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Naomi hadn’t meant to check the student feed.
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She told herself she didn’t care. But curiosity betrayed her by morning.
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> *“Did you see Naomi and Levi’s duet? I got chills.”*
> *“I swear she was looking at him like a love song.”*
> *“Rivals my foot. They’re clearly obsessed with each other.”*
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She scrolled in silence, the glow from her phone making the words feel louder than they were. Some comments were flattering. Most weren’t cruel. But none of them felt *right.*
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It was one thing to perform with Levi in secret, where the music belonged to them alone. But now it belonged to everyone else—and everyone had an opinion.
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> *“Naomi looked at him like she forgot anyone else was watching.”*
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She turned off her phone and shoved it under her pillow.
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Because the worst part?
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That comment was true.
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---
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The halls buzzed with post-show chatter. Naomi kept her head down, earbuds in, hoping her focused pace would signal that she wasn’t interested in rehashing it.
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Still, whispers trailed after her like background noise she couldn’t mute.
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“Leomi” someone whispered.
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Someone else giggled. “Did you see the way she *breathed* during the bridge?”
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Naomi clenched her jaw and pressed forward, but the knots in her stomach tightened.
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Someone had scribbled **#Leomi** in dry-erase marker across the corner of the whiteboard in the practice room.
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It shouldn’t have bothered her. But it did.
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---
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Levi was already leaning against her locker when she arrived. Arms crossed, one brow raised, as if none of it fazed him.
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“You’re trending,” he said.
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“I noticed.” She didn’t look at him as she twisted the lock open.
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“You okay?”
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That surprised her. Not the question itself—but the *way* he asked it.
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Quiet. Careful. Real.
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“I don’t know,” she admitted after a moment. “I didn’t think people would react like this.”
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Levi nodded slowly. “Yeah. It’s weird—people seeing something you didn’t mean to show.”
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She turned her eyes to his.
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“They think we’re a couple.”
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He didn’t flinch. “They think we have chemistry.”
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A pause.
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She hesitated. “Do we?”
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His eyes locked with hers.
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“I don’t fake music,” he said quietly.
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And just like that, her breath caught.
It was too much. Too close.
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She shut her locker.
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“I’ll see you at rehearsal,” she mumbled, and brushed past him before he could say anything else.
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He didn’t follow.
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---
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Rehearsal that afternoon was a shell of what it used to be.
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Ms. Arinze sat behind the soundboard, brows pinched. Naomi sat at the piano. Levi with his guitar. Their timing was intact. Their notes in place.
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But their harmony?
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Fractured.
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Their music fit like puzzle pieces forced into place—technically correct, emotionally hollow. Like something had been locked behind invisible walls.
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“Everything alright with you two?” Ms. Arinze asked, pausing the track.
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“We’re fine,” Naomi said a little too fast.
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Levi didn’t speak. He strummed one string, low and unresolved. The note died in the silence.
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---
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That night, Naomi sat in the dark at her keyboard.
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No light. No sound. Just the weight of her own thoughts.
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There was music inside her. Beautiful, complicated, aching music.
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But her fingers wouldn’t move.
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And in the stillness, she realized something that scared her more than the rumors, the spotlight, or even Levi’s silence.
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She didn’t want to be just rivals anymore.
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But she didn’t know who she was if she wasn’t competing.
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And worst of all—
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If she let herself feel this, really feel it…
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She wouldn’t be able to hide behind rivalry again.
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---
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Is there a character you’re starting to relate to — or one you don’t trust yet? Drop your thoughts!
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