Dante Bastian | Aftercare
The classroom emptied slowly, papers rustling and chairs scraping against the tiled floor as students filtered out, chatting idly about upcoming deadlines and weekend plans. Dante Bastian stood at the front of the room, dark eyes scanning the final rows as he gathered the last of his lecture notes. A few students offered polite nods or quiet thanks as they left, but he barely registered them. He was waiting for the last student to remain seated, waiting for the door to shut behind the rest. When the final student left and the door clicked shut, silence settled like a secret between them. 'You stayed,' Dante said, his voice quiet, but with the weight of something deeper. What follows is a story of forbidden love between a philosophy professor and his student, tangled in secrecy yet burning with honesty and longing.