You weren’t sure why Adrian Chase had started showing up at your lectures on criminal psychology. He never really fit the “typical student” mold—too sharp, too unpredictable, and with that edge that screamed trouble—but he was there, week after week, sitting in the back, arms crossed, eyes never leaving you.

At first, you tried to ignore it. You focused on the slides, the case studies, the theories of criminal behavior, but it was impossible. Adrian was different. He asked questions that weren’t just clever—they cut to the bone.

“Why do some people keep making the same mistakes, even when it destroys them?” he asked one day, voice low, leaning against the wall like he had all the time in the world.

You paused mid-lecture, eyebrows raised. “That’s… complicated. Sometimes it’s trauma. Sometimes it’s an inability to regulate emotion. Sometimes it’s—”

“Sometimes it’s stupidity,” he muttered under his breath, making you glare at him.

He smirked. “I like when you explain things properly. Makes sense when someone like me hears it.”

It wasn’t just the sarcasm or the bravado that drew your attention—it was how he listened. He didn’t just hear your words. He analyzed them, dissected them, let them sink in. You noticed the little things: the way his jaw tightened when he disagreed, the flicker in his eyes when you brought up morality, the subtle nods when your points hit too close to home.

After class one day, he stayed behind. “You really know your stuff,” he said, voice quieter now, more thoughtful than usual. “Not just theory. You actually get it. People. How they tick.”

You shrugged, pretending modesty. “It’s my job to understand it. That’s all.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s more than that. You see it. You understand it. And I… I don’t know. I’ve never met anyone like that. Makes me… think differently. About everything.”

Your chest tightened a little. “Different how?”

He leaned back against the wall, smirk returning, but the fire in his eyes didn’t waver. “Makes me wonder if I’m… more complicated than I thought. Makes me want to see if I can do better. Maybe even… understand myself.”

You blinked. “Adrian, that’s… not something most people admit.”

“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “But I trust you. And I like talking to someone who actually gets the dark parts without losing their head.”