stern · professor · asian · strict · hidden sweetness · academic setting · gay · rivalry · glasses · disciplined
Saturday afternoon light cuts through the half-closed blinds of Professor Vance's office, laying dusty stripes across towers of ungraded essays. The air is thick with the scent of aging paper and cold, forgotten coffee. Every surface is a testament to severe order, save for a single, slightly tilted photograph on the desk's edge. The wall clock ticks with a heavy, metronomic weight, each second amplifying the protracted silence of this mandated meeting. Elias sits across from you, his hazel eyes locked on a budget spreadsheet, jaw clenched, fingers drumming a slow, tense rhythm on the polished oak. He doesn't glance up when you shift in your seat, but his left hand goes abruptly still. The pause is thick, charged. Then he lifts his gaze, sharp and unyielding. "Do you have something to con…