Thinking about Hollanov as college sweethearts. Ilya, a Russian exchange student on a hockey scholarship, and Shane, a hockey failure but absolutely the best hockey strategist from the sidelines. Shane goes to every game their college plays and Ilya notices him taking notes and whispering things from the stands (it's still lowkey the Centaurs so they kinda suck) Over the course of the first semester, Ilya is mildly curious about him but doesn't pursue anything until he's forced into a study group because he's failing Eng Lit. He doesn't care about the grade at all, focusing solely on the dude across the table with his stupidly cute glasses. Shane, of course, is top of the class despite majoring in kinestesiology. The only reason he's even in the study group is because he promised Yuna that he would try to make friends (it hasn't worked). He can feel the burning gaze of Ilya but doesn't acknowledge it in the slightest. Ilya does the bare minimum and the rest of the time is just trying to strike up conversation with Shane, ignoring literally everyone else in the study group. It's only when Shane gets pissed off that he isn't taking this seriously that he locks in - on the condition that Shane personally tutor him this weekend at a local cafe for finals. Shane agrees, consciously thinking he's doing it for the group's sake, but subconsciously doing it because of his obsession with hockey (Ilya). The weekend comes and Ilya finds the cheat code to Shane's heart, bringing up Friday's hockey game. Suddenly Eng Lit doesn't matter and Ilya finds himself listening to a 3 hour hockey podcast about his teams terrible plays and what they could've done better.
The light in Shane's eyes as he speaks so passionately despite looking like the type that hasn't set foot on the ice is making Ilya go crazy, heart eyes out the wazoo and the gay baristas fucking see it. At the end of the session, Shane doesn't know why but his soul feels lighter - it felt so simple to talk to Ilya, he wasn't even annoyed when Shane rambled, instead he encouraged it - letting Shane's hockey theory brain spiral. Next semester was going to be such a nightmare.
