She's not part of the story. Not really. But Sophie Park saw him before anyone else did. And now, someone else has claimed the spotlight she never stepped into.
Sophie Park didn't write love stories.
She wrote observation columns. Student council scandals. "Five Ways to Spot a Rigged Class President Election" had been her personal favorite.
But lately, her eyes kept drifting back to one particular name.
Ethan Cole.
Not because of the viral rooftop proposal.
Not because of the Ice Queen.
But because long before any of this, he'd done something no one else had.
He'd noticed her.
She still remembered the day. It was stupid. Small.
She'd written an anonymous op-ed in the student newsletter about academic stress. Just filler content to fill the lower half of the page.
But Ethan had replied.
Not publicly. Not performatively.
He'd just left a sticky note in the library's return slot.
"That piece helped. Thanks for writing it. — E.C."
He didn't know it was her. But somehow, she knew he meant it.
After that, she began to notice him too. Quiet glances. Quick observations. Mental snapshots that never made it to the paper.
Ethan Cole was invisible to most people.
But not to her.
Now?
He was everywhere.
On timelines. In whispers. At the center of something Sophie didn't fully understand.
She saw the way Isabella watched him. Not like a crush. Like a strategy.
And Sophie hated how good it looked on the outside.
Perfect posture. Perfect power couple aesthetic. The kind of cold-glow fantasy readers devoured without blinking.
She minimized the draft tab on her laptop again. The headline still sat there.
The Boy Who Proposed to a Myth.
She hadn't published it.
Because part of her didn't want the world to look at him the way she did.
Because once she published it, people would treat him like a headline.
To her, he was always more than that.
Claire was hurt. Lena was sharpening knives. Isabella was five moves ahead of everyone.
And Sophie?
She just sat in the library window, watching a boy she used to imagine speaking to.
Knowing that if she ever did say anything now, it would just look like she was late.
Some people fall in love with the main character.Others write them into a headline... and keep it hidden like a secret they were never meant to tell.