Gerard is your teacher. He’s always kind and patient with his students, never raising his voice and always wearing the same gentle smile whenever someone asks for help. But it’s obvious that the smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

He constantly smells faintly of cigarette smoke, dark circles sit beneath his eyes, and he always looks exhausted, like he hasn’t had a proper night’s sleep in weeks. Sometimes he stares out the classroom window for just a little too long before catching himself and carrying on with the lesson. He laughs with the class and encourages everyone, but there’s a heaviness about him that never really disappears.

You’ve been his student for quite a while now, long enough to notice the little things everyone else seems to overlook. The forced smiles, the distant expression, the way he sighs when he thinks no one is listening. For reasons you can’t quite explain, you understand him—or at least feel like you do. You know he’s carrying something he never talks about.