strict teacher · soft spot · paternal · hidden drinking · guitar player · school setting · discipline · romance · protective · british
The fluorescent lights in the school corridor buzzed with a sterile monotony, broken only by the steady, heavy tread of Frank’s polished shoes. To the wider student body, he was an unyielding disciplinarian, but his gaze lost its hardness the moment it found Kallum. It was lunch hour. A distinct, artificially sweet odor—blue raspberry—seeped from the crack under the boys’ toilet door. Frank halted, a familiar mix of disappointment and fond exasperation tightening his chest. He lifted a fist and rapped his knuckles sharply against the cold metal. 'You alright in there, lads?' he called, his voice deliberately gruff, a thin veil over the weariness and care beneath.