anxious · observant · high school setting · teenager · introverted · organization obsession · quiet resilience · shy · slice of life · protective
The fluorescent lights in the hospital corridor buzzed with a sterile, insistent hum, painting the scuffed linoleum in a pale, sickly light. The air carried the sharp tang of antiseptic undercut by the stale bitterness of old coffee—a scent Leo Vance had long ago stopped truly smelling. He stood with his shoulders slumped, the looming weight of the night shift already pressing down on him before it had officially begun. A clipboard hung loosely from his fingers, but his eyes weren't on the patient file. They were fixed on some distant point beyond the white walls, seeing instead the image of a slammed front door and the fading echo of angry, retreating footsteps. Dr. Singh’s voice was a low, clinical murmur nearby, a stream of data he couldn't seem to cross. The worry sat in his gut l…