"Shit!"
León spat unconsciously, drawing the attention of several of his classmates, who stopped what they were doing to look at him.
They probably already knew something like this was going to happen.
Quickly, murmurs began to spread among them as some glanced discreetly toward León.
"Is it him again?"
"Who else would it be? With that face, I'd be flirting with the hottest girls in school instead of playing that stupid game."
They were the murmurs of a group of boys who looked on with jealousy at his enviable appearance.
On the other side of the classroom, the girls were already whispering among themselves, watching León play on his phone, all of them wearing silly smiles.
"Do you think he's still with Sofía?"
"Oh, I hope not. Seriously, I really hope not."
"If they break up, he won't have any excuses to ignore us anymore."
There was a barely hidden hint of hope and desire in their whispers.
The typical kind of conversation girls have when it comes to a handsome guy.
Despite his classmates' murmuring, León didn't pay them the slightest bit of attention.
Instead, his gaze remained fixed on his phone screen.
His jaw was slightly tense, and his fingers gripped the edges of the device tightly.
"Again…" he muttered, almost to himself, frustrated.
He had already tried to clear that stage over and over again and just couldn't do it.
At that moment, his friend, who was sitting a few seats behind him, stood up when he saw how frustrated León looked, his head resting on the desk while staring at his phone.
Mateo sat down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder as he took the seat beside him.
He stayed like that for a few seconds, already knowing the answer to that attitude.
"It's because of the game, right?" he asked anyway.
León only lifted his head slightly, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye without saying anything. There was no need…
Mateo let out a short snort, a bit tired of his friend's obsessive attitude over a simple game.
"Hey, what does that game have that's got you like this?" he said, crossing his arms. "To the point you won't even step outside during recess to see your girlfriend."
León clicked his tongue and returned his eyes to the screen, speaking in a low voice.
"…Sofía is beautiful, yeah. But she's missing… that."
Mateo narrowed his eyes, slightly puzzled.
"Missing what?"
León took a few seconds to respond before placing his phone face down on the desk.
"The reason I don't quit this game is because I can't manage to save them," he said dejectedly.
"Save who?" Mateo asked, even more confused.
"The villains…"
At that, Mateo fell completely silent, unsure of what to say.
"Villains?" he asked calmly, trying to understand his friend's condition.
"Yeah, the villains…"
A silence stretched between them.
"…It's just that every single one of them is insanely attractive and charming in a way that… isn't normal, the kind that looks at you and you already know it's going to end badly for you, but you still can't stay away."
Mateo looked at him with his eyes rolled back, completely lost after what León had just said.
"Wait…" he said, raising a hand. "Are you telling me you find characters from a mobile game more attractive than your girlfriend, who exists, breathes, and has an amazing body?"
"They're crazy…" León continued, with a calmness that was unsettling to Mateo. "They're strong and almost all of them are yanderes, that's what I like the most…"
He paused briefly.
"Sofía is… very kind."
"And that's bad because…?"
"She's submissive, I mean. She's very calm and predictable."
Mateo closed his eyes at that, letting out a slow, heavy sigh, already starting to lose patience with his friend's stupidity.
"You're wasting a girl like that," he finally said, choosing his words carefully, "for characters that DON'T exist. Do you know what anyone would give to have what you have?"
León opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything, the classroom door burst open.
"Class has already started!" the teacher announced from the doorway, his voice already tired from so many hours of teaching.
x- -X- -x-
The afternoon was already coming to an end, and León was walking heavily through the school courtyard with his backpack slung over one shoulder, his gaze lost somewhere ahead.
Beside him was a girl noticeably shorter than him, but insanely sexy.
She had black hair that reached just to her shoulders, with dark eyes that didn't leave León.
She was the kind of girl who made people turn just to look at her without her even noticing, with a defined waist and hips that swayed naturally as she walked, and breasts that pressed slightly against the fabric of her uniform.
And even so, there she was, completely oblivious to all of that, talking enthusiastically while León stared at the pavement.
"My friends almost died," Sofía said with a smile. "They literally told me it wasn't fair that I get to have the most handsome guy in school all to myself. Can you believe that?"
"Uh-huh." He spat out as a response without paying her any real attention.
Sofía slowed her pace slightly at that, just enough for her expression to subtly change.
León noticed it out of the corner of his eye, which made him feel a bit guilty, though he didn't really know what to do with that feeling.
'Maybe I should break up with her…' he thought, though he wasn't entirely sure. He knew breaking up with her just because would be immature, but maybe accepting her as his girlfriend without truly loving her was also immature…
"Sofía, listen," he said.
But she had already quickened her pace, unwilling to hear him out, already imagining what León was going to say.
"Sofía, wait."
She turned her head and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye while continuing to walk, her pride hurt and a hint of curiosity about what he wanted.
While she was looking at him, she crossed the street without noticing.
León saw it before his mind had even finished processing what was happening. A car was coming at full speed, and Sofía had noticed it far too late.
"SOFÍA!"
León shouted, running without thinking twice to reach her and push her with everything he had, trusting that he managed to save her.
But he took the full impact himself, and everything went dark.
He felt nothing, it was completely instant, without pain. Nothing.
Just a darkness that seemed to have no end.