Riven was halfway through his first coffee of the morning when his phone buzzed on the lab bench.
At first, he ignored it. The last thing he needed before the exhibition was another pointless group chat notification.
But then he saw the preview:
@SunvaleBuzz tagged you in a post.
He frowned and tapped it open.
The screen lit up with a single, painfully clear image:
Him and Eli in the robotics lab, bent over the control board, shoulders almost touching. Eli's face was turned toward him, caught mid-smile. Riven's own eyes were fixed on Eli — and the way the camera had captured it, there was no mistaking the warmth in his gaze.
The caption below was worse:
> "Sunvale's secret power couple? 👀🔥 Robotics AND romance?"
Riven's stomach dropped so fast it felt like gravity had doubled.
The lab was quiet except for the hum of the computers, but across the room, Eli was scrolling on his own phone. His usual calm expression flickered into confusion… then disbelief. Their eyes met.
Eli's brows drew together.
Riven mouthed: We need to talk.
In that moment, the buzz of the upcoming exhibition, the months of teamwork, the carefully balanced truce between them — it all threatened to crack under the weight of a single photo that shouldn't have existed.
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