Anthologies {MIKHAIAH AU}

fools in love pt 1

A/N: The Mikhaiah fluff no one asked for — enjoy!

Mikha was starting to get used to it.

The Sunday evening routine of packing her mini suitcase with three business casual outfits, toiletries, two pairs of shoes, her laptop, iPad, countless wires, and her trusty old camera had become almost second nature. She barely had time to unpack before it was time to hit the road again.

She'd been doing this for three months now, ever since her boss had promoted her to head of international client relations, a role that had initially sounded glamorous. The idea of traveling regularly to meet clients around the world had once been a dream. Now, it was anything but. The cities she visited blurred into one another—airports, conference rooms, and hotel lobbies, with little time to catch her breath.

Her friends had envied her at first, convinced that she was living some jet-set fantasy, but Mikha knew better. It wasn't the adventure they imagined. The flights were always cramped, the meetings felt endless, and the sightseeing was nonexistent. The only constants in her life now were the faceless hotel rooms and the feeling of fatigue that had settled in her bones.

Mikha stood in her small apartment, staring at her packed suitcase. Tomorrow, it was off to San Francisco, a city she had been to several times, but never really *seen*. It would be the same routine—fly in, rush to meetings, fly out. The Pacific coastline, the Golden Gate Bridge, the famous hills, all of it was just a backdrop to another workweek.

"Aalis ka nanaman bukas, bai?" her roommate and best friend Colet asked, eyeing her from the couch where she sat with a glass of wine. "Mukhang kelangan mo ng isang buwang tulog."

Mikha chuckled, though it felt hollow. "Yeah, well, clients don't wait. Besides, it's just a few days. I'll survive. Trabaho lang.

Colet set her glass down, her expression softening. "I know it's the work lang yan, pero when's the last time you actually enjoyed any of this? You used to love traveling. You used to take your camera out all the time, remember?"

Mikha's eyes drifted to the camera resting beside her suitcase. She had brought it along on every trip, but she hadn't used it for anything other than work in months. The thought stung. Photography had once been her passion, her way of seeing the world. Now it was just another tool in her corporate arsenal.

"I don't know, Col. It's just been hard to find the time," she said, forcing a smile. "Siguro this trip will be different."

But she didn't really believe that. The job had swallowed up all the things she loved. This trip wouldn't be different. It would just be another blur of conference calls and PowerPoint slides.

//

The next morning, the airport was as chaotic as always, a maze of security lines and crowded gates. Mikha went through the motions, her body on autopilot. When she finally boarded the plane, she sank into her seat, already dreading the long hours ahead. She spent the flight drifting in and out of sleep, trying to ignore the ache of exhaustion that had become her constant companion.

By the time she landed in San Francisco, she was running late for her first meeting. The city greeted her with its usual foggy, gray skies as she rushed through the airport, hailed a cab, and made her way to her hotel in the Financial District. The sleek, modern lobby was indistinguishable from all the others she had seen over the past three months.

The afternoon was a marathon of meetings, the kind that made time seem to stretch and collapse all at once. Mikha smiled through the introductions, nodded at the right moments, and presented her pitch with practiced precision. Her clients seemed pleased enough, but the whole experience left her feeling hollow, like she was performing a role in someone else's life.