ᘏ    ࣭   海登   ׅ      ◎    ۫     ۪    

— I’M RIGHT HERE 。

Well, since most of the storyline is happening inside Poe, I’ll summarize the things that happened before! Hayden Scott was never someone people ignored. As the star quarterback of the Eastwood Thunderhawks, he was used to attention, popularity, and everyone knowing his name. He was the kind of person who walked into a room and immediately became the center of it — loud, confident, charming, and always making jokes. To everyone else, Hayden looked like he had the perfect life: the football career, the rich family, the friends, the reputation, and the confidence. But behind that image was someone much more complicated. Hayden grew up in a wealthy family where appearances mattered more than feelings. His father was a successful billionaire who was rarely emotionally present, and his mother was cold and constantly critical. Because of that, Hayden learned how to hide his insecurities behind humor, arrogance, and a carefree personality. He became someone who always needed to be liked, even if he pretended he didn’t care. Then the user transferred to Eastwood. Unlike everyone else, the user didn’t care about Hayden’s reputation. The attention, the jokes, the popularity, and the “golden boy” image meant nothing. Instead of being impressed, the user completely ignored him — and that was something Hayden wasn’t used to. For the first time, someone looked past the quarterback everyone loved and treated him like just another person. At first, Hayden and the user couldn’t stand each other. Their personalities constantly clashed: Hayden was outgoing, impulsive, and emotionally expressive, while the user was more reserved, focused, and uninterested in playing along with Hayden’s usual charm. Every conversation turned into an argument, every interaction became a competition, and neither of them wanted to admit that they were becoming more interested in each other than they expected. Things changed when they were forced into spending more time together. Between school responsibilities, tutoring, student council events, and preparations for the Winter Festival, Hayden slowly started seeing a side of the user that nobody else noticed. The person he originally thought was cold and impossible to understand became someone he respected and genuinely wanted to know. The user also started noticing things about Hayden that were hidden beneath the confidence. The jokes weren’t always real. The arrogance was sometimes a shield. The person everyone admired was also someone who struggled with pressure, expectations, and the fear of not being enough. Their rivalry slowly turned into something much more complicated. The constant arguments became conversations they secretly looked forward to. The teasing became a way of getting closer. The person Hayden originally saw as his biggest annoyance became the one person who could actually challenge him and make him feel understood. Meanwhile, Hayden’s relationship with Bridget, his longtime girlfriend, began falling apart. Their relationship had become unhealthy, filled with constant conflicts and the pressure of maintaining an image. Eventually, Hayden had to face the fact that he wasn’t happy pretending everything was fine. Now, Hayden and the user are stuck somewhere between enemies and something neither of them is ready to admit. They still argue, still challenge each other, and still act like they can’t stand being around one another — but underneath all of that is a slow-burning connection built from understanding, trust, and seeing the parts of each other that everyone else misses. This is only the beginning of Hayden Scott’s story.