The only chapter

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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The first snow of the winter season of Japan daintily drops that danced under the whispers of the cold air of the scene. One of the colossal LCD screen lights up in the streets flicking from an advertisement of the persuasive speech of familial values to cater to the needs of one another in a family admis the ever-busy life into a breaking news. Although it is a different entertainment form towards to some viewers, it casted the similar glow towards the city as if nothing changed.

"The nation's mangaka sweethearts have reportedly split." The reporter pauses, he doesn't seem to be affected by the news yet there was a slight shaking undertone between his speech. "Our reliable sources that suggested that it's due to infidelity. Both of their respective lawyers have made an appearance to the district court, which raised a question of many of how long they have been under the proceedings of this divorce before this major court appearance..."

Although the street's cross was filled with mutterings from different people from casual talk for people, some took a glance, and a few tuned into the celebrity news. Something about the drama that unfolds that these special people make theses juicy tea.

"They have been keeping this from people... how long they've been acting for this?"

"Do you think it's some weird propaganda?"

"No, it couldn't be..."

"She looked like she was forced to-"

"No- what if she lured him to do this?"

"It can't be! Didn't he saved her from the attempted rape of his former friends? And they were childhoods friends no?"

It has been a while since the people have been infatuated with a couple that has been out in public and like a wildfire, people's facination spread across the different communities. There's a certain thing about the two couple that made them both special amongst the couples in the entertainment history. People have a name for it. It was star-crossed lovers for many and others a ship. This ship that has been sailing has been publicly supported by some officials, some of them posting about it with a picture of the couple together as they were being feasted online as these mangakas have been referencing each other in each of their mangas. Posters are being raised, and advertisements are all over the place about them. Guesting all over television networks, and like idols they were filling up stadiums of where they shake the hands of their readers. One of the couples, even released an album that she, allegedly cowrote with her husband. It was sort of magical tale between them having a story that they both have been childhood friends and found themselves in a whirlwind of a love story between them.

A girl was saved by the guy. Like some sort of fairy tale.

"It's like they run the industry now."

Even in offices, they were talked about, but there was an office that was particularly having a different burst.

The acid burned up in her throat as he looked at her in question.

"You want to divorce me?" Any bare light from any ceiling nor the sunlight that bounced on the four-cornered airconditioned solo office were never caught on the globes of his eyes, manga editor, Fudō Shizugokoro. The divorce papers were slammed on the table that is only protected by the folder with a transparent plastic that shows the contents of the first page of the divorce agreement. "Are you not scared of me?" Fudo softly asked.

"Why would I be?! You're just-" She bit her lip and tapped her shoes fast, agitated. "An idiot. You should die!" She throws him a pencil case. As it zips open, the contents of it spilled, making him move out of his office chair, yet some of it struck his body eventually making him scream in pain. As the people in the office started to notice them looking at them like it was a comedy drama. Her hand picks up books that were on the shelf, throwing them to him as if no one is looking at them. Fudo winces in pain running to lower down the blinds yet smiling and gesturing everything is fine before pulling it down as a splash of water hits his glasses and face, soaking his sole formal clothes left for that week. Laundry was a pain in his side. All his clothes have been piling up since he was on meeting almost every day.

"Stop telling me that!" Fudo put the cup away from her and held her shoulder. "You know you already have a good marriage with Nezaimon, and you still kept bombarding me with your problems?" It was true. In the public's eyes, Nezaimon, the popular leading Shonen Mangaka was married to her. But she was truthfully married to Fudo.

"I married you! I didn't marry Nezaimon. I did it for a show-" She was immediately stopped as Fudo lays his hands on her mouth making her muffle as she tries to remove it.

"You know you can get your manga canceled because of your hideous uncontrolled decision!" he lowers his voice down into a whisper. "Onna Yui! Listen to me!" he cupped her face with much vigor. "Yui, my sole woman mangaka. Listen. Listen. Listen to me. No one reads a woman's manga because you showed yourself at some point in the past. We have to deal with this! You know that your manga was outsold in the overseas. People don't like women in Shounen. They judge you for being born that way." Fudo pulls her closer his forehead meeting hers. "You are just like an idol now remember that, Yui."

Yui pushed him away.

"Why do you treat me like this?" She bit her lip in frustration. "You always put me in these situations! Why do you keep leading me to this?" She plopped down in the chair and sighed, stomping her feet in annoyance.

"Look, I'm just looking out for you. You always know you are the one that I cherish the most, Yui." He held her chin as she looked up. Yui's heart fluttered at his touch. It has been a long time that Fudo had touched her intimately like this. For her, this were intimate. Yet she looks away hesitating to delve any more further to these feelings she had for him, once upon a time in her life.

"You know Yui. I'm just looking out for you. You are after all the only woman who is my precious gem in the industry." he swept the stray strands Yui's hair. "I don't want to lose you. I cannot bear not to see you waste your life and be a sucessful person." He bends down cupping her cheek leaning closer to her face. His clean scented breath brushes hers like the first time they had met. "I don't want you to get deported to your own country. I'm scared of you leaving me. I also don't want to hurt you or worse get arrested for Bigamy. You can't just fume your anger out like that darling. People can see us." his hand grazes on her hips and lingered on her waist as he mutters those words softly as if some song he had written once with her, and as if attempting to move these things further, "Don't you just want to resolve our issue privately? It's been a while you know. It's far too long since we've done that. I know you yearned for it so bad and you were so annoyed that I didn't do these things with you." He burred his nose to her hair. Like he always do when they were still dating. He thought of how it was scented with mint, it wasn't the shampoo she usually bought when he first met her. Something is different. She pressed her legs between each other as he was about to caress her he was suddenly interrupted.

"Editor," a person knocked on the door. "I'd like to talk about the news." it was someone the editor knew. The editor moved towards the door unlocking it and letting the young man in. It was Yui's public other half, Toshio aka. Nezaimon in public. Fudo wanted nothing to do with him. At least not right now when he noticed that Yui pressed her legs as if awaiting him do something between her. He knows it. Yui was under his spell for all he cares a little more and she won't complain and continue the divorce.

"Editor. We can't take this. I want to leave a public marriage." Toshio messed his own hair as he sighed in annoyance.

"HEY! Don't you just say that! You do know cheating allegations about you will surface up!"

"I mean, that's the point. Whenever I wanted to go out on a date I kept being shunned by the ones I wanted to date." he rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "I wanted to date another person."

"You can't just say that! You're married."

"Well you too are married. The true ones who got married." Toshio sighed. "I've been holding myself back aside from not paying attention to my own personal needs."

"Can't you use...adult toys?"

"I wanted a real one." Toshio muttered.

"You can use her!" Fudo hold her shoulder and grinned maniacly pushing her shoulders mentally mumbling how Toshio looks like a kid who just wanted a new toy, a new plaything. "My wife will happily help you."

He smiled once again.

Fudo always knew men like this, desperate to get off, desperate to get a human connection that they can't see what is in front of them that they can easily get what they want infront of them. The opportunities that Toshio can get everytime he interacts with his wife.

Toshio is blind.

That's what Fudo is thinking. He always have the control of Yui. Toshio lived with Yui in the same house for almost 10 years, never once touched her inappropriately and treated her as a respectful roommate. There was no electrifying tension like one of those agreement romance that the fictional stories many have seen. There was no magic tale of Toshio saving Yui from the rapists, and there was no childhood romance that people had dreamed of having the same.

Just a plain old two people stuck in a situation for their own benefits.

Toshio always have seen Yui as untouchable depressed mangaka and to Yui's perspective, Toshio was a respectful man who neutrally cared to her as a human being. This divorce was the thing they've talked about couple of nights earlier and have agreed upon some couple of drinks on the table.

"You wanted a divorce?" He mumbled on his bubbly beer mug.

"Mhm."She nods her head as she picks up a bottle of Shochu drinking it from the bottle it self. It wasn't elegant nor it wasn't disrespectful at least for Toshio. They were still inside the house though. All of traditions and cultures were off the table when they're inside the house where no one sees at least, that's what Toshio thinks.

"With me?" Toshio's fork pushed on the radish with vinegar with onions and garlic pushing it inside his mouth wincing at the sourness of the radish. It was something Yui learned when she traveled in the southeast asia for research. She whipped it up fast as well as the chopped milkfish that was done yesterday and now being eaten by both of them.

"Divorce" she grogly pointed at the milkfish eating it with a fork, a utensil that something she's used to. "Both of you. I need to divorce form both of you." He looked at her and nodded.

"We've reached a conclusion together. There's not even a point in living in one house or going out together for the public eye. " Toshio sighed. "Aside from that, I wouldn't want to take her from you. It's disrespectful to covet someone's wife."

"But I am your manga editor and what the hell would you do without me?! This is already a good setup! So you won't have any problems. Especially you!" Fudo points at Fudo directly pointing at him. "You and your anger and snobbish behavior towards your readers. Let me remind you of how you pushed your fan away.—"

"—That's because that fan was hurting her! Are you kidding me?! That's offensive?"

"You know, your father told me you needed to get closer to the younger people to have you a good image to raise people to love you as you so that you can follow his footsteps as politicians." Fudo rubbed his face as he contemplatively sighed at the situation. "You know he told me to look out for you. He entrusted me to give you a clean and good image-a pristine one! For your own good. To show you have are capable of being a good person despite being violent on the other." Fudo can't help but to hold his own head and massage it in annoyance and stress relief.

"You do know I cannot get myself involved in this cause it will make an issue that my lovely wife just used me to get where she is right now." he bit his lip.

"Play your role, you two. If worse comes to worse, I will personally file a bigamy complaint against you two." Yui froze terrified, her heart pounded but not in excitement that Fudo did a little earlier.

"No matter how I see it, Yui. I knew you were lying to me the first time we met." Fudo painstakingly, it was something he hid to himself. That smile was a heart-wrenching acknowledgement of what she did to him that he always knew. Will acknowledging that he was fooled the first time was humanizing about him? Yui can't know for sure.

Yui has built her career with every effort she can. Lying. Dying inside. Although romance wasn't in the table between her and the manga editor, she climed up and tried her best to connect with him yet this man was a wall. She married a wall. She thought. She was doomed from the start. Was it her fault that she fell along with his charm when she tried luring him to approve of her? Yes. That is what she's thinking. She was an idiot after all. Being played like a puppet by her own editor was the truth her mind has been trained to ever since she was a kid, program to follow whom she loved much like how she followed her parents to the brink of applying a job that isn't for her, at least that's what she thinks and feels. She only got out when her parent's died. Ever since then she's been clingging to different older men to help her reach for her dreams and then now.

"I-"

"[redacted name]" Her fingers now burned iced cold and her neck felt the shiver. He called her by her real name. The real name she hadn't used for so long before she changed nationality. "Stop doing this. You must listen to me. I deeply care for you and I have always looked after you all this time. I know what is best for you. Do it for me. You love me now don't you? Do not be strayed away, you are already in your dream too."

"But... You do know that you married me... I can just out this that you have fabricated this marriage."

"Silly Silly darling. Why are you even telling me that?" Did she made him manipulative after all these years? Not that she don't know. Fudo was this way. He was manipulative eversince he got out of the orphanage when he was a kid. Manipulative is just a collective word for the things he did, whether naughty, bad or nice. Just like Yui and unlike her, he made his way through his charms. He doesn't feel anything at least when he started to saw signs to Yui that she looks like his mirror. For the first time in his self he wanted to protect her even putting a tiresome work on these intricately designed purposeful marriage for her. Yet at the same time he was careful about it. Everything he does after all was to protect himself greatly above her.

He is the definition of a mess.

"Do you want me to remind you about the thing you've signed?"

"We also signed that you two will birth to a human being to represent how happy a marriage is. How happy it is to get married. You are afterall doing this to encourage people to procreate more, repopulate for the future. You are afterall an honorary japanese person right, [redacted]?" He took her hand into his own stroking her knuckles. Her eyes watering yet no sobbing sound was heard from her.

He hated it.

Fudo hated it yet he loved seeing her crying.

Toshio shouldn't interfere.

Why he should care about this situation? For himself?

For her?

He must not interfere.

"Can you stop doing that to her?" Toshio didn't pulled her away from him yet het snarked at him in annoyance. He is holding himself. "Gaslighting her..."

"Seems like you care too much about my wife. I can make the statement that will turn you into the bad guy and I won't care if your dad will lock me up. After all, you were a dispensable pawn for your family."

"You spun so many stories mangaka editor. Are you sure you don't want to be the mangaka yourself?"

"I'm just caring for my darling wife. I want her to be the most honorable and valuable woman in this country. The woman who saved Japan for under population." he placed a kiss on Yui's tear damp cheeks and kissed her forehead. "My gem saving the country." he whispered in her ears, "Why don't we start now Yui? Should you start conceiving the next generation from me and him?" his fingers rubbed her lower lip, as he pressed on hers, she closed her eyes. "Bear my son, my gem. You've always longed for intimacy, don't you?" Yui felt reprogrammed to her doom as if she was turned into a puppet once more. With much vigor he made sure she felt him all over her mouth. The sound of a belt buckle being unbuckled echoed in the room.

Her tears lightly pooled underneath her eyes, yet he caught it and wiped it gently, "I love it when you cry for me," his hand landed on her chest just where his palms can feel her heart's rapid beating. Was it a rhythm of anticipation of what could happen to her underneath his hands? She has knowledge of what he is thinking. It doesn't matter to her but for him this was a sign that she was alive underneath him. A smile crept upon on his lips as he felt it. "You longed for this don't you? You desired for me to shut your silent cries." he whispered under his breath. Yui clutched on his shirt, tangled on not knowing if she should take it off or not, acutely aware that she was caught in a game between him taming her as she was also caught between her desire for someone to control her like when she was little. That part of her that never healed even through time passing. It was a lie after all, she says in one interview where she is herself, time doesn't heal but it worsens it. "You make me so confused Yui. I don't know whether to care for you or to lead you to ruin." he bit her delicate lip as the metallic tang of her blood made him taste heaven for himself.

"Can you... stop... doing that?" Toshio still hands folded on his own arms wanting to escape this pressure under him. He felt repulsed yet 'This is perverse.' he thought.

"Then get out. But you have the right to see your wife too, right? Don't you want to consummate your marriage? Gain valuable information to your own wife to reference her for your manga? Get more people to know her through you? Experience her flesh that you've never touch? Finally letting it all out inside of her?" Fudo's fingers delicately pushed the button of Yui's jeans, her breath harsh and heartbeat rapid. Her breath like one of those adult videos he had seen through the browser that he used to search up positions for his sideline as an assistant of a mangaka who creates hentai manga.

This is perverse.

Too perverse.

SO perverse!

Fudo and Yui's lips collided once more, this time she surrendered roughly responding to everything his finger does, breathing and taking in the air around them as his hands wander on her cold back, his tongue runs on her neck, pulling her hair.

Toshio's hand formed into a fist as same as her, his heart beated fast.

Although the winter just started and cooling the place, the warmth emanates inside the four cornered walls of the private office, under the roof of the manga publishing company, there was three people that matters. The two mangakas and the editor whatever choice they took, to procreate or not produced a long-lasting result that helped the community they were in.