Zayne couldn't stop thinking about her.
As the driver pulled into the compound, he sat quietly in the backseat, staring out the tinted window. His grandmother greeted him warmly at the door, but he barely responded. He climbed the stairs of the modest house with heavy steps and locked himself in the guest room that had become his temporary hideout.
He stood in front of the mirror, pulling off his hoodie, but instead of looking at himself, he was thinking about her.
Liana.
That name had carved itself into the corners of his mind like poetry scratched into glass. He barely knew her. He had only heard her speak a few words. She hadn't smiled much. She hadn't tried to get his attention like the others.
But that was what made her dangerous.
She wasn't trying to be beautiful. She just was.
He collapsed onto the bed, arm over his eyes, heart still beating louder than usual. It annoyed him—how just sitting beside her made him forget everything else. He didn't even hear half of what the teacher said. Her presence was that strong.
"What is she doing to me?"
He whispered it into the empty room, as if the walls could answer.
He had been around girls before. The kind that chased his car when he came out of the mansion. The ones who asked for his number and flooded his DMs. The ones who wore designer perfume and fake laughter. He had even dated a few—if that's what you could call it. It was always surface-level. He never cared. He never stayed.
But Liana was different.
She didn't chase.
She didn't smile too much.
She didn't even try to impress.
Yet her quietness spoke to something deep in him—a silence he didn't know needed company.
He sat up, hands running through his thick hair.
"This is crazy," he muttered. "I just met her."
But he could still see the way she looked down when he asked her name, the way her lashes fluttered, the softness in her voice when she said:
"I'm… Liana."
He remembered how shy she looked, as if she didn't think she was worth being noticed.
"If only she knew…" he said aloud. "If only she knew what she did to me today."
Downstairs, his grandmother called out that dinner was ready, but Zayne ignored it.
He stood up and went to the window, watching the moon begin to rise. Somewhere out there, Liana was probably sitting with her sisters, maybe doing her homework, maybe reading quietly in her corner. She didn't know what effect she had on him. She didn't know that her presence had followed him home like a shadow.
"Who are you, Liana?" he whispered into the night air.
"And why do I feel like I've known you forever… even though we just met?"
Zayne had lived in luxury his entire life. He had bodyguards, fame, and a future empire. But for the first time in a long time, he felt small. Powerless. Curious. Like a teenage boy, not an heir. Just a boy… drawn to a girl who didn't even realize she was magnetic.
And that night, as he lay on his bed staring at the ceiling, there was only one truth he couldn't ignore:
He wanted to see her again.
Not for her smile.
Not for her voice.
Not for any reason he could explain.
He just… needed to.