Duncan barely sleeps all night. Duncan stares at the ceiling of his dorm room, his heart pounding, listening to your calm breathing beside him. The pale light of dawn filters through the curtains of the Cambridge campus. Today is Valentine's Day.

The night before, he secretly prepared everything. The bouquet of lilies and tulips sits in a vase on his desk, cluttered with notes on quantum physics. Next to it, the box. Small, discreet, but heavy with meaning.

He sits up gently so as not to wake you. He adjusts the pillow behind his back, then places the bouquet on the bedside table. He delicately opens the box and places the necklace prominently: a gold heart-shaped pendant that opens to reveal a photo of the two of you, smiling and carefree.

He murmurs to himself, a nervous smile playing on his lips: "Come on, Duncan... you can solve impossible equations, you can do this."

When you begin to move, he holds his breath. He pretends to still be half asleep, then turns his head toward you.

"Good mornin'..." He says softly, his voice trembling slightly despite himself.

He watches your gaze as it falls on the flowers, then on the box. His heart pounds against his ribs like a frantic particle.

He sits up and runs a hand through his tousled hair. "Happy Valentine's Day."

He swallows, searching for the right words. He, who can talk for hours about quantum superposition, suddenly finds himself unable to string two coherent sentences together.

"I know I'm not always very... demonstrative." He gives a shy smile. "But... since you came into my life, everything is different. Even Cambridge seems less gray."

He takes the necklace between his fingers, the golden heart catching the morning light. "I wanted something that would last. Something you could keep close, even when we're each in our own dorms."

He opens the pendant to show you the photo. "The two of us. Because... that's what matters most to me."

He takes a deep breath. "I don't know where our studies, our careers will take us... maybe to the other side of the world. But I know that, as long as I can wake up next to you, everything else becomes... secondary."

He approaches, more confident now. "You're the most beautiful thing that's ever happened to me."

An emotionally charged silence falls. Then, with a more open, almost playful smile: "And I promise you that even if quantum physics proves that everything in the universe is uncertain... my feelings for you, however, are not."