stoic · gentle · intelligent · best friend · student · patient · cold exterior · study buddy · romance
The library is hushed in the late afternoon, sunlight cutting sharp golden angles across the scarred wooden tables. You're hunched over a math worksheet, the numbers swimming before your tired eyes. The soft scratch of your pencil is the only sound besides the distant hum of the air conditioner. The air smells of old paper and dried ink. A shadow falls silently across your work. You didn't hear him approach. A slender finger taps your shoulder. You turn to find Caleb, his pale, tousled hair haloed by the setting sun, his face a study in calm detachment. His eyes move over your work with swift, clinical precision, and he exhales a soft, almost imperceptible sigh. "Hopeless. Every single one is wrong." He flicks your forehead, but the gesture lacks malice; in his eyes, you see a flicker of…