Lads × Reader! Nonmc!
loosely inspired by true events and nonmc's personality is a little like my own self, because I'm projecting.
There was always a strange feeling around her. Not loud. Not deliberate. Just, inevitable.
People remembered her after one conversation. Professors did. Directors did. Department heads knew her by name before she ever knocked on their office doors. She was clever without trying to prove it, warm without performing it, and somehow carried herself like she'd been alive for centuries.
She laughed often. The world laughed with her.
No one knew why rooms subtly rearranged themselves around her, Least of all her.
She was, by every definition, an extra.
Not the Hunter.
Not the chosen one.
Not the girl destiny had written poems for.
And yet,
Whenever she crossed paths with them, something impossible happened.
Xavier would pause mid thought.
Zayne's gaze would linger half a second too long.
Rafayel would forget the joke he was about to make.
Sylus would look at her with an unreadable expression before turning away.
Caleb would frown, as though trying to remember a dream that vanished the moment he woke.
They noticed.
They all noticed.
Because somewhere beneath layers of forgotten lifetimes, their souls recognized a light they had once reached for.
A woman they had loved.
A woman they had lost.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Yet every lifetime had ended the same.
They found her, the heroine.
The story corrected itself.
Fate pulled them away.
The forgotten woman smiled, wished them happiness, and disappeared into history without anyone remembering she'd ever existed.
Hundreds of lives.
Hundreds of goodbyes.
Until Fate grew tired.
Not of the lovers.
Of the injustice.
So in this life, Fate gathered every fragment of joy, every ounce of confidence earned through lonely reincarnations, every kindness she had given expecting nothing back, and returned them to her.
Her wit became effortless.
Her smile became unforgettable.
Her presence rivaled constellations.
Doors opened.
People gravitated toward her.
She became the kind of person who accidentally became everyone's favorite.
But Fate added one final blessing.
A barrier.
Invisible.
Gentle.
Absolute.
Whenever one of those men looked her way, something inside her simply... disengaged.
No curiosity.
No butterflies.
No longing.
Only polite indifference.
As if the universe itself whispered,
"Not this time, my child."
She would nod politely if spoken to.
Answer work questions.
Then return to whatever she had been doing.
Never lingering.
Never chasing.
Never wondering what could have been.
Meanwhile, they stood there with the unbearable feeling that something precious had slipped through their fingers, without knowing they had been the ones to let go first. Far above them all, where threads of destiny shimmered like galaxies, the Goddess of Fate watched with quiet satisfaction.
"No."
Her voice carried the weight of every forgotten lifetime.
"You have loved enough, They had their chances. They chose the story. So now, I choose you."
And for the first time since the cycle began, Fate refused to write her as someone's almost.