DARE
925 Words
AIDEN
My alarm went off at 6:15 a.m.,which already felt like a personal attack.
I lay there for a solid ten seconds, staring at the ceiling, hoping that this was all some elaborate dream.
From across the room, Liam groaned. “Tell me you’re not actually getting up.”
“I hate you,” I muttered, sitting up.
He cracked one eye open and smirked. “For the record, history will remember this as the moment your free will died.”
I pulled on a hoodie, grabbed my phone, and checked the message Kaito had sent.
" Don’t be late."
The walk across campus was brutal. The air was cold, the sky that ugly gray-blue that only exists before sunrise, and every sane person was still asleep. The coffee shop line was already ridiculous apparently misery loves caffeine.
By the time I got my hands on the cup, my fingers were numb and my patience thinner than the paper sleeve.
I checked the label.
Kaito. Extra shot. Oat milk.
When I finally reached the meeting spot—bench near the science building—he was already there, leaning back like this was the most natural thing in the world. Black coat again. Of course.
He looked up as I approached, eyes flicking to the cup first, then to me.
“Right on time,” he said, standing.
I held the coffee out. “Here. Your royal beverage.”
" Good,” he said, clearly pleased.
I crossed my arms. “That’s it? That’s all I exist for now? Early-morning caffeine delivery?”
Kaito smiled—slow, amused. “Relax. This was just to see if you’d actually show.”
“And?”
“You did.” He took another sip. "
Something about the way he said that made my stomach flip—not fear, exactly. Anticipation.
He met my eyes. “You free after classes today?”
I sighed. “Do I have a choice?”
He grinned. “Not really.”
Fantastic.
As he walked off, coffee in hand, I stood there in the freezing morning air, watching him disappear between buildings.
By the time evening rolled around, I’d had just enough hours to forget that my life was currently governed by an outdated campus tradition and one smug guy in a black coat.
Kaito had texted me a single line after my last class.
" My department. 7 p.m. Don’t make it obvious. "
Which was hilarious, considering the second I stepped into the humanities building, it became very obvious.
“Yo, is that a " Runner"?”
I flinched.
Two students were lounging near the stairs, grinning like they’d just spotted a rare animal. One of them nudged the other. “Nah, look at his face—that’s definitely a " Bound ”
I kept walking, eyes forward, heat creeping up my neck.
“Hey, coffee boy!” someone else called from down the hall. “Your owner inside yet?”
I pretended I couldn’t hear them. This was exactly what Liam had warned me about—half the campus treated the dare tradition like a spectator sport.
As I passed the study lounge, “That’s Kaito’s, right?”
“Yeah,” her friend said. “Poor guy. First week’s always rough.”
Fantastic. I hadn’t even hit the interesting part yet.
I reached Kaito’s department floor and slipped into the quieter corridor where the offices and seminar rooms were. The noise faded, thank God. At the far end, near a corkboard cluttered with flyers, Kaito was waiting—arms crossed, expression unreadable.
He took one look at my face and raised an eyebrow. “Already?”
“You could’ve warned me,” I said under my breath. “About the… nicknames.”
He smirked. “What, ‘Runner’? That’s a mild one.”
“Mild?? Someone called me ‘Bound’ like it was a personality trait.”
Kaito pushed off the wall. “Relax. It peaks early. By day three they get bored.”
“That’s not comforting.”
He studied me for a second, then nodded once. “You handled it right. Didn’t react. Tradition feeds on reactions.”
“Good to know my humiliation is a renewable resource.”
A corner of his mouth twitched. “Come on. Inside.”
He led me into an empty seminar room, closing the door behind us. The lights hummed softly overhead. For the first time since I’d arrived, it felt like I could breathe.
Kaito turned to face me. “Rule check,” he said. “I don’t make you do anything during class. I don’t put you in actual trouble. And if it crosses a line, you say so. Deal?”
I hesitated, then nodded. “Deal.”
“Good,” he said. “Because tonight’s task is simple.”
I braced myself. “Define simple.”
He gestured toward the stack of posters on the desk. “Help me put these up around the building.”
I blinked. “…That’s it?”
“For now.” His eyes flicked to the door, where distant laughter echoed from the hallway. “Let them have their names. This part’s between us.”
I didn’t know why, but that made my chest feel a little lighter.
As we started taping posters to the wall, I realized something unsettling:
The stupid tradition wasn’t the problem.
It was the fact that Kaito seemed to be enjoying how aware I was of him now and how, despite everything, I was starting to enjoy it too.
- Writer
