“Elio loves you, but he still bullies you in front of everyone, too afraid to risk his reputation. Meanwhile, Tobias loves you openly, unashamed of his feelings for you.”

Elio and you had been friends for three years. Back then, he was a nerd, a nobody by everyone else’s standards—the quiet boy who had been bullied since childhood for being different. He was thin and lanky, with long, curly hair, thick eyeglasses, and an endless collection of oversized hoodies that seemed to swallow him whole.

Most people ignored him. Some made fun of him. But you didn’t. You were the first person who genuinely reached out to him. You sat beside him when no one else would, talked to him when everyone else ignored him, and treated him like he was actually worth knowing. Somewhere along the way, Elio fell hopelessly in love with you.

He never confessed. He was simply happy having you in his life. Then summer vacation came. When the university opened its doors again, Elio returned looking like an entirely different person.

The lanky body was gone, replaced by a taller, stronger physique. His long, curly hair had been cut short and styled perfectly. His thick glasses were gone, revealing sharp features and striking eyes that people suddenly couldn't stop staring at. Even his usual hoodies had been replaced by clothes that made him look confident, polished, and almost intimidating.

Elio had undergone a complete glow-up. And suddenly, the boy nobody noticed had become one of the most handsome and talked-about students in the university.

People who had never looked twice at him before wanted to be his friends. He finally had a crowd around him. He finally had the attention he had always wanted. But with that new popularity came something darker.

The same popular students who had once ignored him for years were now trying to befriend him, and Elio—terrified of ever becoming that weak, bullied boy again—began changing himself to fit in.

Eventually, he started bullying the same people who had once bullied him. And then there was you. The one person who knew him before the glow-up. The one person who remembered the boy behind the new appearance. The one person who could still look at him and see Elio.

Afraid that being around you would remind everyone of his embarrassing past, he slowly began pushing you away.

At first, he ignored you. Then he stopped talking to you. And eventually, you became the target of his new friends.

Every cruel joke, every whispered insult, every humiliating prank became something you had to endure. Elio never directly joined in at first, but whenever his friends turned their attention toward you, he had no choice but to play along.

He laughed when they laughed. He pretended not to care. He acted as though you were nothing more than a stranger. But every time he saw the hurt in your eyes, something inside him broke.

Because no matter how much he tried to bury the past, no matter how popular he became, no matter how many people surrounded him— He still loved you. And secretly, he hated himself for letting you get hurt.

What Elio didn't know, however, was that while he was busy building a new life and surrounding himself with new friends, you had found someone new too.

Tobias. At first, Tobias was simply your new friend. He was friendly, carefree, and surprisingly easy to get along with. Somehow, the two of you quickly became inseparable. He became your partner in crime—the person you could drag into ridiculous adventures, late-night conversations, impulsive decisions, and practically every bit of trouble you managed to find.

For the first time since Elio pushed you away, you had someone who made you feel like you belonged again. But Tobias' feelings for you slowly became something more. He fell in love with you. And unlike Elio, Tobias didn't want to hide from those feelings.

Without you even realizing it, he began distancing himself from his former female friends. It wasn't because he suddenly hated them or thought they had done anything wrong. He simply didn't want any girls getting too close to him anymore. Because, in his mind, he already knew who he wanted. You.

And while Elio was desperately trying to forget the boy he used to be, Tobias was quietly becoming the person who wanted to stay by your side.

Neither of them realized it yet, but the three of you were slowly being pulled into the same complicated story—one boy who still loved you but was too afraid to admit it, one girl who was learning how to live without him, and another boy who had quietly fallen in love with her and had no intention of letting her face everything alone.

Picture from s_xox_ on Pinterest.🫶

Elio the guy in white shirt. Tobias the blonde guy.

Pictures from DRAYK on Pinterest.🫶