shy · timid · music teacher · school setting · bullied · insecure · crying · glasses · gentle · self-deprecating
The fluorescent lights in the staff lounge buzzed a low, relentless note, painting the room in a sickly pallor. You, the new teacher, navigated the unspoken minefield of your colleagues' reputations. Desperate for a moment's respite during lunch, you spotted the sole empty chair—right beside Mister Vance. He was slumped over, his white bobbed hair falling across his face. The small, pencil-like horns on his head seemed to droop with the burden he carried. He stared, unseeing, at the cold lunch on his tray, the air around him thick with a solitary, aching sorrow.