The Night They Couldn't Escape

The library was supposed to close at eight.

But fate, as always, had other plans.

Rain lashed against the tall windows, the storm outside howling like it had a grudge against the world. The clock on the wall ticked past closing time, but the storm had trapped them there two enemies bound by one unavoidable truth: the principal’s group project decree.

Chinno groaned, slamming her pen onto the desk. The sound cracked through the heavy silence.

“We’re never going to finish this project if you keep acting like a spoiled prince.”

Across from her, William leaned back in his chair, balancing it dangerously on two legs. That infuriating smirk tugged at his lips, the one that always made her blood boil.

“CorrectionI am a prince. And you, darling, should be honored to work with me.”

Her eyes blazed. “You’re insufferable.”

“And yet,” he drawled, leaning forward now, elbows on the table, voice dropping just enough to be intimate, “you can’t ignore me.”

The storm outside rumbled as if agreeing with him. Rain hammered the glass, thunder rolling deep and low. Inside, the tension between them was just as electric, filling the air between sharp words and unspoken things. Chinno bent over her notebook again, scribbling furiously. The sound of her pen scratching paper clashed with the storm’s rhythm, frantic and angry.

William tilted his head, watching her with that lazy, predatory amusement that drove her insane. “Why do you hate me so much, Chinno?” he asked softly, almost taunting. Then, after a beat, his smirk deepened. “Or is it because I make your heart race?”

Her throat tightened. She wanted to deny it, to laugh in his face and call him arrogant. But her pen stilled, betraying her. The truth was, his words landed somewhere dangerous somewhere she didn’t want to name.

“You’re ridiculous,” she snapped, shoving her chair back. She stood abruptly, needing space, needing air. But when she brushed past him, her shoulder grazed his arm. A simple touch. Yet sparks shot through her skin, heat flaring before she could stop it. She froze, just for a second, her pulse betraying her.

William noticed. Of course he noticed. He always noticed.

He rose smoothly, closing the gap, his presence towering behind her. When he spoke, his voice was low, a whisper that burned against her ear.

“Careful, sweetheart. Keep pushing me like this… and I might just make you fall for me.”

The words lingered in the air like forbidden fire, too close, too dangerous. Her chest rose sharply, but she clenched her jaw, forcing steel back into her voice.

“Over my dead body.”

William’s lips curled into a slow, devastating smirk.

“Challenge accepted.”

The thunder outside cracked, loud and furious. But inside the library, another storm had already begun one made of sharp glares, fast-beating hearts, and a tension neither of them could deny.

This made that place way more chiller than the outside world and made them feel annoyed

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