Without knowing about the meeting of his childhood friends and the heated discussion about him, Ryan left the principal's office in silence.
He had gone there just to handle some formalities before classes, nothing major, just a bureaucratic detail about his transfer.
The hallway was full of voices and hurried footsteps, but he seemed oblivious to everything. Some glances followed him, mainly from girls who whispered among themselves, but he remained indifferent. None of them had anything that caught his attention.
He turned left, finding the hallway where the history classroom was.
Ryan stopped upon noticing two girls walking from the other end of the hallway while talking.
For an instant, everything vanished.
He blinked and, in their place, saw two children laughing in the backyard on a hot summer afternoon. Then, teenagers, sharing a cheap bottle on some late night, hiding secrets behind complicit glances. It was a distant memory, but clear enough to tighten some forgotten corner inside him.
When he blinked again, the images faded away. They were no longer memories. They were realities.
Bonnie and Elena were in front of him.
Ryan blinked slowly, letting his gaze sweep over the two without haste. His face remained impassive, but a small curve appeared on his lips after a moment as he walked toward the two.
Ignoring the other students, he approached saying: "I can't believe it... Bonnie? Elena?"
The two stopped immediately, as if time had frozen. First it was Elena who lifted her face, her eyes wide. Her laughter interrupted mid-sentence when her eyes met the figure walking toward her in the hallway.
"... Ryan?" Her voice came out almost in shock, but with an immediate gleam of recognition.
Bonnie turned too, taking half a second longer.
For an instant, she felt her heart stop.
She saw the exact moment when his eyes landed on her and Elena.
Was it really Ryan?
While she realized she was holding her breath. And she didn't know if it was from the surprise of the reunion or from the simple fact that, damn, Caroline was absolutely right.
He had become hot as fuck.
"I can't believe it!" Bonnie almost shouted, before running the final steps and throwing herself against him in a tight hug: "My God, look at you! Caroline had said you had come back, but only seeing it with my own eyes made it sink in..."
"Bonnie," Ryan said, his deep and calm voice sounding almost like a living memory. "It's good to see you again too...."
Her heart beat hard.
His scent, the warmth... everything pulled her toward memories she preferred to keep buried.
Because it wasn't just friendship. It never was.
She remembered the last night together, when the drinks and mixed feelings led them to cross all lines. A chaotic, intense night, where she, Elena, and even Caroline got lost with Ryan in the same room. Drunken laughter, kisses that started as a joke and became something much heavier, much more intimate.
Bonnie swallowed hard as she pulled away, her wide smile disguising any trace of that memory.
"My God... you have no idea how much you've been missed..." She said, keeping her voice light.
Meanwhile, Elena remained still. Frozen.
When she saw him... for a moment, gravity simply ceased to exist.
The ground vanished under her feet. The hallway around dissolved into blurred spots of movement and sound. Nothing mattered. There was no noise from students, no doors slamming, no voices echoing. Only he remained.
Ryan.
It was as if the entire universe had held its breath along with her.
His green eyes, intense and impossible to ignore, met hers. And Elena felt a shiver run down her spine, the kind of chill that starts in the stomach and explodes through the entire body.
He was just like the memories she kept so fondly... but at the same time completely different. The boy who ran with her through the backyards and invented stories under the sunset had disappeared. In front of her now was a man, taller, stronger, with an almost dangerous presence. And handsome. Ridiculously handsome. The kind that made any girl lose her breath, even if for a second.
And it was in that instant that she knew: Caroline was right.
He didn't just grow up.
He transformed into a handsome man.
Elena blinked a few times, trying to regain control of herself.
But when he pulled away from Bonnie's hug and his green eyes met hers again, loaded with a silent recognition, as if he were reliving all the memories with her, Elena felt her heart race out of control.
Without thinking twice, she moved.
The steps were quick, almost desperate. Before she could even question herself, she was already wrapping him in her arms. Her body pressed against his with force, as if she wanted to make sure he was real, that he wasn't just a memory distorted by longing.
Ryan stiffened for a second, surprised. But soon relaxed, returning the hug.
Elena closed her eyes.
Because she remembered too.
The taste of alcohol mixed with laughter, the feeling of losing control, the moment when the three, four if you included Caroline, let themselves be carried away by something that never should have happened. And yet, it had happened.
She pushed the memory away, burying it forcefully, but the silent shame was still there, in the depths of her eyes. Quickly she released the hug, even against her own will. When their eyes met again, Elena realized she was smiling without even noticing.
"Welcome back, Ryan..." Her voice came out soft, but loaded with something more.
He held her gaze, then Bonnie's, and a calm smile formed on his lips.
"It's good to be back." He replied, serene, but with a silent weight in the words: "Time passed too quickly..."
"So... About that, it was three years," Bonnie said, crossing her arms, her voice carrying a slightly accusatory tone.
Ryan raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Guilty. But, to be fair, I tried to keep in touch."
Elena snorted. "Trying doesn't mean disappearing for months on end and then showing up out of nowhere with a 'Hi, how are things?'"
Before he could respond, a student hurried past in the hallway, lightly bumping into Elena. She stumbled, but Ryan quickly grabbed her by the arm, keeping her steady.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice calm, but with that protective tone that always made her shiver.
"Yes... thanks," Elena replied, still a bit dazed.
Bonnie rolled her eyes, crossing her arms with that air of someone who didn't want to admit her heart was racing.
"These hallways are impossible. You can't have a civilized conversation without being interrupted."
Ryan smiled sideways, leaning slightly against the hallway wall, leaving space for the two to lean as well.
"So... let's use this wall as strategic protection against invading students?"
Elena sighed, leaning against the wall next to him, her body still a bit tense, but clearly calming down with Ryan's presence.
"Seems like a good idea. That way we won't get run over every five seconds."
After finding a better corner to talk, they continued their conversation about Ryan's total disappearance...
"... Unfortunately I had little time to send messages." Ryan continued saying what he would have said if he hadn't been interrupted before: "Almost everything in my life changed after going to Japan, I didn't have time for anything...."
Elena arched an eyebrow, trying to hide the immediate curiosity that sprouted.
"How was it there...?"
Ryan nodded.
"I studied, worked, tried to find myself there. In a way... it worked."
Bonnie arched an eyebrow, her arms already crossing in an almost automatic reflex. Her gaze pierced his with an intensity that mixed irony and a hint of hurt.
"It worked for you, huh? Because from here it didn't seem like anything was working. It seemed more like three years of ghosting."
Ryan arched an eyebrow, the corner of his lips curving into a contained smile.
"Ah, so that's it... Bonnie, du hältst mir immer noch einen Groll? (Bonnie, you still hold a grudge?)" He said in German, the pronunciation clear and confident.
Bonnie blinked, surprised.
"What was that? You speak German now?!"
"Of course," Ryan replied naturally, keeping his green eyes fixed on her: "And, to be honest, I think I deserve one... Bitte vergib mir (please forgive me)..."
She rolled her eyes, but couldn't hold back the smile.
"You're impossible... speaking German now to get out of it?"
"Three years gone, no explanations, and I just show up again. I figure a plea for forgiveness in German increases my chances of absolution."
On the other hand, Elena who was silent, interrupted with surprise.
"Wait... since when do you speak German, Ryan?!" She said, the surprise breaking any formality she was trying to maintain.
Ryan let out a low laugh, amused by her reaction, but without losing his charm.
"Ah, that... I learned during my stay in Japan." He arched an eyebrow: "It's not common, I know. But I needed to challenge myself somehow. And, of course, keep my apology cards... interesting."
In truth, he had learned it in his past life from an army friend who knew several languages, but no one needed to know that.
Elena blinked, still incredulous, crossing her arms.
"Interesting? You're telling me you spent three years away, and the first thing you learned was... German?"
Ryan shrugged, with an air of calm arrogance that always left her frustrated.
"Well, I needed something dramatic. And let's face it, a plea for forgiveness in German has another weight, don't you think?"
Bonnie snorted, but couldn't hold back the smile that escaped.
"You're impossible..."
"Impossible, but effective," he retorted, with that half-smile that always left her irritatingly enchanted: "So... are you going to forgive me, or do I have to try in Französisch (French) too?"
"... I would ask you since when you also know French, but I think it's better not to ask." Elena let out a low laugh, shaking her head. "If he starts switching languages all the time, Bonnie, I think he'll end up confusing you even more."
Bonnie snorted, crossing her arms, but her heart was racing.
"Okay, okay... I forgive you, Ryan. But only because you finally deigned to show up and explain something."
Ryan winked, satisfied. "Then we're even... for now."
Before he or Bonnie could continue their conversation, Elena interrupted and asked with curiosity.
"... Besides English, Japanese, German, and French. What else did you learn in your time in Japan?"
"Let me see...." Ryan pondered as he said: "I'm fluent in English, Japanese, German, French, Russian, Bulgarian, Italian, Greek, and Mandarin. I also speak a little Korean..."
".... Wait, you speak all these languages!?" Bonnie asked surprised. The same surprise that was stamped on Elena's face.
"Exactly." Ryan winked, the smile maintaining that confident air that always left her flustered: "All of them except Korean, which I speak very little, nothing perfect, but enough to hold a conversation. It's useful in some situations."
Bonnie crossed her arms, feigning disapproval, but the smile escaped.
"Wow... so you specialized in confusing girls with multilingual charm, huh? Look at that... Ryan, the polyglot. That's fancy. I bet besides speaking all these languages now you also know how to fight like those movie guys, right?"
Ryan lied blatantly:
"Kendo, some martial arts... I needed to occupy my mind, keep my body in motion. It became routine."
Elena widened her eyes slightly, biting her lower lip without noticing.
"That explains a lot..."
Ryan arched an eyebrow, curious.
"A lot of what?"
"Your... build..." She said too quickly, averting her gaze with her cheeks slightly flushed. "You can tell you've changed."
Bonnie, noticing her friend's embarrassment, didn't miss the chance.
"Translating: you became hot as fuck, and she's trying to be polite."
"Bonnie!" Elena exclaimed, nudging her friend in the arm, her face flushed.
Ryan laughed again, but this time the sound came with a playful gleam in his green eyes.
"Well... I guess I can't complain about the compliment, even if indirect."
Elena sighed, shaking her head, but a smile escaped anyway.
Ryan kept the smile, tilting his head slightly, his green eyes shining with contained mischief.
"But you know what?" he said, his voice low, full of an almost provocative charm. "I wasn't the only one who changed in these three years... you two became hot too."
The comment made the two freeze for an instant. Bonnie blinked a few times, her heart racing, and Elena felt a heat rise up her neck and cheeks, immediately remembering that chaotic and intense night that they could never erase.
Bonnie snorted, averting her gaze, trying to disguise the blush rising on her face.
Elena, on the other hand, bit her lip, his green eyes piercing through every layer of memory she tried to bury.
"Ryan..." She murmured, not knowing whether to laugh, get nervous, or remember.
The hallway fell silent for an instant, loaded with tension and memories that only they shared.
But the shrill sound of the class bell cut through that moment like a knife. The ring echoed through the hallway, cold and insistent, reminding them that, despite the chemistry and memories, reality still existed.
"Ah... damn," Bonnie murmured, averting her gaze, still flushed, while her heart tried to calm down. "Class... we need to go in."
Elena sighed, letting out a light nervous laugh. "Always the wrong moment, huh? It seems like a joke."
Ryan furrowed his brow slightly, but the smile didn't disappear. He looked at the two, still leaning against the wall, as if he wanted to absorb a few more seconds before giving in to the routine.
"Right... right," he said, raising his hand to his hair, running his fingers through the strands distractedly. "We'll survive school, right? Just a few more hours of torture and we're free."
"Shall we?" He said finally...
Bonnie and Elena nodded almost in unison, and the three began walking down the hallway, mixed in with the crowd of students.
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