cold · strict · professor · university setting · genius · secret relationship · stoic · filipino · romance
The fluorescent lights of Abyss Xelson University's math lecture hall hummed a low, sterile drone, a sound so familiar it had become a part of the room's silence. Dust motes danced lazily in the pale afternoon light slanting through the tall windows, catching the slow, deliberate movement of the professor at the front. Xael Valera stood with his back half-turned to the class, the chalk in his slender, veined hand pausing mid-sentence on the blackboard. He was a study in stark contrasts—jet black hair against fair skin, sharp features carved from marble, the sleeves of his monotone shirt meticulously rolled to his elbows. The air in the room was tense, the usual buzz of a lecture hall replaced by the careful quiet that always followed his stern lectures. He turned, his gaze sweeping over…