PahnFond: When Our Worlds Collided

CHAPTER 1 - One Accidental Bump

Pahn's POV:

Everyone at school knows me as the student council president, someone who always seems to have everything under control. They see my good grades, my leadership, and the responsibilities I carry, but they don't see the things I keep quietly hidden in my heart.

For years, I've been secretly in love with someone.

Her name is Fond.

I don't remember the exact moment I started falling for her. It wasn't because of one big moment or something dramatic. It happened slowly, through all the little things I noticed about her.

Maybe it was the way she stayed after class to help a classmate understand a lesson. Maybe it was the way she cleaned up after school events even when no one asked her to. Or maybe it was because she always found a reason to smile, even on days when she looked exhausted.

Fond is one of the most hardworking people I've ever known. She balances school and her small online baking business, spending her afternoons and weekends making cookies, cakes, brownies, and other pastries for her customers. She has a dream of opening her own bakery someday, and watching her work so hard for that dream is something I admire more than I can explain.

I think that's what made me fall for her.

Not just her smile.

Not just her kindness.

But her determination.

Every school event, every club activity, every sports festival, and every program where students gathered, my eyes would always search for her.

Even when I was busy as student council president, standing on stage or handling responsibilities, I would still find myself looking through the crowd, hoping to see one familiar face.

Fond.

My friends noticed, of course.

They always did.

"You're looking for her again, aren't you?" Milk teased one afternoon while we were organizing student council documents.

I immediately looked away. "I'm not."

View glanced at me with an amused smile. "Pahn, you've been looking at the same direction for five minutes."

Kapook laughed. "At this point, I think Fond is part of your daily routine."

June only smiled, already knowing the truth behind my silence.

"She's someone important to you," she said.

I didn't answer.

Because they weren't wrong.

Milk, View, Kapook, and June had known me for years. They knew when I was stressed, when I was tired, and when I was pretending that everything was fine.

Maybe that's why they noticed the one thing I tried so hard to hide.

My feelings for Fond.

Across the courtyard, I saw her laughing with her friends-Love, Mim, Ciize, and Mewnich. She looked happy, and somehow, that alone made my day better.

I knew so many things about her.

Her favorite drink.

The songs she listened to while baking.

The way she tied her hair when she was focused.

The handwritten notes she included with every order.

Yet despite knowing all these little things...

We've never actually talked.

To Fond, I was probably just the student council president she passed by in the hallway.

Nothing more.

And maybe I was okay with that.

As long as I could see her smile from afar, I told myself that was enough.

But I didn't know...

That one ordinary Saturday would change everything.

That one spilled cup of coffee would finally give me the chance to talk to the girl I had admired for years.