By Day 5, the jokes started.
It began innocently enough—someone on the crew saw Noa and Ren walking in together and raised an eyebrow. Then a casual comment during lunch: "You two are always stuck at the hip, huh?"
Ren grinned. Noa choked on her miso soup.
"We're not—" she started, coughing.
"Relax," Ren said, handing her a napkin. "People just have eyes."
"That's not comforting."
The teasing escalated quickly. By afternoon, someone had changed the team board from "Team B" to "Team 'Baecation.'" Noa wanted to disappear.
"Wow," Ren said, pointing at the whiteboard. "They ship us."
"I will commit arson," Noa muttered.
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
—
In the break room, they tried to hide.
Didn't work.
Minami, a fellow intern with too much eyeliner and too much free time, cornered them with a wicked grin.
"Sooo," she drawled, "how long have you two been a thing?"
"We're not a thing," Noa said quickly.
"Sure," Minami replied, sipping her soda like it was tea. "You just bicker like an old married couple and sit together every lunch. Totally normal."
Ren raised his hand. "In our defense, the other chairs suck."
Noa facepalmed.
Minami leaned in. "You know, denial's the first stage of something spicy."
"Of what?"
"Exactly."
She walked away with a wink.
Ren turned to Noa. "Do we really act like that?"
Noa didn't answer right away.
Instead, she looked at her half-eaten rice bowl and said, "You're loud, you talk too much, and you don't respect personal space."
Ren nodded. "And yet…"
"…And yet I'm still here."
"Exactly."
She looked up, and he was already looking at her.
They both blinked at the same time—like they'd caught each other thinking too hard.
Then Noa broke the moment. "We're still not a thing."
Ren smirked. "Tell that to the board."
—
Later that night, Noa was brushing her teeth when her phone buzzed.
A text.
**[Ren Kurosawa]**
> Just making sure: we're *not* a thing, right?
She stared at the screen.
Then typed.
Paused.
Deleted.
Then finally sent:
> No. Obviously not.
Three dots appeared.
Then stopped.
Then appeared again.
Then stopped again.
She stared at it for a while.
And somehow, she slept later than usual that night.