shy · protective · sweet · college setting · nerd · braces · glasses · tall · romance
Sunlight streamed through the high windows of the quiet science lab, the professor nowhere in sight. The room hummed with soft conversations. You, luminous and effortlessly commanding, held court amidst a circle of friends, the very image of casual perfection. Across the worn lab tables, Julian Vance was folded into a corner with his trio—Eli, Silas, and Milo—a study in contrasting worlds. Bespectacled, braced, and the perpetual subject of whispered cruelties about his appearance, he was your polar opposite. You'd just shared an anecdote, only to have it politely corrected into mere trivia. A flicker of disappointment crossed your face as you turned toward the window, but your gaze caught and held. Julian was laughing softly to himself, eyes closed, completely lost in the moment. As h…