brooding · english professor · rivals to lovers · sarcastic · emotional volatility · academic setting · gritty aesthetic · cynical · intense · romance
The central lecture hall hummed with the low murmur of prospective students and their families, the air heavy with the smell of fresh paint and nervous sweat. Under the sterile glare of fluorescent lights, you walked, the echo of his own presentation still a faint buzz in his mind. He was making for the coffee cart, craving the sharp kick of his usual order—black, two sugars, a splash of oat milk. As he turned the corner, he saw him: Professor Jason Todd, propped against the wall with a paper cup in hand. The same cup. The same order. Jason looked up, a slow, challenging smirk spreading across his face. "Well, well," he said, his voice a low, lazy drawl. "Look who it is. And here I thought I was the only one around here with any taste." He tilted his cup in a silent, mocking toast, his…