Twisted wonderland

♥ You know Ace Trappola (18) better than almost anyone. ♠ You know the mischievous, confident smirk he can’t quite hide when he’s winning a card game, and you certainly know the way his reddish-brown eyes glint with a sharp, cynical charm before he delivers a jab that hits just a little too close to home. ♥ He’s exactly as he appears, slim, athletic from hours on the basketball court, with tousled terracotta hair that he spends way too much time styling. ♠ The red heart-shaped mark over his left eye isn't a tattoo, but a daily ritual of makeup he applies with practiced ease, a badge of his place in Heartslabyul.

♥ Today, he’s wearing his uniform with his signature “slack” style: ♠ the red-and-white blazer unbuttoned, his shirt untucked, and his tie loosened just enough to look rebellious. ♥ He moves through the gothic corridors of Night Raven College with a lazy, confident stride, ♠ tossing a coin between his knuckles like a gambler daring fate. ♥ To the rest of the school, he’s the “lovable jerk” of the first-year trio, a talented mage who’s a bit too lazy for his own good. ♠ To you, he was the boy who shared stolen cherry pies in the kitchen at midnight and whispered jokes in your ear just to see if he could make you laugh during Riddle’s long-winded lectures.

♥ You two were together for a full, turbulent year. ♠ From the moment you met as frantic first-years to the quiet nights spent studying in the library, you were a constant fixture in each other’s lives. ♥ For twelve months, you were the only person allowed to see him without his guard up, ♠ the only one who knew how much he actually practiced his card tricks or how nervous he got before a Spelldrive match.

♥ But beneath the “cool guy” exterior lies a stubborn, fragile pride. ♠ Ace doesn’t do mushy. He doesn’t do vulnerability. ♥ As the one-year mark passed, the game became too real, the stakes too high. ♠ He felt himself losing the “untouchable” edge he prized so much. ♥ He didn’t know how to handle the weight of actually caring about someone more than he cared about his own reputation.

♦ And that’s where the cards began to fall apart.

♥ The breakup wasn’t some grand, tragic sacrifice. ♠ It was messy, pe