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The fluorescent lights of the library hummed with a low, agonizing buzzing sound, a persistent drone that had long since melted into the background noise of Sakuya’s life. He barely heard it over the steady, rhythmically frantic clicks of his mechanical keyboard, the sound muffled under the quiet sanctuary of the library’s back corner.
To the rest of the senior class at Sei High, Sakuya was a non-entity. A ghost in an oversized navy hoodie who claimed the very last desk in every classroom, kept his head buried in his sketchbook or phone, and vanished into thin air the exact second the final bell chimed. When he had walked through the gates as a wide-eyed freshman, he had made a silent pact with himself: stay invisible, keep his head down, focus on his grades, and survive until graduation. Simple. Predictable. Safe.
To that exact same student body, however, Sakuya’s alternate identity was easily the most powerful force on campus.
He was the sole, undisputed admin of @SeiConfesses. It was the anonymous Twitter account that held the entire school’s delicate, chaotic, and messy romantic lives squarely in the palm of its hand.
It had started out of sheer boredom during the first few weeks of his first year. Sakuya had set up the handle with an empty profile picture and one golden rule: if you wanted to submit a confession, you had to DM the page directly. Sakuya would then fire back with the standardized, cold template:
To:
Confession:
From:
Once filled out and returned, Sakuya tweeted it out for the whole school word by word to dissect, retweet, and gawk at during homeroom. Beyond that, the page operated on a strict honour code: either post anonymously or use your actual name. It was built as a sacred, harmless outlet where students could vent their unrequited feelings without causing real drama. Sakuya guarded his anonymity fiercely, taking every secret to his grave. He had figured he’d get maybe five DMs a week from desperate underclassmen.
Instead, the account exploded by the end of the week he made the account. Now, as a senior, his inbox was an endless, churning river of teenage yearning, petty friend-group drama, and heartbreakingly earnest confessions.
Sakuya reached down, taking a slow sip of his lukewarm, watered-down boba tea. He clicked his mouse to refresh his primary inbox.
New Message from @ryo_hi_rose
Sakuya violently sucked in a breath, nearly choking on a tapioca pearl.
He stared at the handle, his pulse suddenly spiking against his ribs like a trapped bird. @ryo_hi_rose.
Ryo. The undisputed poster boy of Sei High. Captain of the varsity basketball team, top five in their academic ranking, and the owner of a laugh so effortless and warm it felt like a direct personal insult to anyone having a bad day. He was also Sakuya’s ultimate, hopelessly unattainable, embarrassing crush.
They existed in completely different solar systems. Ryo’s inner orbit consisted of high-profile, effortlessly charismatic guys like the student council president, Jaehee, and the volleyball captain, Riku. Sakuya’s entire inner circle consisted solely of Yushi, an awkward, perpetually sleepy gamer who had been assigned as Sakuya’s lab partner in ninth grade and simply never left. And sure, Yushi happened to be childhood friends with Riku, but Sakuya actively forced his brain to ignore that terrifying piece of trivia.
Sakuya stared at the glowing notification, his stomach doing an uncomfortable, dizzying flip-flop.
@ryo_hi_rose: hey admin! can i submit a confession?
Sakuya forced his trembling fingers to stop hovering over the keys. He hastily highlighted his default text, hit paste, and sent it back with robotic detachment.
@SeiConfesses: Hi. Please fill out the following:
To:
Confession:
From:
A long, agonizing minute stretched on. Sakuya held his breath, his eyes glued to the grey three-dot typing indicator as it flickered on the screen. Finally, the reply popped up.
@ryo_hi_rose: To: s
Confession: i know you think nobody notices you in the halls, but i do. hope you have a good week.
From: anon
Sakuya’s stomach plummeted into a cold, hollow void.
To: s.
The single letter glared back at him from the bright LED monitor, a sudden, tight lump forming in his throat. Sakuya slowly turned his head toward the tall library windows overlooking the sun-drenched outdoor courts. Out on the asphalt, bathed in the golden light of the late afternoon, Ryo was casually tossing a basketball back and forth with Jaehee. Ryo’s head was thrown back, throwing out a bright, unobstructed laugh that caught the sunlight.
Ryo liked someone. Someone whose name started with S.
And because Sakuya was the secret curator of the page, he was the single soul in the entire building who knew that the golden boy’s heart was officially claimed.
It wasn't Sakuya, obviously. The thought was so absurd it was almost funny. Ryo was an untouchable, radiant force that everyone gravitated toward, and Sakuya was... well, Sakuya. A face lost in the crowd. Besides, the senior class was crawling with 'S' names—Shotaro, Sana, Stella, Soojin. It could be anyone. Anyone except the invisible nerd hiding behind a stack of university prep books.
Swallowing down the bitter sting in his throat, Sakuya dutifully pasted the text into his template, formatted the image, and posted it to the feed.
Three weeks passed, and the torturous routine settled into a cruel, predictable science. Without fail, every Tuesday and Thursday, right before his afternoon basketball practice, Ryo would message the page with a new note for 'S'.
—
It was currently a rainy Tuesday evening, and Sakuya was sitting in the middle of his bed, hugging his knees tightly against his chest. He had his oversized hood pulled so low over his face that only the tip of his nose was visible, looking like a discarded pile of laundry with a heartbeat.
Across the bedroom, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a dual-monitor setup surrounded by empty potato chip bags, Yushi paused his game. He turned around in his gaming chair, squinting through his bangs at his miserable best friend.
"You look like a tragic main character in a low-budget indie movie," Yushi noted flatly, adjusting his headset. "Did the confession account get banned?"
"No," Sakuya muffled directly into his kneecaps, his voice thick with pathetic misery. "Ryo keeps submitting confessions."
Yushi completely took his headset off and dropped his controller onto the rug. "The guy you’ve been pining over since tenth grade?"
"Yeah," Sakuya groaned, pulling his heavy hoodie sleeves entirely over his hands until they flopped uselessly. "He’s in love with someone whose name starts with S. He keeps sending them these stupidly cute, thoughtful little notes through my page. I just have to be the one who publishes them for the entire school to swoon over. I am literally digging my own grave"
Yushi rubbed the back of his neck, looking deeply uncomfortable. He was notoriously terrible at verbal affection, far preferring to show his love by carrying Sakuya through a League of Legends match. "Uh... well... maybe 'S' stands for... Sakuya?"
Sakuya lifted his head, peering out from the darkness of his hood to deliver a look of profound, soul-crushing deadpan. "Yushi. Please be serious."
"A low chance is never zero," Yushi admitted bluntly, turning back to drag his mouse. "But hey! At least... uh... you get to talk to him in DMs?"
"I send him a copy-pasted auto-reply, Yushi! I’m just a chatbot to him!"
Meanwhile, across town in a spacious, sunlit bedroom, Ryo was sprawled face-down across his unmade bed, letting out a long, muffled groan directly into a decorative pillow.
Leaning against the frame of the bedroom desk was his older brother, Sion, home on break from his first year of college. Sion calmly took a sip of his iced americano, watching his younger brother suffer with an expression of pure, unadulterated amusement.
"You are being so hopelessly dramatic," Sion said flatly. "Just walk up to the guy after school and hand him a carton of strawberry milk or something. Literally everyone at your school likes you."
"I can't!" Ryo muffled frantically into the mattress. He violently flipped over, staring up at his ceiling fan as if it held the answers to the universe. "You don't get it, Sion. He's so quiet. He wears these massive hoodies that swallow his hands, and he sits in the very back row biting the end of his pen when he's reading, and if I just barge into his personal space, I'm going to scare him off forever!"
Before Sion could offer another dry insult, Ryo’s phone buzzed loudly on his nightstand with a Discord incoming call. It was a joint voice lobby from Riku and Jaehee. Ryo lunged across the mattress and hit the speaker button.
"Ryo! My baby!" Riku’s energetic voice boomed through the tiny speaker, punctuated by the furious, rapid clicking of his mechanical keyboard. "Are you hopping on Valorant tonight or are you still laying in bed staring at the Twitter confession page?"
A heavy, elegant sigh echoed from Jaehee’s side of the mic. "Ryo, you literally have half the senior class trying to get your phone number, and you're out here sending cryptic Twitter notes to a guy who probably thinks you don't even know his name."
"He knows I exist!" Ryo protested indignantly, sitting bolt upright. "We made direct eye contact in the hallway near the science wing three weeks ago!"
"Yeah, because you were physically standing directly in front of his locker," Riku chimed in, laughing so hard his mic clipped. "Anyway, I was playing some matches with Yushi earlier and he mentioned that Sakuya was sick or sad or something today."
Ryo froze. The defensive posture instantly melted away, replaced by pure, unadulterated panic. He snatched the phone off the nightstand, holding it inches from his face. "Wait, Sakuya’s sick?! What happened? Did Yushi say what was wrong? Did he eat his lunch today? Riku, go text Yushi right now!"
"Dude, chill!" Riku groaned loudly. "I am not going to act as a middleman to ask Yushi something YOU can literally ask the guy yourself. You are down so painfully bad it's embarrassing for all of us."
"I just care about him!" Ryo whined, collapsing backward onto his pillows with a heavy thud. Sion simply shook his head, taking another slow sip of his drink in complete, silent judgment.
—
As the calendar pages turned, Ryo’s messages remained a staple of Sakuya’s week.
As always, Sakuya tried his absolute best to maintain a wall of cold, professional distance. He sent the default template, posted the graphics, and kept his responses as brief as humanly possible. But Ryo was painfully, stubbornly friendly. He didn't just submit the form; he treated the DM line like a personal text conversation.
@ryo_hi_rose: hey admin! hope ur having a good week. here's the form:
@ryo_hi_rose: To: s
Confession: saw u feeding the stray cat behind the gym today. u looked cute. don't freeze out there, wear a scarf!
From: anon
Sitting in his dark bedroom, Sakuya’s heart battered viciously against his ribs. He felt a sickening, agonizing cocktail of tender affection and burning jealousy. Whoever 'S' was, they were so unfathomably lucky. To have someone like Ryo watching them so gently, noticing the tiny details no one else cared to see... it hurt.
@SeiConfesses: Posted. Thanks.
@ryo_hi_rose: thanks admin! u stay up pretty late formatting these huh? don't push urself too hard! drink some warm water!
Sakuya stared at the glowing text bubbles. He could feel a hot, embarrassing flush crawling up his neck, his fingers hovering over the glass as he typed back with stiff, awkward restraint.
@SeiConfesses: I'm fine. Thanks.
@ryo_hi_rose: haha u sound super blunt, admin. i wont waste any of ur time anymore, gn!
Sakuya dropped his phone face-down onto his chest, staring blankly up at his ceiling. He let out a long, shaky breath, scoffing at his own pathetic, delusional heart. He’s just a nice guy. He's polite to literally everyone. Don't read into it. But it was hard. God, it was so hard for an invisible loser to get that kind of warm, focused attention from his crush and not drown in it.
—
As the weeks bled into late January, Ryo’s submissions became noticeably more frequent. And bolder.
To: s
Confession: i bought an extra strawberry milk today hoping i’d bump into you, but i chickened out and gave it to my friend instead. next time i won't chicken out.
From: anon
And then, during the final week of the month, the routine shifted entirely.
@ryo_hi_rose: To: s
Confession: good luck on the physics midterm today. u’re going to do great.
From: ryo (class 3-1)
When Sakuya read the From line, his heart stopped dead in his chest.
Ryo had dropped the "anon." He was putting his actual name out there on the public feed.
When Sakuya posted the confession, the tweet blew up instantly. It hit hundreds of likes and retweets within minutes, sending the entire student body into a chaotic frenzy. Everyone was desperately trying to decipher who 'S' could possibly be. People with names starting with S were suddenly walking down the hallways with their chins held high, acting coy in the cafeteria, desperately wishing the golden boy was talking about them.
Sakuya sat at his back-corner desk during morning homeroom, watching from behind his bangs as Ryo laughed with Riku and Jaehee across the room. Sakuya slowly buried his face in his arms on the cold wooden desk. It was pure torture. Being the secret vessel for his crush’s romantic notes to someone else was a special, custom-made hell.
—
Then came February 14th. Valentine’s Day.
For the secret admin of @SeiConfesses, the week surrounding Valentine’s Day was easily the single worst time of the year.
Leading up to the date, Sakuya’s inbox was an absolute war zone. Hundreds upon hundreds of submissions flooded in every hour. His phone vibrated so incessantly in his hoodie pocket during classes that he had to turn it on Do Not Disturb just to hear his teachers speak. He couldn't even pay attention to Yushi’s game rambling during lunch because he was furiously approving, queueing, and tweeting under the table.
By the time the final bell rang on the 14th, Sakuya felt like a hollow shell. He skipped his usual library session, marched straight home, dragged his laptop onto his bed, and spent hours relentlessly hacking away at the mountain of unread messages.
To: Minjae…
To: chaewon from class 3-2…
To: ty...
Valentine’s Day had technically ended hours ago. His eyes burned with red-hot fatigue, the digital clock on his wall ticking silently past 2:21 AM. Sakuya’s brain was absolute, unadulterated mush, operating purely on mindless muscle memory. Copy, paste, format, tweet. Copy, paste, format, tweet.
It was almost 3:00 AM when he finally reached the very last unread message at the bottom of the queue.
Sent at 11:15 AM by @ryo_hi_rose.
Sakuya let out a soft, exhausted sigh, clicking the thread to fire off the usual automated response. He blinked his heavy eyelids, scanning the text.
@ryo_hi_rose: To: sakuya (class 3-4)
Confession: it's valentine's day so this feels like the most obvious thing to do. sakuya from class 3-4, i like you. i've liked you since our 2nd year. the oversized hoodies, the way you stack books in the library, the way you bite your pen, it's always been you. can i buy you that strawberry milk tomorrow? for real this time?
From: ryo
Directly beneath it was a second message, sent just past midnight.
@ryo_hi_rose:hi admin, i know you're probably exhausted from managing this account all day, so i hope that you know how much of a hero you are on days like these lol.
@ryo_hi_rose: don’t stay up too late!
Sakuya completely froze.
The air vanished from his lungs as his eyes locked onto the first sentence. The ticking of the wall clock seemed to mute. The dark, quiet bedroom tilted violently on its axis.
To: sakuya.
s.
Sakuya.
His brain, entirely fried from fifteen straight hours of reading high school confessions and operating on two hours of sleep, was basically a total system failure at this point. The rigid, carefully built boundary between his quiet personal life and his secret admin identity shattered into a million pieces.
Without a single rational thought entering his mind, Sakuya’s fingers flew wildly across the keyboard in a state of pure, unadulterated shock.
@SeiConfesses: u like me ??
He slammed the enter key before his brain could even process the letters.
The exact millisecond the message bubbled up on the screen, the reality of what he had done hit him like a physical blow.
Sakuya gasped violently, slapping both hands over his mouth, his eyes widening in pure, unholy terror. He had sent it. From the official, public-facing account. He had just exposed his own identity to his crush.
Frantic, he grabbed his mouse, dragging the cursor over the text to hit delete, but before his finger could click, the grey typing indicator on Ryo’s end popped up instantly.
@ryo_hi_rose: sakuya????
Sakuya violently slammed his laptop screen shut and threw himself backward onto his pillows, letting out a long, muffled scream directly into his mattress. He pulled his heavy duvet entirely over his head, kicking his legs against the mattress in a sheer, agonizing fit of mortification.
On the nightstand, his phone began to vibrate with terrifying intensity.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
Sakuya slowly peeked out from beneath the edge of his blanket like a terrified turtle. With a wildly trembling hand, he reached out and lifted the phone to his face.
@ryo_hi_rose: YOU ARE THE ADMIN??????
@ryo_hi_rose: WAIT
@ryo_hi_rose: YOU HAVE BEEN READING ALL MY CONFESSIONS THIS WHOLE TIME????
@ryo_hi_rose: OH MY GOD
@ryo_hi_rose: SAKUYA PLEASE ANSWER ME HERE
Sakuya swallowed hard, the lump in his throat feeling enormous. His hands were shaking so hard he could barely tap the glass.
@SeiConfesses: ignore that pls.
@SeiConfesses: i understand if you dont want me to post the confession. lmk.
@ryo_hi_rose: SAKUYA IS IT ACTUALLY YOU?
@ryo_hi_rose: wait let me answer ur question first
@ryo_hi_rose: yes! i like u! i’ve been sending notes to YOU! i used s because i was scared
@ryo_hi_rose: i thought that u didnt like people like me
Sakuya stared blankly at the glowing screen. The heavy, suffocating knot of sadness that had been sitting in his chest for three long months suddenly unraveled, replaced by an overwhelming, dizzying rush of warmth.
@SeiConfesses: i thought s was someone else…
@SeiConfesses: i was sad every time u sent one...
Across town, Ryo nearly dropped his phone directly onto his nose. He sat up in bed so violently he pulled a muscle in his lower back, completely ignoring the pain.
@ryo_hi_rose: YOU WERE SAD???
@ryo_hi_rose: WHY WOULD YOU BE SAD??
@ryo_hi_rose: DO U LIKE ME???
Sakuya buried his burning, red face into his pillow, typing blindly with his thumb.
@SeiConfesses: maybe.
@ryo_hi_rose: i am coming to your house right now
@SeiConfesses: WHAT NO IT IS PAST 3 AM DO NOT COME TO MY HOUSE
@ryo_hi_rose: ok fine
@ryo_hi_rose: but tomorrow after school
@ryo_hi_rose: the vending machine behind the library. u can't run away from me now admin.
Sakuya bit his lower lip, a tiny, helpless, unstoppable smile spreading across his face in the pitch-black bedroom.
@SeiConfesses: ill try not to.
The next afternoon, the back hallway behind the library was dead silent. The golden hour sun poured through the high windows, painting the rows of wooden shelves and concrete floors in shades of warm honey and soft amber.
Sakuya stood rooted in front of the drink vending machine, pulling his heavy hoodie sleeves entirely over his hands. His heart was hammering so wildly against his ribs that he felt almost lightheaded.
Footsteps suddenly echoed down the corridor. Fast, eager, rhythmic steps.
Sakuya turned his head.
Ryo was jogging toward him. He looked slightly winded, his dark school blazer unbuttoned, his tie pulled loose at the collar, and his dark hair charmingly windblown. In his hands, he held two chilled, condensation-covered cartons of strawberry milk.
When Ryo rounded the corner and saw Sakuya standing there, he came to a sudden halt a few feet away. He took a deep, steadying breath, a soft, breathless laugh escaping his lips.
"Hi," Ryo said softly, his voice trembling just a bit.
"Hi," Sakuya squeaked back, his voice dropping an octave in sheer embarrassment.
Ryo closed the remaining distance between them, stopping right in his personal space. Up close, Ryo’s dark brown eyes were incredibly warm, filled with a gentle, glowing light that made Sakuya’s knees feel entirely useless. Ryo extended his right hand, offering one of the small pink cartons.
"I finally brought it," Ryo murmured, a shy, devastating dimple appearing on his left cheek. "No chickening out this time."
Sakuya slowly reached out and took the carton. As he pulled it back, his fingertips lightly brushed across Ryo’s palm, and a tiny, undeniable spark of electricity zipped straight up his arm. "Thank you."
Ryo leaned his shoulder against the side of the vending machine, his eyes never leaving Sakuya as the smaller boy poked the tiny plastic straw through the foil seal. "You know, I spent half the night coming to terms with the fact that I spent three whole months DMing my crush about my crush, without having any idea he was the one replying to me."
Sakuya flushed a deep, violent crimson, awkwardly taking a tiny sip of the sweet milk to avoid speaking.
Ryo let out a soft, affectionate laugh at how adorable Sakuya looked. He shifted his weight, leaning a little closer. “So, am I ever getting a real reply to that confession, or...”
"I was really stressed out, okay?" Sakuya admitted softly, his voice barely above a whisper as he peeked up at Ryo through his dark bangs. "I genuinely thought you were in love with some popular girl like Soojin. I felt like such a loser reading those every week."
Ryo’s teasing expression melted instantly. His eyes softened with immense tenderness. He took one final step forward, completely erasing the physical gap between them until he was standing solidly in Sakuya’s space. Slowly, giving Sakuya every chance to pull away, Ryo reached up and gently hooked his fingers into the edge of Sakuya’s navy hood, sliding it back off his head to reveal his dark hair and his bright, flushed face.
"You're not a loser, Sakuya," Ryo said, his tone entirely sincere, dropping every single trace of humor. "You're literally the only person in this entire school I wanted to talk to. I was just too much of a coward to say it to your face."
Sakuya’s heart fluttered completely wild and free in his chest. He looked up into the golden boy’s face, watching as Ryo looked down at him as if he were the only thing in the entire building that held any weight.
"Well," Sakuya murmured, a small, subtle, playful smile gracing his lips. "You don't have to be a coward anymore."
Ryo smiled, a real, breathtaking, unobstructed smile meant entirely for Sakuya. He reached down, slipping his long fingers between Sakuya’s, lacing them tightly together.
"Good," Ryo whispered, his thumb lightly brushing the back of Sakuya’s hand. "Because I want to be the only one who gets to know who the Sei High confession admin really is."
Sakuya scratched the back of his head, suddenly remembering a crucial detail. "Yushi has known since freshman year, by the way."
Ryo’s sweet expression instantly crumbled into a deadpan glare. “Way to completely ruin the romantic mood, Sakuya.”
A playful, dramatic pout formed on Ryo’s face, but it didn't fool a single soul. As he tightened his grip on Sakuya's hand, Ryo knew he was easily the happiest guy alive to finally, officially, be standing right beside his boyfriend.