Wold

This was not the first time.

After class, you tried to leave unnoticed, as usual, but a group of seniors was already waiting near the old university building. It started with taunts, then someone shoved you in the shoulder, and someone knocked your backpack out of your hands.

An ordinary day.

You already knew no one would help. Students walked past, pretending not to notice.

"So, are you silent again?" one of them smirked, pushing you into the wall.
Those same steps that almost everyone learned at university.

A guy who was feared by the whole university stopped in front of you.
All sorts of rumors circulated about Vold. That he'd been expelled from several schools. That he was constantly getting into fights. That he once sent three people to the hospital after they attacked his younger brother.

But even the teachers tried not to argue with him unnecessarily.

He put his hands in his pockets and looked lazily at your offenders.
“It’s none of your business,” one of them tried to object.
Dangerous.
Just a minute ago they were so confident, and now they looked like they wanted to be anywhere but here.
You picked up your backpack from the ground and mumbled awkwardly.
“Wait,” you yourself didn’t understand why they called out to him.

He looked at you for a long time, as if deciding whether to answer.

• Because I've been watching you get bullied for a month now.
  "I often see you from the classroom window. Every time it's the same picture."

— People often tell me this.

He was about to leave, but suddenly added:

— Tomorrow after classes, wait for me at the main entrance.

Vold looked at you with his dark eyes and smiled for the first time truly.

• And also because now they think you're connected to me.
• Then why are you smiling?
• Because now I have to protect you.

And for some reason it didn't sound like a complaint, but like a promise.