he was signing a record deal. Then, just to be extra, he grabbed a basketball from the air and spun it on one finger, flashing a grill-worthy grin at India and Xiao.

  “Ball is life, you feel?”

  Rowan, who had not asked for any of this, pinched the bridge of his nose. “We don’t even have an official basketball team.”

  Muneo ignored him completely.

  Unfortunately, Irina had not.

  India barely had time to react before she felt the temperature drop.

  Slowly, dangerously, Irina crossed her arms and growled out a warning. “Muneo....”

  “Oh, hey babe, look at this,” Muneo had the audacity to flash her a smile. “I just signed up for basketball.”

  Irina’s eyes flicked to India. Back to Muneo. Then to his still-spinning basketball.

  “Uh-huh,” Irina said coolly. “Since when do you play basketball?”

  “I mean, I got mad handles, you already know,” Muneo said, doing a completely unnecessary spin move before palming the ball again. “Might as well, right?”

  India, for her part, was just trying not to die of secondhand embarrassment.

  Why? Why did this always happen to her.

  Xiao, utterly useless in this scenario, elbowed her and whispered, “This is the best thing I’ve seen all day.”

  Viktor, bless his soul, tried to usher India away.

  “India, you wanna come over and show these kids how it’s done?” He said, gesturing to a little further away.

  India was beginning to realise that Victor had some misconception that all humans were good at human sports. Although India was 90% sure she could do it, having played for years in high school, she didn’t want to embarrass herself on the chance she didn’t make it. She’d stopped playing for fun ever since her mom started dating Lebron James anyway.

  “…I don’t even play basketball,” she tried.

  Muneo immediately jumped in. “Oh, I can show them. India, lemme show you my—”

  “No,” Viktor cut in. “You’re a menace, in every sense of the word.” He turned to India. “Can you kick a soccer ball?”

  India eyed the soccer goal next to the hoop, the soccer ball floating down and taking its place a few metres away. Okay, well, it seems that being the only human near here, they were expecting something from her.

  “I think so,” she said, praying that the PE classes in middle school were enough to get her through this.

  She walked over to the soccer goal, trying to avoid eye contact with Muneo, who was still standing there, trying to make himself look as attractive as possible by stretching his neck and fixing his hair in a way that had zero subtlety. She could feel his eyes still on her, like the guy genuinely thought he was going to be her athletic savior.

  "Alright," she said, taking a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”

  India hesitated for a moment, her mind drifting back to middle school gym clas. She remembered how they drilled the foot placement, the rhythm of a good dribble, the sharp follow-through.

  She jogged forward, gently nudging the ball with the inside of her foot as she dribbled. One, two, three... It wasn’t smooth, but she managed to keep the ball under control. She tried to remember the perfect balance—don't kick it too hard, but enough to get some speed. She took a deep breath and lined herself up. With a quick glance at the goal, she swung her kicking foot, aiming low and to the side, —like they taught us in PE. The ball shot forward, a little wild at first, but it curved just enough to slam into the net with a satisfying thwack.

  The ball rebounded from the pole of the goal, and it looked normal at first, just the elastic collision taking effect, but then the ball began to slowly drift towards India.

  And then—WHAM.

  It smacked India straight in the face.

  Dead silence.

  The small group of students that had been watching muttered to each other, confused about if this was part of human soccer, and they concluded it was not.

  Everyone turned to Irina.

  Because here’s the thing.

  Even the dumbest person in this crowd knew that when you kick a ball into a goal, it does not hover and then boomerang back at the kicker’s head like a heat-seeking missile.

  And everyone knew Irina had the worst grasp on physics in this entire university. They all looked at her, throwing accusatory glances her way.

  Irina, to her zero credit, put a hand over her mouth in mock horror.

  “Oh noooo,” she said, voice dripping with Disney villain insincerity. “That was such a terrible accident.”

  India, clutching her face, glared. “Uh-huh.”

  Meanwhile, Viktor just sighed. "Dude, come on," he muttered at Irina, looking about this close to walking away and never coming back, “I’m your brother and even I can’t defend you anymore…”

  And that was when Xiao, who had been watching all of this with slightly amused smirk of somone having wayyyyy too much fun today, finally stepped forward.

  “Enough,” he said, his voice dropping into something low and firm, like a command.

  The temperature shifted instantly.

  India watched as the previously chattering students fell silent, their eyes all fixed on Xiao, and Rowan carefully positioned a hand on Victor’s shoulder, as if ready to pull him back at moment’s notice.

  Xiao took another step, putting himself between India and Irina.

  "Leave her alone."

  It wasn’t a request.

  Irina's mouth curled, like she was about to snap something back—but then Viktor nudged her.

  “We don’t want to get dad in trouble,” he mumbled to her, “That guy’s got like his whole extended family on the board, and you already know he doesn’t like me….”

  India began to realise that around here, Xiao wasn’t just some guy.

  He wasn’t even just some dragon guy.

  Xiao was descended from one of the founders of Kagako University. He had history here. And, most importantly, if Irina pissed him off too much, he had the kind of social capital that could actually cause problems for her.

  So, after a long, seething moment, Irina clicked her tongue and crossed her arms, looking away. “Whatever.”

  “Glad we understand each other,” Xiao said smoothly, the tension rolling off him like mist.

  He turned back to India, who was still rubbing her nose, dazed.

  “You okay?”

  “No,” India muttered, voice muffled. “My pride is dead, and I think my nose is broken.”

  “Rip,” Xiao said solemnly. Then, after a pause, “Wanna go get some food? The cooking club is selling some.”

  India looked at him in disbelief.

  Xiao shrugged. “Food is the universal solution,” he said, leading her away from the sports stall.

  I am so never playing soccer again.

  She rubbed her face,, as she followed Xiao through the bustling stalls. The scent of something grilled and buttery hit her before her eyes registered the a bunch of students in aprons were flipping okonomiyaki on sizzling griddles.

  “Cooking club’s got good stuff,” Xiao said.

  India didn’t need convincing. She was already making her way over, dodging some guy with goat legs. (Satyr? Goat furry? Unclear.)

  Xiao stepped up first, eyeing the hand-written menu like he was on Top Chef. “I’ll get the yakisoba.”

  India, without thinking, blurted, “Same.”

  Xiao bought India’s bowl for her as well as his own, and then they wandered back into the chaos. As they passed a stall covered in half-finished sketches, fabric swatches, and mannequins wearing half-stitched designs, Xiao veered off without hesitation.

  “Oh, I gotta say hi,” he said over his shoulder.

  India followed, glancing at the sign: Fashion Design Club – No Talent Required, Just Vibes.

  A girl with a bob cut and a measuring tape slung around her neck perked up when she saw Xiao. “Xiao! Took you long enough.”

  A guy beside her, currently pinning fabric to a mannequin, grinned. “Damn, it’s been a while. You finally joining?”

  India blinked. Oh. He actually knows people here.

  Xiao smirked. “Might as well,” he said, picking up a pen and scribbling his name on the sheet.

  He gestured to India. “This is India, by the way. First year. India, these are my friends Soyeon and Junji.”

  Soyeon nodded approvingly. “Nice to meet you, India. You into fashion?”

  India, who had never once thought about fashion design in her entire life, said, “Yeah, totally.” Then, before her brain could catch up with her, she grabbed the pen off the clipboard and scrawled her name right under Xiao’s. Though, right after she finished, she noticed a familiar name a few rows up.

  I guess Riri is expected here… they are pretty much in a new outfit every time i see them…

  Xiao gave her a side glance. “Didn’t take you for a fashion person either.”

  She stuffed a mouthful of noodles in her mouth. “I contain multitudes.”

  “Cool,” said Junji at the mannequin. “We meet Thursdays. And we always need more people for the runway show.”

  “Yeah, we get to design whatever we want,” Soyeon added. “I made a skirt last year out of actual fire.”

  India stared. “How do you…?”

  “Very carefully.”

  Xiao laughed and shook his head. “Alright, we’ll see you guys later.”

  They wandered off again into the thick of the showcase, India’s stomach flipping for reasons unrelated to yakisoba. But before she could have too much of an internal crisis, a familiar (and very annoying) voice cut through the crowd.

  “Oi, Xiao!”

  Oh. Fantastic.

  Muneo swaggered toward them, his usual grin missing, replaced by something that looked like he was trying to act hard. India already knew it wasn’t going to work, because this was still the same dude who had just tried to flirt with her by spinning a basketball like a budget Globetrotter. wait bro read it through first i made a couple edits mostly with the names of xiao’s friends

  Muneo stopped a metre away, crossing his arms. “You tryna make my girl look bad?”

  Xiao barely reacted, more confused than anything. “What?”

  Muneo stepped forward, clearly trying to subtly puff up his chest. “Irina told me you embarrassed her.”

  Xiao, a little incredulous, gestured vaguely between India and himself. “Dude. Weren’t you just hitting on her?”

  Muneo scoffed. “What? Nah. I love my girlfriend.”

  India raised an eyebrow. “So… the whole ‘do you like sporty guys’ thing was…?”

  Muneo waved a dismissive hand. “That was just, y’know, me being friendly. Look, all I’m just saying - if you got a problem with my girl, you got a problem with me.”

  Xiao's eyes narrowed, and he stepped towards Muneo, a flicker of something defiant and stubborn flashing across his face. He leaned in just enough to make the air between them feel thick with tension. "Then I guess we have a problem.”

  Muneo’s grin faltered, but he recovered quickly, cracking his knuckles with a defiant smirk. "You wanna take this somewhere?"

  The tension between them grew heavier, an unspoken challenge hanging in the air. India felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as she watched the two of them, knowing something was about to snap.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE:

  URM GUYS I JUST REALISED WE FORGOT TO TELL YOU BUT XIAO IS A SOPHOMORE, SO HE’S 1 YEAR OLDER THAN INDIA HEEHEE ^^