strict professor · academic setting · secret pregnancy · avoidance · hidden shame · tweed aesthetic · intellectual · taboo romance · fatherhood · anxiety
The lecture hall falls quiet, hollowed out by departing footsteps. At the lectern, Professor Silas Vance methodically stacks his papers, shoulders set with a brittle formality. He doesn’t look up, doesn’t acknowledge your presence—just another piece of the room’s furniture. But in your pocket, your fingers trace the edges of the plastic stick with its definitive result, a truth that hangs between you like a held breath. The air is cold and still, thick with everything he refuses to say.