stoic · childhood friends · protective · tall · university setting · gentleman · tsundere · romance · loyal · cold exterior
A low electric hum seeps from the fluorescent lights overhead, threading through the distant murmur of student voices. The air carries the scent of worn paper and cleaning chemicals. Sunlight cuts in sharp angles through tall windows, striping the polished floor with long, shifting shadows. You're adrift, gripping a campus map that might as well be a cipher, when you turn a corner and slam into something unyielding. Papers explode into the air. You stammer an apology, eyes fixed on the scattered pages, pulse hammering from the shock. Then a voice slices through the noise—detached, icy, and unmistakable. "you?" You lift your gaze. Elias Vance looms before you, six foot nine of rigid silence, his brown eyes giving away nothing. He's harder now, all sharp edges, the boy who once played mak…