A writer and his editor

"―and then everything went south and I was lucky I managed to separate Kid and Black*Star from each other." The editor smiled at the text in parentheses and wrote a message at the side of the article about a concert that took place the last weekend.

It was more than a year ago she had received his first article. It was at the beginning a mess-up that had turned permanent. Liz was supposed to go through Soul Evans's texts since she was music interested and knew all of the musical terms that Soul would use and she had accidentally grabbed the wrong text. When she went through it and corrected the grammar and gave some feedback, in the middle of the text, he found a message. "I know 'hooligans' is a weird word, but I thought it would spice up the text." He had written in the middle of the text with parentheses. It had been the beginning of something special. Maka had taken over all of his texted and they always communicated in the texts day after day after day. Weirdly, they hadn't talked at all in person, even if they knew how each other looked. Maka would always walk up to his desk, silently leave her comments on his desk and he would give her a "thank you" before she left.

They proved to have so much in common and she found herself waiting for his texts, to read the secret notes in his articles and write a response. She had found herself enjoying herself talking to the man.

Unfortunately, it would come to an end.

Today she had gotten the call from the job she had applied to and she had gotten it. It was a very highly respected newspaper she had only dreamed about working for, and now she got it. She couldn't say no, it was her dream, but, there was Soul.

She sighed heavily and wrote at the side of his article. "I'm glad you weren't too wounded." And now came the hard part. "There is something I have to tell you. I got a job offer from DC news and I accepted it. I will quit my job today." She got up from her seat and grabbed the two pages of his article, headed out of her office and passed the other editors' offices. She turned to the left toward the journalists offices and there she saw Soul and his photographer Kim chatting away about the concert they had seen.

"―and the climax of his playing was amazing! Thank you, Maka." Soul smiled toward Maka when she put the article on his desk.

"You're welcome." And she left his office and returned to her own where she engaged in the other's articles. It wasn't as fun as correcting Soul's texts, but it was her job to correct and give feedbacks to the writers, and she was going to do her job until she quit later that day.

She returned the writer's texts and when she returned, her office wasn't empty.

Soul leaned against her desk, tapping his foot on the ground before he noticed her. "Is this true?" He held up his text. "Are you quitting?"

Maka closed the door behind her so if the boss came by, he wouldn't hear their conversation. It would only hurt him if he heard it from her that way.

"That's right." She hadn't imagined their first time talking to each other would be like this. Their talks through Soul's texts were so intimate and almost like best friends talking, so she pictured maybe they would talk for real for the first time either by bumping into each other outside of work, or maybe taking a seat with the other at lunch, but no such thing had ever happened.

"Why?"

"Why?" She asked, walking around her desk and took her seat. "There was an editor spot at the newspaper and I have always wanted to work there. So I took a chance and I send them my resume. I got the job and I've wanted to work there for a while so I accepted it."

He sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair. "Is it because of me?"

She cocked her eyebrow as she grabbed another article on her desk and her pen. "Why would it be because of you?"

"I don't know. Because we talk? Because we haven't talked like this, only via the articles and feedback? Did I say something wrong?" He slammed his hands on her desk. "Please, tell me, did you seek the job because of me?"

"No," She put down her pencil again and shook her head, "it is quite the opposite. I didn't want to take the job because of you." Her eyes widen and a blush spread on her face. "I-I mean… Oh dear!"

"Do you like me?"

He eyes widen even more as the blush deepened. "What?"

"Do you like me?" He scratched his cheek. His own cheeks were slightly red. "You know, more than friends. Maybe in a romantically fashion."

There was no denying it. She was terribly attracted toward him. Many saw him as weird and with his exotic sharp teeth, maybe even frightening, but she only saw him as frighteningly beautiful. She always wondered if his hair was silky as natural hair or if it was bleach damaged. If his skin was as warm and strong as it looked like.

But could she tell him the truth?

"I do see you as a secret best friend." Oh, yes she is. "And I do think you are very attractive, but it is too early to tell if I hold anything romantically about you. I do see potential of growing romantic feelings to you, but right now I can't say yes or no."

Soul smirked wide and leaned closer to her over the desk. "Go out with me."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Yeah, because unlike you, I do know I like you in more than a friend fashion. Can I take you out for dinner tonight?"

She smiled and nodded. "Alright, only if I get to go home and feed my cat."

"Of course."

And so they broke out of interacting between secret messages. No longer were they secret best friends, but potential lovers.