「CHAPTER 1」
“Argh…I thought I was gonna die…”
Yoshino Chiaki collapsed on the sofa after sending home his assistants who had
stayed with him until he had finally finished his current manuscript about an hour ago. As
usual, the only person who stayed behind was Yanase Yuu, his chief assistant and friend
from middle school.
“Chiaki, if you're gonna sleep, do it on the bed,” Yanase said as he cleaned up the
screen tones and art material which were scattered all over the place. Instead of Yoshino,
useless as he was, Yanase cleaned today as well. Surely, even Yanase was tired from
staying up all night.
And I'm just useless……
Although he promised that he wouldn't do this anymore, he had once again cut it
close to the deadline. Ever since he was young, Yoshino developed an interest in drawing
comics. When he was in university, he had made his debut as a shoujo manga artist by
the pen name Yoshikawa Chiharu and had always completed his manuscripts days before
the deadline. Now that he was twenty-eight years old, defying the deadline was typical.
Back then, Yoshino’s main focus had been writing one-shots, so his schedule had been
more laid back. But now, just because he had gotten busy did not mean that he had to be
a nuisance for people.
He didn't mean to take all the credit and gain the label for popularity. He meant to
be serious every time but broke his pace somewhere along the way, so before he knew it,
he ended up cutting it close to the deadlines.
Haven't I had enough of stress?
Yoshino was definitely not as much of a risk taker anymore compared to when he
had first debuted, but even then, he had always felt the pressure to not disappoint his
readers, which had accumulated over the years. Additionally, he wanted to make his
works better and better, but the pace of his work did not improve. It has always been that
he did not want to make compromises in his work and always stuck to his own ideas to
the very end, but his childhood friend and editor-in-charge, Hatori Yoshiyuki, always
lectured him by saying, “It's one thing to make a compromise but another thing to
carefully assess your own work”. But even though Yoshino acknowledged that, he could
not look at his own work objectively when he was being attacked like that. The reason his
work got delayed was because of this vicious cycle that he caught up in.
This time, because of Yanase's suggestion, he had sent each completed sheet of
the manuscript through the motorbike delivery service, which forced the motorbike
delivery people to come back to Yoshino's place multiple amount of times. By doing this,
Yoshino somehow finished the manuscript. But after all this, only a single e-mail was
sent by Hatori, which said “I received everything.” After that, no more messages came.
Even though he hadn't heard from Hatori, he assumed that the manuscript had
been approved; yet it was clear that Hatori was angry. Now the scariest part was waiting
for Hatori to contact him.
I know he's gonna lecture me anyway, so he should just hurry up and contact me.
He was not too keen on calling Hatori himself and disturbing him at his work,
therefore, there was nothing he could do except wait. As he lay there exhausted and all
his undue attention was being aimed at his cellphone, he heard the scribbling sound of a
pencil. He casually raised his head and saw Yanase, who wore glasses when he worked
as his assistant, with a sketchpad. He was sketching him.
“Are you drawing me again…?”
Ever since middle school, Yanase often drew Yoshino. Not only did he draw him
during art class, but he also drew him in his notebook when Yoshino was sleeping during
class and told Yoshino he'd draw him anytime as long as he was sitting down. During
lunch breaks, Yoshino also happened to serve as his model.
Even though there were usually other guys to draw nearby, like Hatori, for some
reason, Yanase had only drawn Yoshino back then. But Yoshino wasn't annoyed.
However, there were men who were over twenty percent more better looking than
himself available for Yanase to draw, so he completely did not understand Yanase's want
to draw somebody as simple-looking as himself.
Yuu should draw himself instead……
Hatori was quite a handsome man, but Yanase also had good-looking features,
and even though he was a man, he was the type to fit the term “beautiful”. He had almond
shaped eyes along with lightly color-dyed silky hair. Yanase's eyes were much better than
his own droopy eyes. They were rimmed with fluttering eyelashes.
“You're drawing me…Aren't you tired after today?”
“It's okay. I finished cleaning up.”
“Eh? Ah, you did.”
The hardwood floor, which had screen tones scattered all over the place until just
a while ago, was now visible. Yanase must have tidied up the top of Yoshino's messy
desk as well. But that wasn’t all – just now Yanase had also done all of Yoshino's
laundry, which had pilled up during the crunch time. Yoshino could not thank Yanase
enough for this.
“Geez! You're really an amazing guy……! I want you to be my wife, seriously!”
he said dramatically, but he truly felt grateful.
“I don't want to be your wife, but being your husband would be okay.”
Although Yanase replied to Yoshino's joke with a straight face, he did not stop
sketching.
“Whaaat? Ahahahaha…hahaha…ah!”
As Yoshino laughed, his stomach gurgled. He hadn't paid attention to his hunger,
because he had been concentrating on drawing, but now that he thought about it, he
hadn't eaten anything since morning.
It was way past noon already. That's why it wasn't a strange time for his body to
be complaining. The fact that he was dizzy and his fingers shook was proof that he was
lacking sugar.
“Man, I'm hungry…Is there anything in the fridge?”
It seemed like he would faint if he didn't consume calories soon. Truthfully, he
wanted to eat a proper dinner, but he did not have the energy to make anything right now,
and honestly, his homemade cooking was not very good. He felt like Yanase would make
him something if he asked him to, but perhaps because of their different sense of taste,
Yanase's cooking was a bit bland for Yoshino, and when he added soy sauce or some
other sauce to the food, Yanase scolded him by saying, “That's not the way to eat that!”
and made Yoshino feel bad.
I must have some jelly drinks left…
He wasn't sure whether they were cold enough or not since he chilled these
energy drinks, which he bought in bulk in case of emergencies, but as he had expected,
he felt dizzy with fatigue and bumped his shin on the coffee table.
“Ouch……woa- woah!”
“Hey, watch out……!”
Just as he was about to fall, Yanase immediately got up from his seat and caught
him. Both of them let out a sigh of relief at the fact that they had avoided an accident.
“Haa…Geez, be careful, okay? What would you do if I hadn't caught you from
falling?”
“Sorry, sorry! I'm really hungry, so my legs gave out.”
There was something funny about his walking like a drunkard like this. Even
though he was not drunk, for the first time he now knew what it must feel like. It was
wrong to have Yanase support him up forever, so Yoshino tried to stand on his own, but
at that very moment, he felt Yanase press against his hips and back. It tickled him, so he
grew weak.
“Hold on- what are you doing?”
“Hey, are you eating properly? You've lost weight, haven't you?”
Yoshino tilted his head at Yanase's question. He hadn't weighed himself recently,
but his life style hadn't changed. Although, lately, he has been eating more fish than meat.
But then again, at the end of crunch time, he always easily lost weight.
“You think? I don't think I changed much.”
“No. You've gotten lighter.”
His feet left the ground as Yanase lifted him up.
“Wah! What are you doing, Yuu!?”
“I'm just trying to see. I couldn't lift you so easily before.”
“Really? Well, you probably just gained some muscles, right, Yuu?”
“That's not it. Eat decent food, even when Hatori doesn't come over. Don't settle
for convenience store food or take-out; cook your own! Rice is the staple food for the
Japanese.”
As Yuu talked, he slowly lowered Yoshino, who he had been holding in his arms.
“I like rice, but cooking it is a pain.”
“There's a rice cooker for that. You're so lazy! That's why got such a skinny
waist.”
“Hya! Idiot, don't grab me by the waist…! Ahaha! Stop! That's…my weak
spot…!!”
Yanase held him from behind and tickled his waist without mercy. Yoshino was a
ticklish guy, so he was helpless to this.
“If you let me draw you naked right now, I'll stop. “
“Kya! You pervert! Ahaha, I'm seriously gonna die laughing! Hyahahahaha!”
“It doesn't matter, does it? I drew you before, so at least take off your shirt.”
“Ehh…hahaha, what should I do..?”
As they joked around in this strange awkward atmosphere after an all-nighter, the
door suddenly opened with a click. Yoshino turned towards the sound and froze because
of the person who was standing there.
“……Ah…”
“……….”
“……….”
Hatori silently stood by the door with an angry expression on his face. His eyes
were glazed, and it looked like his veins were about to burst from his forehead.
Uh-oh……
Yoshino had broken the deadline due to terrible circumstances, and now he felt
guilty for joking around after being such a nuisance for everyone. But for some reason he
also had a hunch that hugging Yanase like this was not good and he got cold sweat over
this thought. Hatori ignored the fact that they were frozen together, threw down the
supermarket bag full of groceries and the envelope that contained the upcoming work
material on Yoshino's desk, and without saying a word left quickly. They heard the sound
of the door violently slamming shut and were left with only an eerie silence.
“Well, of course he's angry,” Yuu separated himself from Yoshino and patted him
on the shoulder to cheer him up.
“Wha- what should I do…?”
Hatori being angry meant that he would not be able to eat Hatori's cooking for a
while. Crunch time was finally over, but now he couldn't even eat any decent food like he
usually would!
Besides, what was he supposed to do with so many groceries? Yoshino couldn't
filet an entire fish, never mind the meat.
But the food is not the only problem……
He was used to being lectured, but now, he was being ignored, and this made him
uneasy. Clearly, he had been a nuisance because of how terrible his progress in drawing
the extra comic had been this time. Now, all Yoshino was left with were horrible
fantasies of whether Hatori had abandoned him or not. When he grew pale with fear,
Yanase spoke softly.
“Look at it this way, what if you apologized by e-mail? You always break the
deadlines, so he'll probably come around eventually. When was he ever in a good mood
after crunch time?”
“Yea- yeah…You're right…”
Yanase's consolation cheered him up a little, but he still felt slightly uneasy.
“Oh yeah. I've stopped tickling you, so now you have to pose nude for me like
you promised.”
“Hah!? What!? Don't decide things on your own!”
Hatori was angry at him because of Yanase, so he did not appreciate Yanase
getting into other people's business again.
I seriously have a bad feeling about this situation…
He was probably overly concerned about this, but to his surprise, this hunch of his
would not leave his mind.
“If you want me to, I could make something out of this.”
“Eh? Are you sure?”
“Cause, I bet you have no idea what to do with it, right, Chiaki?” Yanase asked as
he pointed at the packaged up flounder, and Yoshino nodded miserably.
“Yea- yeah.”
“Boiling it in soy sauce would be okay with you, right? I'll be over here doing that
while you go wash the rice.”
“You want me cook too!?”
“Of course. I'm not gonna spoil you. I'm gonna teach you how to do some basic
cooking.”
“Ugh…Let's do it then…”
Yoshino’s attitude wasn’t because he was depressed about the task laid out in
front of him. His ill omen came true; only this time, it did not resolve so simply.
「CHAPTER 1」
“Argh…I thought I was gonna die…”
Yoshino Chiaki collapsed on the sofa after sending home his assistants who had
stayed with him until he had finally finished his current manuscript about an hour ago. As
usual, the only person who stayed behind was Yanase Yuu, his chief assistant and friend
from middle school.
“Chiaki, if you're gonna sleep, do it on the bed,” Yanase said as he cleaned up the
screen tones and art material which were scattered all over the place. Instead of Yoshino,
useless as he was, Yanase cleaned today as well. Surely, even Yanase was tired from
staying up all night.
And I'm just useless……
Although he promised that he wouldn't do this anymore, he had once again cut it
close to the deadline. Ever since he was young, Yoshino developed an interest in drawing
comics. When he was in university, he had made his debut as a shoujo manga artist by
the pen name Yoshikawa Chiharu and had always completed his manuscripts days before
the deadline. Now that he was twenty-eight years old, defying the deadline was typical.
Back then, Yoshino’s main focus had been writing one-shots, so his schedule had been
more laid back. But now, just because he had gotten busy did not mean that he had to be
a nuisance for people.
He didn't mean to take all the credit and gain the label for popularity. He meant to
be serious every time but broke his pace somewhere along the way, so before he knew it,
he ended up cutting it close to the deadlines.
Haven't I had enough of stress?
Yoshino was definitely not as much of a risk taker anymore compared to when he
had first debuted, but even then, he had always felt the pressure to not disappoint his
readers, which had accumulated over the years. Additionally, he wanted to make his
works better and better, but the pace of his work did not improve. It has always been that
he did not want to make compromises in his work and always stuck to his own ideas to
the very end, but his childhood friend and editor-in-charge, Hatori Yoshiyuki, always
lectured him by saying, “It's one thing to make a compromise but another thing to
carefully assess your own work”. But even though Yoshino acknowledged that, he could
not look at his own work objectively when he was being attacked like that. The reason his
work got delayed was because of this vicious cycle that he caught up in.
This time, because of Yanase's suggestion, he had sent each completed sheet of
the manuscript through the motorbike delivery service, which forced the motorbike
delivery people to come back to Yoshino's place multiple amount of times. By doing this,
Yoshino somehow finished the manuscript. But after all this, only a single e-mail was
sent by Hatori, which said “I received everything.” After that, no more messages came.
Even though he hadn't heard from Hatori, he assumed that the manuscript had
been approved; yet it was clear that Hatori was angry. Now the scariest part was waiting
for Hatori to contact him.
I know he's gonna lecture me anyway, so he should just hurry up and contact me.
He was not too keen on calling Hatori himself and disturbing him at his work,
therefore, there was nothing he could do except wait. As he lay there exhausted and all
his undue attention was being aimed at his cellphone, he heard the scribbling sound of a
pencil. He casually raised his head and saw Yanase, who wore glasses when he worked
as his assistant, with a sketchpad. He was sketching him.
“Are you drawing me again…?”
Ever since middle school, Yanase often drew Yoshino. Not only did he draw him
during art class, but he also drew him in his notebook when Yoshino was sleeping during
class and told Yoshino he'd draw him anytime as long as he was sitting down. During
lunch breaks, Yoshino also happened to serve as his model.
Even though there were usually other guys to draw nearby, like Hatori, for some
reason, Yanase had only drawn Yoshino back then. But Yoshino wasn't annoyed.
However, there were men who were over twenty percent more better looking than
himself available for Yanase to draw, so he completely did not understand Yanase's want
to draw somebody as simple-looking as himself.
Yuu should draw himself instead……
Hatori was quite a handsome man, but Yanase also had good-looking features,
and even though he was a man, he was the type to fit the term “beautiful”. He had almond
shaped eyes along with lightly color-dyed silky hair. Yanase's eyes were much better than
his own droopy eyes. They were rimmed with fluttering eyelashes.
“You're drawing me…Aren't you tired after today?”
“It's okay. I finished cleaning up.”
“Eh? Ah, you did.”
The hardwood floor, which had screen tones scattered all over the place until just
a while ago, was now visible. Yanase must have tidied up the top of Yoshino's messy
desk as well. But that wasn’t all – just now Yanase had also done all of Yoshino's
laundry, which had pilled up during the crunch time. Yoshino could not thank Yanase
enough for this.
“Geez! You're really an amazing guy……! I want you to be my wife, seriously!”
he said dramatically, but he truly felt grateful.
“I don't want to be your wife, but being your husband would be okay.”
Although Yanase replied to Yoshino's joke with a straight face, he did not stop
sketching.
“Whaaat? Ahahahaha…hahaha…ah!”
As Yoshino laughed, his stomach gurgled. He hadn't paid attention to his hunger,
because he had been concentrating on drawing, but now that he thought about it, he
hadn't eaten anything since morning.
It was way past noon already. That's why it wasn't a strange time for his body to
be complaining. The fact that he was dizzy and his fingers shook was proof that he was
lacking sugar.
“Man, I'm hungry…Is there anything in the fridge?”
It seemed like he would faint if he didn't consume calories soon. Truthfully, he
wanted to eat a proper dinner, but he did not have the energy to make anything right now,
and honestly, his homemade cooking was not very good. He felt like Yanase would make
him something if he asked him to, but perhaps because of their different sense of taste,
Yanase's cooking was a bit bland for Yoshino, and when he added soy sauce or some
other sauce to the food, Yanase scolded him by saying, “That's not the way to eat that!”
and made Yoshino feel bad.
I must have some jelly drinks left…
He wasn't sure whether they were cold enough or not since he chilled these
energy drinks, which he bought in bulk in case of emergencies, but as he had expected,
he felt dizzy with fatigue and bumped his shin on the coffee table.
“Ouch……woa- woah!”
“Hey, watch out……!”
Just as he was about to fall, Yanase immediately got up from his seat and caught
him. Both of them let out a sigh of relief at the fact that they had avoided an accident.
“Haa…Geez, be careful, okay? What would you do if I hadn't caught you from
falling?”
“Sorry, sorry! I'm really hungry, so my legs gave out.”
There was something funny about his walking like a drunkard like this. Even
though he was not drunk, for the first time he now knew what it must feel like. It was
wrong to have Yanase support him up forever, so Yoshino tried to stand on his own, but
at that very moment, he felt Yanase press against his hips and back. It tickled him, so he
grew weak.
“Hold on- what are you doing?”
“Hey, are you eating properly? You've lost weight, haven't you?”
Yoshino tilted his head at Yanase's question. He hadn't weighed himself recently,
but his life style hadn't changed. Although, lately, he has been eating more fish than meat.
But then again, at the end of crunch time, he always easily lost weight.
“You think? I don't think I changed much.”
“No. You've gotten lighter.”
His feet left the ground as Yanase lifted him up.
“Wah! What are you doing, Yuu!?”
“I'm just trying to see. I couldn't lift you so easily before.”
“Really? Well, you probably just gained some muscles, right, Yuu?”
“That's not it. Eat decent food, even when Hatori doesn't come over. Don't settle
for convenience store food or take-out; cook your own! Rice is the staple food for the
Japanese.”
As Yuu talked, he slowly lowered Yoshino, who he had been holding in his arms.
“I like rice, but cooking it is a pain.”
“There's a rice cooker for that. You're so lazy! That's why got such a skinny
waist.”
“Hya! Idiot, don't grab me by the waist…! Ahaha! Stop! That's…my weak
spot…!!”
Yanase held him from behind and tickled his waist without mercy. Yoshino was a
ticklish guy, so he was helpless to this.
“If you let me draw you naked right now, I'll stop. “
“Kya! You pervert! Ahaha, I'm seriously gonna die laughing! Hyahahahaha!”
“It doesn't matter, does it? I drew you before, so at least take off your shirt.”
“Ehh…hahaha, what should I do..?”
As they joked around in this strange awkward atmosphere after an all-nighter, the
door suddenly opened with a click. Yoshino turned towards the sound and froze because
of the person who was standing there.
“……Ah…”
“……….”
“……….”
Hatori silently stood by the door with an angry expression on his face. His eyes
were glazed, and it looked like his veins were about to burst from his forehead.
Uh-oh……
Yoshino had broken the deadline due to terrible circumstances, and now he felt
guilty for joking around after being such a nuisance for everyone. But for some reason he
also had a hunch that hugging Yanase like this was not good and he got cold sweat over
this thought. Hatori ignored the fact that they were frozen together, threw down the
supermarket bag full of groceries and the envelope that contained the upcoming work
material on Yoshino's desk, and without saying a word left quickly. They heard the sound
of the door violently slamming shut and were left with only an eerie silence.
“Well, of course he's angry,” Yuu separated himself from Yoshino and patted him
on the shoulder to cheer him up.
“Wha- what should I do…?”
Hatori being angry meant that he would not be able to eat Hatori's cooking for a
while. Crunch time was finally over, but now he couldn't even eat any decent food like he
usually would!
Besides, what was he supposed to do with so many groceries? Yoshino couldn't
filet an entire fish, never mind the meat.
But the food is not the only problem……
He was used to being lectured, but now, he was being ignored, and this made him
uneasy. Clearly, he had been a nuisance because of how terrible his progress in drawing
the extra comic had been this time. Now, all Yoshino was left with were horrible
fantasies of whether Hatori had abandoned him or not. When he grew pale with fear,
Yanase spoke softly.
“Look at it this way, what if you apologized by e-mail? You always break the
deadlines, so he'll probably come around eventually. When was he ever in a good mood
after crunch time?”
“Yea- yeah…You're right…”
Yanase's consolation cheered him up a little, but he still felt slightly uneasy.
“Oh yeah. I've stopped tickling you, so now you have to pose nude for me like
you promised.”
“Hah!? What!? Don't decide things on your own!”
Hatori was angry at him because of Yanase, so he did not appreciate Yanase
getting into other people's business again.
I seriously have a bad feeling about this situation…
He was probably overly concerned about this, but to his surprise, this hunch of his
would not leave his mind.
“If you want me to, I could make something out of this.”
“Eh? Are you sure?”
“Cause, I bet you have no idea what to do with it, right, Chiaki?” Yanase asked as
he pointed at the packaged up flounder, and Yoshino nodded miserably.
“Yea- yeah.”
“Boiling it in soy sauce would be okay with you, right? I'll be over here doing that
while you go wash the rice.”
“You want me cook too!?”
“Of course. I'm not gonna spoil you. I'm gonna teach you how to do some basic
cooking.”
“Ugh…Let's do it then…”
Yoshino’s attitude wasn’t because he was depressed about the task laid out in
front of him. His ill omen came true; only this time, it did not resolve so simply.
