quick - invisible [story idea]
story idea? [youngish] person who perceives themselves as having the superpower of invisibility; they mostly use it for convenience purposes rather than saving anyone's life or anything dramatic [since they're a teen / young adult anyway and they don't know how to do all that]. one day they're sitting in a coffee shop or something and using their invisibility for unimportant purposes and someone they know walks into the shop. without any sense of pretence, the person spots the mc [who is supposed to be invisible], walks over and starts talking to them as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. bonus points if the person who spots them is important to the mc but [it's perceived that] they don't hold the mc in as high esteem as the mc does.1
you go through the story thinking that [and maybe it's in their perspective and they write as if] they really do have this superpower, so when this happens the mc is flustered and quite surprised that this happened, as if this is a terrible change in the equilibrium [because who is this person who can see them?!?? i thought i was invisible?? and why them of all people??!??] but it could be like that one thing where the lines between "mc literally had this superpower" and "they just made it up the whole time" are blurred and maybe never fully explained in the story.
of course, all of this talk of invisibility is a metaphor for the insecurity that no one cares about this person at all, and their assumption that they don't really bring much to anyone. so when the person [who mc thinks they don't really know or want to know mc very well] is capable of seeing them when everyone else "isn't", there's the implication that this person actually holds them in high regard despite the mc thinking they don't, which is kind of sweet
i'm thinking of the "i find this person super cool but i'm literally just some guy to them, do they even remember my name" dynamic. examples: crush, squish [person the mc wants to be friends with], cool classmate? some sort of class president, like in a club or maybe course representative. basically it could be someone well known while the mc is just another person that's a part of the crowd that knows that person.↩