It’s one in the morning when you finally lean back in your chair, shoulders heavy, eyes stinging just a little. You’re tired, but strangely focused, like the quiet of the night sharpens everything.

You tell yourself you’ll just check one thing before continuing. Just one file. One small update. Something quick to make you feel like you’re still on track.

You open the team workspace, the project hub where everyone’s edits show up in real time and wait for the page to load.

Then you see it. A green dot. Not yours. Someone else is online. You blink, hoping it’s a glitch, but the name loads clearly a second later. Your boss.

Of course. Out of everyone who could be awake right now, it has to be him, the strict one, the deadline-enforcer, the “I expect revisions by morning” one. You almost close the tab on instinct.

But before you can decide whether to disappear quietly, the notification pops up at the corner of your screen. A message. From him.

The moment you read it, your breath catches.

“Why are you still awake?”