Salutations

729 Days Before

Inside a quiet office, there's a phone ringing non-stop in front of a man who looks as indifferent as he can be, standing while his hands in his pockets, just waiting for the ringing to stop. "Fucking finally," He muttered under his breath when the sound stopped. He sat on his chair, then faced the computer screen for the nth time that day. Only a couple of seconds had passed when his phone rang again. He clenched his teeth then decided to answer the call after the fourth ring.

"Good afternoon. This is Architect G." He answered, forcing himself to sound energetic despite his lips pressed tightly together and his furrowed eyebrows behind the phone.

"Hi! Architect, remember the date with my daughter that I scheduled for next week? We wanted to reschedule it for later, she'll be busy next week so if you could please spare some of your time tonight?" The person on the other line asked frantically.

"You know I already declined this date. Just what I have said before, I don't want to mix my personal and work life. So please -"

"Just once! Oh, please, G. Just once - treat it as a favour for your old mentor, for the sake of our decade-long friendship? Hm?"

"No -"

"But why not? You're not even in a relationship, right? Just a single chance, hm?"

"Who said I'm not?"

"The interns -"

"If that's the only reason you called, I'll get going. See you next week, Architect K." G sighed, the only thing he could do after all the attempts his old friend did throughout this month alone, asking him to date his daughter. For all he knows, the said daughter is only in her thirties, for that age nowadays, their worries about their unmarried daughter are absurd.

He then again faces his computer monitor, scanning the screen, remembering where he left off earlier. He got back into his momentum only a couple of seconds after, until he noticed a person standing behind his table. He ignores it, then just continues on with what he's doing. After almost half a minute, the man is standing still, who looks like doesn't have a plan to speak.

"If you need something, speak." G demanded without looking up, not even interested in the slightest of who the person is.

"Help me." The man said quietly, almost a whisper, which made G look up at him.

"What exactly do you need, Engineer M - for you to personally visit me here?" G asked, trying to sound nonchalant, disguising the fact that he was caught off guard by a person he didn't expect to see at their office, the architecture department.

M looks like he's hesitant to talk, considering that there are still other people at the tables adjacent to G's place. G stood up, got his phone in his hand, and gestured to M to follow him to one of the meeting rooms nearby.

The meeting room only has glass partitions, so other people who pass by curiously look at them. It's not that their combination is unlikely, but it's mainly because it's unusual for an engineer to visit their department. Most of the time, engineers and architects collaborate actively, but it only happens at the shared spaces outside their respective departments.

"Speak." G instructed a few moments after a group of interns passed them by.

"Be my partner." M answered reluctantly, eyes unfocused.

"We're always partnered up, what do you mean?" Curiosity evident in G's voice.

"Partners, like... in personal life."

"Huh?" G feels lost, thinking what the hell M is talking about.

"Like, be my boyfriend or something like that." G was taken aback- firstly, with what M had said, secondly, with how serious M sounded. He easily understood that he's serious, knowing that the person in front of him is not the type to joke about these types of things - things that would just waste their precious time.