Chapter 5 Bloom

I was turning into the hallway where my class was when I stepped directly into the path of the blue-eyed guy moving past me at a brisk pace. Our shoulders bumped lightly. I stopped on instinct and looked up. He seemed even taller up close. His sharp features kept people at a distance without him having to say a word. Those icy blue eyes stayed on me for a few seconds before his brows drew together.

"You should watch where you're going." His voice was as cold as his stare. Low and deep, with a strange weight behind it. I didn't back down.

"That's a little difficult when you're standing there," I said, the corner of my mouth lifting before I could stop it. "You take up half the hallway."

The faintest hint of a smile touched his lips. "Says the person who walked into me."

"It wasn't on purpose."

"Doesn't change what happened."

I rolled my eyes. "For someone built like you, I didn't think a little shoulder bump would be such a big deal."

His gaze moved over my face. He didn't look angry or amused. It was more like he was trying to figure me out. That unsettled me more than I expected. He stepped closer, almost erasing the space between us.

"Your confidence is bigger than you are," he said.

I tilted my head. "Maybe."

A brief silence passed between us. Then he leaned down slightly and spoke in a voice meant only for me. "Watch your step."

That was it.

It wasn't a threat, and he didn't explain himself. Still, those three words landed harder than they should have. It felt like he wasn't talking about the hallway at all. I was about to answer when the brown-haired guy beside him stepped in.

"How about we calm down a little?" he said, lifting both hands. "Starting a fight on the first day seems a bit much, don't you think?"

Unlike the man beside him, his easy expression made him seem instantly approachable. He turned to me with a smile.

"I'm Kai. And this is my best friend, Cassian."

Cassian.

His name settled into my mind far too easily.

Cassian gave Kai a brief look. "We don't need to introduce ourselves."

His voice stayed perfectly flat. Without sparing me another second of attention, he walked past us. The moment I realized I was watching him leave, I got annoyed with myself.

"What's his problem?" I asked.

Kai let out an embarrassed breath. "He's a little... difficult in the mornings."

"A little?"

Kai laughed. "Fair point. Sometimes even I can't stand him."

For a few seconds, we both watched Cassian disappear down the hall.

"What was your name?" Kai asked.

"Bloom."

"Nice to meet you, Bloom. Maybe one day you'll convince Cass to socialize like a normal person."

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. "That looks like a lost cause."

"That's what I keep telling myself."

Kai smothered another laugh and headed after Cassian. I stayed where I was for a few more seconds. We'd barely exchanged more than a handful of words, yet an uneasiness I couldn't explain lingered inside me.

It wasn't attraction. It wasn't admiration either. It felt more like I'd come face-to-face with a puzzle I couldn't solve. What bothered me most was that he'd studied me just as carefully as I'd studied him. It was as if, during that first meeting, we'd both started collecting more questions than answers about each other without even realizing it.

By the time I stepped into the lecture hall, the tension from the hallway still clung to me.

The room was almost full. After a quick scan, I spotted one empty seat in the back row. I started toward it and then I saw Cassian. He was sitting at the far end, drawing harsh lines along the edge of the notebook in front of him. Kai sat beside him, arranging his notes with exaggerated seriousness.

Since there were no other seats left, I drew a deep breath and made my way between the rows. As I passed them, my foot caught on a chair sticking too far into the aisle. I tried to recover, only for my ankle to snag on the strap of Cassian's bag. For one horrible second, I thought I was about to hit the floor.

But I didn't.

A strong hand caught my arm at the last possible moment.

Cassian hadn't even stood up. His fingers closed firmly around my arm, steadying me in one smooth movement. We were so close I could feel his breath.

"Can you actually not walk?" he asked quietly. "Or are you just finding new ways to crash into me?"

I held his gaze.

"You're the one taking over both the hallway and the lecture hall," I said. "Leave people enough room to get by, and accidents like this won't happen."

The corner of his mouth moved almost imperceptibly. "It's easy to blame everything on someone else."

"So is trying to control everything."

For a few seconds, neither of us looked away. Then he slowly released my arm. The moment the contact ended, I glanced down without meaning to. What bothered me wasn't the heat lingering on my skin. It was the fact that such a brief touch had gotten stuck in my head at all.

As I sat down, our knees brushed because of how narrow the rows were.

A low, muffled growl rumbled from deep in Cassian's chest. I turned toward him. His expression hadn't changed, but his jaw had tightened.

What was that? Anger? Discomfort? Or something else entirely something I couldn't understand?

Kai must have noticed the silent tension passing between us, because he looked up and smiled.

"Don't take Cass being rude personally," he said. "In the mornings, he's more bear than human."

I laughed before I could stop myself. Cassian only gave Kai a brief look. "Stop talking and pay attention."

Kai shrugged. “That’s Cass for you.”

The lecture hall gradually quieted the moment the professor walked in. Everyone hurried to take their seats while I pulled my notebook in front of me. I picked up my pen, but before I could start writing, my eyes drifted to the chair beside me.

Cassian had already turned his attention back to his notes. His face had settled into that same unreadable calm, as if he hadn’t been arguing with me in the hallway only minutes ago.

The professor introduced himself and began the first topic. I managed to write down a few lines.

Then that familiar scent reached me again. Blueberries. Juniper. I held my breath without realizing it.

No.

I couldn’t forget the first rule my father had taught me.

'You notice the scent first. Then you learn to ignore it. Otherwise, your senses will start controlling you.'

I lowered my gaze to my notebook and took a slow breath. Instead of focusing on Cassian’s scent, I picked out everything else filling the room. Ink. Coffee. Freshly printed books. The heavy vanilla perfume worn by a girl a few rows ahead of me.

Little by little, the scents blended together. Blueberries and juniper faded into the background until they were no different from anything else in the room.

Just as I thought I’d managed to focus on the lecture again, I heard two students whispering in the back row.

“Isn’t that Bloom?”

“Yeah.”

“The girl who never talks to anyone?”

“She spent all of last year by herself.”

A short silence followed. “Then what is she doing with the new guys?”

“I don’t know, but apparently they were arguing in the hallway earlier.”

I let out a slow breath through my nose. So the news had already spread. I was about to turn around when the atmosphere beside me shifted.

Cassian didn’t say a word. He simply turned his head slightly and looked toward the back row. That was all it took. The whispering stopped immediately.

By the time I faced forward again, the professor had already moved on to another subject. I picked up my pen, but the question in my head was far more distracting than anything in my notes.

This man… Was this really the same man who had snapped at me minutes ago? The same man who could silence an entire room with a single look?

I opened my notebook and tried to keep writing. I wanted to focus on the lecture, but the man sitting beside me made that nearly impossible. It wasn’t as though I kept staring at him. In fact, I was making a deliberate effort not to. But ignoring his presence was impossible. We barely spoke for the rest of the lecture.

Even so, the silence between us felt heavier than the argument we’d had earlier. Whenever I accidentally leaned a little too close, I noticed his shoulders tense. Each time, I instinctively put distance between us again. It was as if neither of us understood what exactly made the other uncomfortable, but we were both trying not to cross the same invisible line.

There was something about this man that unsettled me. And it wasn’t because he had touched me. The real problem was that I couldn’t figure him out.