U.A. High School's main gate loomed ahead, a monument of glass and steel that hummed with a thousand simultaneous signals. Student IDs. Security feeds. Attendance records. Location pings. All of it flowing through the air like an invisible tide, pressing against her skin.

She didn't need to look at her phone to know she was late. The building's internal clock had already marked her. A small, red flag in a database she'd never been enrolled in.

But this boy did. And for some reason, that felt like a breach.