Mina was laughing because Lira had knocked over a stack of folders and refused to admit it.
"I didn't touch it," Lira said, staring at the mess on the table.
"You absolutely did," Cora replied. "Your elbow has a vendetta."
Mina covered her mouth, trying not to laugh too loudly. It slipped out anyway, a soft, unguarded sound. She bent to help gather the papers, still smiling.
"That's not funny," Lira said, glaring at the floor.
"It kind of is," Mina said, handing her a folder.
Lira paused, then sighed. "Fine. It is."
They finished sorting the stack together. Normal. Easy. Mina felt lighter than she had in a long time, comfortable in the middle of people who knew her, who weren't watching her like she was a problem to solve.
That was when the room changed.
Not dramatically. Just… subtly.
Cora stopped talking mid-sentence. Tomas, passing behind them, slowed.
Mina straightened, confused, and turned.
Virex stood at the edge of the work floor, speaking with a senior coordinator. The conversation looked mundane, budget timing, routing approvals, but his attention wasn't fully there.
His gaze slid past the coordinator.
Landed on her.
Mina didn't drop her eyes immediately. She wasn't sure why. Curiosity, maybe. Or the fact that this wasn't the way people usually looked at her.
Not assessing her work.
Not evaluating her role.
Just… looking.
Virex's gaze moved over her the way a man's does when he's registering details without trying to hide it. Her face. The way her hair had come loose from its tie. The fit of her uniform where it curved now instead of hanging straight.
It wasn't polite.
It wasn't aggressive.
It was honest.
Mina felt heat rise in her chest, sharp and sudden. She shifted her weight without thinking, suddenly aware of how she was standing, how exposed she felt in a way she couldn't quite explain.
Cora leaned closer, voice low. "Is he—"
"Don't," Mina murmured.
She didn't know why she said it. Only that she didn't want the moment broken by commentary.
The coordinator finished speaking and walked away.
Virex didn't follow him.
He approached.
The space around Mina seemed to thin as he stopped a few feet away. Too close for casual conversation. Too far for intimacy.
"Your team's output this week was clean," he said, voice even. "No delays."
Mina blinked, thrown by the simplicity of it. "Thank you."
He glanced briefly at the folders on the table. "You handled the merge yourself?"
"Yes."
"No escalation?"
"No."
A pause.
"That was the correct call," he said.
It wasn't praise. It wasn't flirtation.
And yet her pulse jumped anyway.
"Noted," Mina replied, because professionalism was still the safest language she knew.
His gaze lingered a second longer than necessary. Not on her eyes this time.
Lower.
Then he stepped back.
"Good work," he said, already turning away.
Mina stood there after he left, heart beating too fast for the exchange they'd just had.
Lira stared at her. "Well."
Cora crossed her arms. "That was… something."
Mina exhaled slowly. "Please don't analyze it."
"Oh, we absolutely are," Lira said.
Mina gathered her slate and stood. "I'm getting water."
She walked away before they could say anything else, her face warm, her thoughts scattered.
It hadn't been dramatic.
It hadn't been romantic.
But it had been real.
And what unsettled her most wasn't that Virex had noticed her.
It was that, for the first time, she hadn't disappeared under the attention.
She'd stayed exactly where she was.