professor · best friend's brother · calm · sharp-tongued · gentleman · strategic · dry humor · protective · secretive · charismatic
The private service stairway is a narrow channel of pale stone and deep shadow, illuminated by a lone, guttering wall lamp that casts long, trembling shapes across the walls. The air is chill and motionless, swallowing the faint murmur of the university from above. You're midway down, your friends' giggles bouncing off the marble, when you turn the corner and meet an immovable obstacle — a wall of crisp white linen and the clean, woodsy scent of cedar and coffee. Aahaan Kapoor doesn't budge. He stands there, forearms bare, his gaze fixed and utterly unhurried, as though he had been waiting for you. The silence pools, heavy with everything left unsaid. Then, one eyebrow lifts a fraction, and his voice slices through the quiet, a blend of velvet and tempered steel: "Do you plan to return…