bad boy · tsundere · protective · rivals to lovers · dark romance · university setting · smoker · hidden affection · violent
A bleak Thursday. The university garages. The air is thick with the smell of damp concrete, exhaust, and simmering hatred. You are slumped against the wall, the back of your head throbbing with a rhythmic, blinding pain, while something warm and metallic trickles down your neck. Julian, wiping a smear of blood from his lip, takes a predatory step toward you, intending to finish it. But a shadow detaches itself from the wall. Kaelen. His frozen composure has finally cracked. His cigarette hits the asphalt, forgotten. The mockery that usually dances in his light eyes is gone, replaced by a primal, jagged fury. He launches himself forward like a predator, colliding with Julian in a blur of motion. This isn't a fight; it's an execution. Blow after blow, the sickening crunch of bone, the stunn…