Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

Roseanne slipped into her puffer jacket, grabbing the trash on her way out the door.

Owen Reynolds emerged from his apartment with two hefty bags as well.

"Professor, how long has it been since you last took out the trash?"

Owen Reynolds hesitated, "...half a month?"

Roseanne couldn't help but think, So this is the real you, Professor.

Luckily, it was mostly packaging and plastic bags, nothing perishable like leftovers or fruit peels.

"Let's go."

As they made their way downstairs, they bumped into the elderly couple from their building, hand in hand, having just disposed of their own trash.

"Owen and Roseanne heading out to dump the trash as well?"

"Yeah," Owen nodded in response.

The elderly lady then turned to Roseanne with a gleeful smile, "What delightful dish did you cook today, Roseanne? We could smell something delicious all the way downstairs!" Roseanne replied, "Mushroom stew."

"Ah! That must be the mushrooms Owen received yesterday?"

his parcel, which happened to contain mushrooms, and asked her for some

Roseanne nodded.

widened, "You two make a great team, one provides the ingredients, and the other cooks. It's fate that you're

cough awkwardly, prompting her to quickly wave her hands in denial,

"No need to explain, as long as

you, always stirring the

there to stir? Remember,

line

and it took us two years to break through. Nowadays, society is much more open. It's all about giving young

off as they

Roseanne's cheeks were flushed.

didn't know

descended the rest of the stairs in silence and disposed of their

"I"

"You-"

same time, then paused and laughed at the

is truly in love, a real-life example of growing old together, aren't

professors from Twilight Peak Academy's astrophysics department. They never had children, just

"Really?" Roseanne was surprised.

couple was educated, she