Episode 1:The Broken Compass

The first bell at St. Marin University always rang a little too loud.

It was the sound of a thousand footsteps, conversations, and camera flashes bouncing off old brick walls — the kind of chaos only a university like this could hold.

And right in the center of it all, leaning against a matte-black motorcycle, was Luca Rossi.

The headmaster’s son.

He looked like trouble — the beautiful, quiet kind. The kind that smiles just before the fire starts.

A single earpiece dangled from his neck, a cigarette hung between his fingers, and faint lines of ink curled beneath his sleeve — small, intricate tattoos, each one meaning something no one else could understand or feel

Luca had everything that should’ve made life perfect — money, a name people respected, a father powerful enough to silence anything he touched.

But perfection had never felt this hollow.

People said his mother was an angel. Who gave up her life for his.

His father never looked at him the same after she died.

And maybe that’s why Luca learned to stop looking for anyone’s approval — or love.

He wasn’t cruel, but he was distant.

He laughed, but never too long.

He flirted, but never stayed.

His friends — Damon, Kai, and Isla — were the only constants in his chaos. They were loud, wild, and reckless.

Together, they were the campus legends: tattoos, smoke, heartbreaks, and late-night parties that always ended in sirens.

That afternoon, Damon flicked a lighter toward Luca, grinning.

“Lakehouse party tonight. You in, or still playing the mysterious prince act?”

Luca smirked faintly, catching the lighter midair.

“Maybe.”

Isla rolled her eyes. “That’s it ?

Kai chuckled, shoving Luca’s shoulder. “He’ll show up. He does.”

The music, the laughter, the noise — it drowned the silence that haunt him.

At least, he believed it was the only way to live through

As classes ended, the courtyard began to thin out.

Luca stayed behind, sitting on the old marble bench under the clock tower.

Students passed him like wind — whispers and glances floating behind them.

That’s him.

The headmaster’s son.

He’s gorgeous, he’s

He didn’t care.

He pulled out a sketchbook, flipping through messy lines and half-finished drawings — ghosts of moments he didn’t want to forget, but couldn’t fully remember.

His mother’s hands.

The sea.

A compass he once drew as a child — the arrow broken in half.

He stared at it for a long while.

A compass that couldn’t point anywhere.

A boy who didn’t know where home was anymore.

Just as he was about to leave, something — or someone — caught his eye.

Across the courtyard, a girl stood near the library steps, trying to balance a stack of books that looked way too heavy for her arms.

Her hair fell into her face as she stumbled, one book slipping to the ground.

Luca’s first instinct was to look away —

but he didn’t.

He watched her kneel down, mumbling to herself as she picked up the fallen book.

The sunlight caught her hair, soft against her cheek.

There was something about her — something that didn’t fit into the noise of the world around them.

He didn’t know her name.

Didn’t care to.

But when she looked up for half a second, their eyes met.

Brief. Quiet. Real.

For a moment, something inside him — the part that had been asleep for years — moved.

She smiled, small and polite, before turning away and walking toward the dorms.

Luca watched until she disappeared behind the archway.

...Then he closed his sketchbook, tore out the page with the broken compass, and let it drift to the ground....

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