UNSPOKEN BONDS

14. Fifteen

© archanaj1308 2026. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.

The emotional aftermath of their first date arrived quietly, neither dramatically, nor loudly. Just everywhere.

At exactly 10:17 a.m., Amritha Srinivasan sat frozen in front of her desktop screen inside Hibiki Creative Asia's Shenton Way office while staring at a sentence she absolutely should not have typed into next month's magazine feature draft.

Sam is an idiotically annoyingly amazing man.

A full five seconds passed. Then another.

Ammu blinked once in horror. "Oh my god."

The Hibiki Creative office around her carried its usual weekday energy-soft keyboard tapping, muted brainstorming discussions near the glass meeting pods, someone laughing near the editorial pantry while lo-fi jazz drifted through hidden speakers.

The workspace itself reflected the magazine's aesthetic identity perfectly: modern, airy, minimalist without feeling cold. Large travel prints lined the walls.

Kyoto in spring. Icelandic coastlines. Aerial shots of Hokkaido winters. Old cafés in Paris. And right in the middle of this professional environment, Amritha had accidentally inserted her boyfriend into a travel article.

"Interesting."

Ammu physically jumped. Erica Fischer stood behind her chair holding an iced latte with the expression of a woman who had just discovered premium entertainment. Ammu immediately attempted damage control by slamming random keys on the keyboard. Unfortunately, she made it worse.

Now the sentence read:
Samarth is an idiotically annoyingly amazing mannnnnnnnn.

Erica stared. Then very calmly sipped her coffee. "Ammu."

"I can explain."

"I genuinely hope not."

Ammu covered her face instantly. "Delete it."

"Oh no," Erica said smoothly. "Now I want context."

"There is no context."

"You typed a whole emotionally compromised sentence into a feature article about hidden cultural districts in Osaka."

Ammu groaned louder.

Erica leaned closer toward the screen dramatically. "Actually wait-"she squinted. "This is somehow worse."

"What could possibly be worse than this?"

"You wrote his full personality into one sentence."

Ammu looked betrayed. "Erica!"

Her senior editor laughed softly before walking around and dropping into the chair beside her desk. Erica had worked with Ammu for nearly three years now, long enough to recognize every emotional shift in her younger colleague. Including this one. Especially this one.

"You finally told him?"

Ammu stared at her monitor for two seconds before muttering quietly-"He kissed me first."

Erica's eyebrows lifted slowly."...oh."

"That reaction is making me nervous."

"No no," Erica said immediately. "I'm just processing the fact that Singapore's most emotionally constipated businessman apparently woke up and decided romance was a competitive sport."