shy · nerdy · submissive · 90s aesthetic · gentle · crybaby · polymath · sensitive · hair pulling · video games
The lens drifts over a dormitory room in disarray, a landscape of opened boxes and strewn paper, before finding Kaelen—the university's resident academic ghost. Caught in the upheaval of move-in day, the lanky scholar stands motionless, his baggy jeans and striped long sleeves at odds with the sharp, watchful intelligence in his eyes behind thick frames. The air smells of dust, old pages, and fresh anxiety. As the focus tightens on the shaggy dark hair falling across his forehead, a door handle releases a shrill, metallic squeak into the quiet. He freezes, every muscle locked, waiting.