STRINGS BETWEEN US

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO: OF SUMMER BOYS, STOLEN MORNINGS, AND THE WALK THAT SHOOK SOLE

He stood, slow and sure. "You like me looking like this, don't you?" A pause. Then with a soft shrug:
"So yeah, I'm going out like this. Let them talk. They always do."

I rolled my eyes. "You're insufferable."

"But you love me."

"Ugh. Shut up, Khaizer freaking Dylan."

He laughed.

And maybe... I didn't say it out loud.

But yeah.
I loved this version of KD. The one who showed up like summer and made the world forget how cold it used to be.

Solencia Courtyard – Ten Minutes Later

The moment we stepped into the courtyard, the world stopped.

No, really—students froze.
Mouths half-open, lollipops mid-air, cups of soda paused mid-sip.

They weren't staring at me. They were staring at him.

Khaizer Dylan Dela Vega. But not the Ice President. Not the Supreme Command.
Not the boy who could silence a room just by entering it.

No.
They were staring at this version. With tousled hair, festival-blue shirt, Yakult in one hand and a lollipop in the other.

And he was smiling. Smiling.

Jodie actually gasped. "What the—did the sun kiss him or something??"

"Did someone hack his wardrobe?!" Xylia hissed. "Where's the tie? Where's the judgment?!"

Mico blinked. "He looks... illegally approachable."

Errol was squinting like KD might be a hologram.

And from a few stalls away, Saichel nearly dropped a bag of takoyaki.

"What in god's dehydrated name are you wearing, Ice?!" he yelled across the courtyard. "Did summer swallow your wardrobe or did Ari finally bully you into soft boy mode?"

KD didn't even flinch.

He tilted his head slightly, voice dry as ever. "Keep talking, Levesque. I'll have your name flagged in every SAA class roster you've illegally trespassed last week."

Saichel held his chest like he'd been personally attacked. "Rude. He may look like a beach day, but the ice never left."

Xythe stood next to him, arms crossed, smirk tugging at his lips.

"He's still the winter," Xythe murmured. "Just walking like summer."

KD just popped the lollipop back into his mouth like none of them were real.

"We're going on a date," he said lazily, one hand in his pocket.

"A date?" Saichel repeated, scandalized.

KD just smirked.

And then—

As we kept walking, the crowd parted again. And that's when she appeared.

Bianchi. Perfectly pressed blazer. Polished heels. Tablet in one hand. Expression? Stone.

At least—until she saw us.

Until she saw him.

Her eyes widened just slightly. A flicker.
Like something had glitched in her code. Like she didn't compute that the person walking past her with a festival drink and unbuttoned sleeves was the same boy she once politically maneuvered around like a war map.