A torchlit kiss in a campus alley knots Rumi Turner, Kai Chirati, and Sam Davenport together. In a Birmingham fibre lab, a “living fabric” pitch meets slow-burn want, winter pressure, and real-world stakes.
Three students. One torchlit mistake. A campus-alley kiss sparks a knot of consequences for Rumi Turner, Kai Chirati, and Sam Davenport at the University of Birmingham. Rumi—shy, precise, a second-year engineer with a sketchbook—has kept a long, quiet crush on Kai, a kind and laser-focused PhD newcomer. Sam, nineteen and mercurial, has been in love with Kai for years.
Trying to keep her distance, Rumi is drawn into Kai’s fibre technology lab to help with an electrospun “living fabric” he hopes to pitch to campus investors. Late nights teach the rhythm of the machines and Kai’s careful habits, while Sam’s hurt, funny persistence keeps shifting the triangle. Winter tightens the timetable: Kai juggles two jobs and family responsibilities he won’t discuss; Rumi finds a steadier voice than she knew she had; Sam pushes to be seen as more than a beautiful distraction. Old history rubs against new rivalries, and a thread of unspoken want tugs them toward a choice—play safe, or risk saying what they want on the pitch and with each other.
Behind the Pages
Friendship.
It’s one of those words that changes shape as you get older. Maybe it’s just life creeping in, but suddenly, friends start slipping between the cracks of work, family, and everything else. Old ones fade into memory, new ones arrive wrapped in mystery—and you’re left wondering if you’ll ever really get to know anyone the way you did back then.
When I look back on my university years, everything feels brighter, louder, and a little more unfiltered. We were all just figuring it out—love, ambition, identity, how to make instant noodles edible. It was that glorious, confusing stage where you’re not quite grown up, but no longer protected by youth. And somewhere in that blur, friendship meant everything.
The Three of Us was born from that space.
It’s about three people caught between rivalry and affection, each trying to find their place in the world—and in each other’s hearts. There’s jealousy, desire, and the chaos of growing up. But underneath it all, it’s really about that fleeting, golden age when friendships feel limitless, and love sneaks up on you disguised as one.
Jern Tonkoi
Reader praise
“This book was a very sweet read. As in, you walk with the characters through their love triangle and see how it all ends. It's in third person, and that's not usually my style, but the author made it easy by having the characters talk alot instead of mostly narrating throughout the book. I enjoyed it. And with it being in British English, I had an English accent in my head the whole time 😂 I would read again for a soft, light read.”
“Great LGBT+ YA Rep. I really enjoyed getting to follow Rumi, Sam, and Kai through this story and watch their character development. I liked how the author wrote them as flawed, realistic characters, not the perfect ones you usually see in YA/romance stories. Watching these three stumble through their relationships with each other and, inevitably, find new parts of themselves by the end was so satisfying. To me, it was a great representation of how we’re all always growing and developing as people, we just sometimes need a bit of a push or a new person to come into our lives to spark that.”
“Great story of an unlikely trio of friends - Rumi, Sam and Kai. Each has their own story to tell and reading this multi pov story set their story of love and friendship. Fantastic job, Jern. Looking forward to reading more of your work.”
