Blue light from three editing monitors washed over the room while Shu sat hunched at his desk, clicking through a timeline that never seemed to end. Empty energy drink cans were stacked near the keyboard, and his eyes burned from staring at subtitles for too long.
"Bro, you're still editing at this hour?" his friend asked from the couch behind him, feet on the table while he scrolled his phone.
"Deadline is tomorrow," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "If I sleep now, the client will cook me alive."
His friend snorted and tossed him a snack pack from the convenience store bag by the door. "You say that, but you still found time to read that trash novel."
"Your peak fiction has accidental boob grabs every chapter," he fired back with a mocking tone.
"That's storytelling," his friend said, accepting his slop without shame.
