HER "ROMANCE IN THE LAB"

IS IT THE END, OR THE FRESH START?

Maxine closed her book slowly, staring blankly at the ceiling as her chest tightened.

Six months. Not a single text. Not a single call.

Not even a cold congratulation from him. And she hated how much she wanted one. How much she wanted him.

Tonight, something inside her finally snapped, not out of weakness but out of a need for closure… or maybe a need to feel seen by him one last time.

Maxine Medina took a deep, shuddering breath, feeling the weight of possibility, of memory, of fire and ice inside her chest.

She pulled her coat tighter against the evening chill, picked up her purse, and stepped into the taxi that would take her toward him, toward that conversation she had been waiting for, toward the man who had shaped her past and now awaited her in the present.

And with every step, she reminded herself. She was free. She was alive. She was Maxine Medina. And she would face him, not as a pawn, not as a survivor of rules... but as herself.

So she decided.

For the first time since she left OMRIS, Maxine would see him again.

Not as his trainee, a pawn. But as someone who wanted answers.

The night was cold when she reached the towering OMRIS building. The guards recognized her instantly, everyone did. She was the prodigy he trained. The one he shaped with brutal discipline and relentless precision.

She walked through the white-lit hallways with a heartbeat that felt too loud inside her chest. Her fingers trembled as she stopped in front of his office door.

The familiar nameplate gleamed softly under the hallway lights. MIKE URDANZO, MD. HEAD TRAINING DIRECTOR

Her throat tightened. She slowly lifted her hand to knock.. But the door swung open before she touched it. And there he was,

Mike.

He looked exactly the same as he lived in her memory...his serious face but calm, but she notice that he look so stress now, unlike before. It had been six long months since she left this lab, six months of running away from him. Guilt gnawed at her for leaving him all alone. His dark gray shirt hugged the strong lines of his shoulders, the sleeves rolled up just enough to show the veins on his forearms. His hair was messier than usual, streaked with gray, a sign of the passing years, and his eyes... those deep, unreadable eyes... widened slightly when he caught sight of her.

"You came..." he whispered.

The voice was low but Maxine could feel his joy at seeing her again, and the same as her. Just a little fraction. But it was enough to make her heart stop. Can she express just how much she misses him?

“Maxine,” he breathed, her name slipping out as if he had been caught off guard.

She swallowed. “Hi, Sir.. Mike.”

But before anything else could be said, before she could step closer, before he could look at her the way he used to. There is a soft, and unfamiliar voice spoke from behind him.

“Sir, I finished arranging the files.”

Maxine’s body stands still and surprise to see that there is someone new here in the lab. This lab is the most private, a sanctuary in which Mike never allow someone to stepped in, except Maxine, his student and his...

"Hello Ma'am.. good evening!" A young woman stepped into view. Her eyes immediately turned to Maxine without a glance from Mike. She is Beautiful, skin toned and effortlessly elegant. Maybe she is in her early twenties. Long hair cascading over her shoulders, lips tinted soft pink, blouse perfectly fitted to her slender body.

She stood too close to Mike. And Mike didn’t step away. The woman’s curious eyes landed on Maxine. She blinked once. Then twice. And then… she smiled. An innocent smile. A confident smile .A smile that said she knew where she stood... and it was beside him.

Maxine felt her heart twisted by a sharp blade behind.

“Sir, who is she?” the woman asked sweetly.

"Sir..." The same title Maxine once whispered in fear and defiance. The same one she once moaned under her breath when his voices of authority almost trimbled her.

Mike’s expression shifted to become coldness. Indifferent and so professional.

“She is no one you need to worry about,” he said.

The words hit like a slap to Maxine., as if her heart fall to the floor, she can't breath. A heart ache covered her emotions, but her facial expression handle it, she fake her smile.

Mike looked at Maxine with eyes that didn’t soften at all. “She’s just a former trainee. Nothing more.”

The young woman’s smile widened. But something inside Maxine cracked. But the girl wasn’t done. She stepped closer... far too close... and tilted her head playfully. “But Sir, you didn’t answer my question.”

Mike exhaled a sharp breath, as if irritated.

Maxine held her breath. A tiny part of her prayed.. begged, that he would say something else. Something honest. Something that proved he once cared for her, to tell her that he once love her before... even if she leave him alone and choose someone.

The woman giggled softly and asked in a tone that is too familiar.

“Who is she, babe?”

Maxine froze hearing that she say "Babe?" As if her heart slammed painfully against the walls. "She called him babe?"

Maxine turned to Mike, desperate for a denial, for a reaction, or for anything. But his face was unreadable. And his voice was cold as ice said, "My student”

Maxine felt her world collapse silently. The same title she once held... but this woman wore it with pride, not pain.

Mike stepped in front of the girl protectively, blocking Maxine’s view.

“Maxine,” he said, tone clipped, “is there something you needed?”

Her lungs burned as she forced herself to stand straight.

“No,” she whispered, hating how weak she sounded. “I only… wanted to say hi.”

The woman laughed softly, clutching Mike’s arm. “Now I know that you were so kind because your student visited you."

Maxine felt humiliation crawl up her spine. Mike didn’t react.

“Goodnight, Maxine,” he said. “I’m busy.”

And just like that, he closed the door of his lab leaving her alone. He didn’t look back. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t care.

Maxine stood in the empty hallway, her breath shaking, her hands trembling. She walked away, but she felt that her body was floating in the air, here senses is totally vanished. Like a woman that is dragging a wounds that no one could see.

The moment she stepped outside, the cold air stabbed at her skin... and the first tear fell. She wiped it away harshly. And told herself: "You shouldn’t have come. You shouldn’t have missed him. You shouldn’t have wanted him."

But she did. And now she regretted everything.

Mike had given her freedom six months ago. Tonight, what did he show her? why?

She was free… because she no longer mattered. But as the wind cut across her face, something else sparked inside her, it was pain and regrets.

If Mike could erase her that easily. Then she would make sure he remembered her.. Even if it meant burning all over again...