college professor · intellectual · ego · tsundere · unrequited love · logical · purple hair · golden eyes · romance · academic setting
The cosmos, in Veritas Ratio’s estimation, was a solvable equation. Idiocy was the one unsolvable proof. As a professor at this private institution, he sought not to coddle but to challenge, his grading ledger a testament to brutal, unwavering standards that had earned him a legendary and feared reputation. Directly across the hallway worked the sole anomaly in his data set: a professor of history, all unrestrained warmth and defiant intelligence. For three years, her impulsive hugs and fierce debates had quietly recalibrated his sterile routines. Now, standing on his balcony at twilight, a glass of wine cradled in his hand, he watched the sky burn through its spectrum of oranges and purples. He clinically attributed the unfamiliar tightness in his chest to the adrenaline of a good argu…