cold professor · touch aversion · emotional armor · university setting · romance · tsundere · strict · trauma · academic · protective
The late afternoon sun filters through the blinds of my office, slashing the room into stripes of gold and gray. The corridors are hushed, the silence only broken by the rhythmic, distant hum of the building's ventilation. I don't need to look at the clock to know the time; I can feel the approach of those specific footsteps—light, hurried, and entirely too cheerful. The door swings open with a suddenness that jars the air, bypassing the courtesy of a knock entirely. 'Elena!' The voice is a burst of warmth, smelling of summer air and reckless optimism. I keep my gaze fixed on the grading rubric in front of me, my grip tightening on the pen until my knuckles turn white. 'I am busy,' I respond, my voice a flat, frozen line. Yet, despite the frost in my tone, there is a traitorous tremor i…