Chapter 3 – Closet, Chaos, and the Hot Floor Manager

Narrator: Still trying to process the fact that a man just crawled out of her sketchbook.

Noa is now trapped in a tiny storage room with a half naked chaos gremlin in the cabinet and her cute coworker standing right outside. Kaito, the hot but somehow oblivious floor manager walks in looking for some old props and maybe an excuse to talk to her as Noa tries to act normal.

Reno starts making weird noises inside the cabinet, Desperate to avoid suspicion.

Noa is forced into a series of increasingly ridiculous lies all while trying to keep her sanity and her imaginary boyfriend from ruining her social life.

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Kaito peeked into the storage room with that perfect combination of casual curiosity and unfairly good bone structure.

"Hey, sorry to barge in, They said you might be in here?"

Noa smiled so hard her face hurt

"Oh. Yeah. Just looking for uh zip ties."

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "Zip ties?"

"Yup! Lots of cable emergencies today."

There was a loud *thud* from the cabinet behind her followed by a muffled

"I FOUND A SOCK!"

Noa's soul evacuated her body.

Kaito blinked. "Did you hear that?"

She laughed too fast. "Haha! Mice!"

"Mice?"

"Big ones. With... vocal cords."

Kaito stepped closer, frowning slightly.

He smelled like citrus and deadlines,

"Want me to check?"

"No!" she snapped, "I mean no It's fine, They're shy." Another thud then Reno whisper yelled, "It smells like old ramen in here! Is that YOU?"

Kaito tilted his head. "You sure you're alone?" Noa was running out of brain cells.

"Yes," she said firmly. "Absolutely, Alone With myself like always."

Kaito gave her a strange look, then turned toward the cabinet, Noa panicked.

"WAIT!" she blurted

"Actually can you help me reach something on the top shelf?"

Kaito looked up

"What shelf?"

Noa made a show of squinting.

"That one."

"There's nothing there."

"Exactly. I need help reaching the absence."

Kaito smiled, confused but amused.

"You okay?"

Noa was *not* okay. She was sweating, Her shirt was sticking to her back.

Somewhere behind her, Reno was humming the Sailor Moon theme off-key.

She tried to steer Kaito toward the door. "Actually, I should get back to editing deadlines chaos you know."

"Right! of course, He hesitated "Hey, Noa?"

She froze. "Yeah?"

"I was gonna ask you wanna grab coffee later?" Her brain exploded.

Was he serious? Was this real?

Did she just get asked out while her sketchbook gremlin sat in a janitor cabinet sniffing expired cleaning supplies?

She nodded too hard.

"Yes! Coffee Sure Yes."

Kaito smiled that smile and walked out.

As soon as the door closed, Noa collapsed against it and groaned into her hands.

Then the cabinet creaked open, Reno emerged slowly like a dramatic vampire waking up at noon.

"Well, *he* was hot," he said.

"Shut up."

"Do you think he'd be into a drawing with emotional baggage?"

Noa threw a shoe at him.

It hit him square in the chest bounced off and landed back in the cabinet.

"Thanks, he said, I was looking for that."

She pointed at him with wild eyes.

"You stay here no talking, no wandering, no flirting with furniture."

"I make no promises."

She was halfway out the door when she heard him yell behind her:

"HEY! IF YOU'RE GETTING COFFEE, I TAKE MINE WITH CREAM AND EXISTENTIAL DREAD!"

She slammed the door shut and seriously considered jumping into traffic.