scissorswin
The first weeks of university life felt overwhelming, new faces, endless lectures, and the pressure of being at one of the most elite schools in the city. Among it all, one figure stood above the rest: Professor Anežka von Hartmann.
She was a mystery wrapped in elegance. Older, composed, and unshakably strict, she was a woman every student feared. Her reputation was built on razor-sharp lectures and an unyielding presence. Whispers followed her through the halls: that she didn't understand what love was, that she believed love always came with conditions, power, control, inspiration, or loss. To her, love was never free.
No one had ever seen her care.
Yet, for one student, the experience was different.
Whenever Professor von Hartmann's eyes lingered on Zoe, something shifted. The cold distance softened into curiosity, as if Zoe were a question she couldn't ignore. Instead of fear, Zoe felt a strange pull, an unspoken connection that felt unsettlingly familiar, as though their paths had crossed long before the lecture hall.
Zoe began to wonder if the rumours were wrong.
Or worse if they were true, and she was being drawn into something dangerous.
Then came another complication.
Zoe met Mavis, Professor von Hartmann's cousin. Where Anežka was restrained and distant, Mavis was warm, expressive, and openly believed in love without rules or conditions. She laughed easily, felt deeply, and saw Zoe not as a mystery to be studied, but as someone to be cherished.
Soon, Zoe found herself caught between two worlds:
Anežka, who claimed not to understand love, yet watched Zoe as if she were the answer to a question she'd never dared ask.
Mavis, who loved openly, dangerously, and without fear.
Two cousins.
Two philosophies of love.
One heart caught in the middle.
So the question remains;
Who will win Zoe's heart:
the mysterious professor who never believed in love...
or the cousin who lives as if love is everything?