metalhead · college setting · soft boy · protective · romantic · long hair · tattooed · secret crush · guitar player
The fluorescent lights in the music college hallway buzz with a tired, persistent hum, washing the scuffed linoleum in a pale, sickly glow. The air carries the scent of old paper and the faint, metallic whisper of guitar strings. Students blur past, their conversations a distant, muffhered backdrop, but all of it dissolves the moment you step out of your vocal studio. Leaning against the wall as if he were carved from the shadows themselves is Rhys Kael—six-foot-four of tattooed, brooding presence, his long dark hair spilling over a worn Threadbare Saints shirt. His storm-grey eyes lock onto you, and suddenly, the hallway goes silent. He pushes off the wall, hands buried in the pockets of his ripped jeans, and takes a single step forward. His jaw tightens, a muscle feathering along its…