Love in Beta

Achi Angeles has always been easy to get along with-warm, friendly, and effortlessly present in every space she walks into. But what people don't see is how quickly she fades after. How even the smallest interactions can drain her, leaving her searching for quiet corners just to feel like herself again.

Javi Ancheta is someone she wouldn't normally pay attention to-sarcastic, distant, and already taken. The kind of person who always seems surrounded by noise, yet somehow remains unreadable.

They don't meet all at once.
Not properly, at least.

At first, it's just passing glances in crowded hallways.
A familiar face she keeps noticing-because he's always there, always near, always with someone else.

Until coincidence stops feeling like coincidence.

Same university organization.
Shared spaces.
Unavoidable interactions.

What begins as nothing more than recognition slowly turns into something harder to ignore-not quite interest, not quite indifference. Just a quiet awareness that grows in the background, uninvited and undefined.

Because some connections don't start with sparks.
Some begin as something quieter-

like a system running in the background,
unfinished... unnoticed...
until it isn't.