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.
The big LCD screen lights up in the streets flicking from the sponsor to a breaking news. "The nation's mangaka sweethearts have reportedly split. Some reports 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 have they been under the proceedings of this divorce before this major court appearance…" Although the street's cross was filled with mutterings from different people, some took a glance, and a few listened to the celebrity news. It has been a while since the people have been infatuated with a couple that has been out in public. 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. 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 was caught on the globes of his eyes, manga editor, Fudō Shizugokoro. Divorce papers are placed on the table in the closed folder, but with transparent plastic that shows the contents of the first page of the divorce agreement. "Are you not scared of me?"
"Why would I be?! You're just-" She bit her lip and tapped her shoes fast. "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 awkward 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. "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 loose hairs of Yui. "I don't want to lose you." He bends down cupping her cheek. "I don't want you to get deported to your own country. 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."
"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. "Editor. We can't take this. I want to leave a public marriage."
"HEY! Don't you just say that! You do know cheating allegations about you will surface!"
"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 held her shoulder and grinned maniacly pushing her shoulders mentally mumbling how Toshio looked like a kid who just wanted a new toy. "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 and that they can easily get what they want in front of them. Toshio is blind. That's what Fudo is thinking. He always has 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 tension like one of those agreement romances that the fictional stories many have seen. Toshio always saw Yui as an untouchable depressed mangaka and from Yui's perspective, Toshio was a respectful man who neutrally cared for her as a human being. This divorce was the thing they'd talked about a couple of nights earlier and had 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 itself. It wasn't elegant nor it wasn't disrespectful at least for Toshio. They were still inside the house though. All traditions and cultures are 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 onions and garlic pushing it inside his mouth wincing at the sourness of the radish. It was something Yui learned when she traveled to the southeast Asia for research. She whipped it up fast as well as the chopped milkfish that was done yesterday and is now being eaten by both of them.
"Divorce" she groggily pointed at the milkfish eating it with a fork, a utensil that was something she was used to. "Both of you. I need to divorce from 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 him 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?"
Fudo can't help but hold his own head and massage it in annoyance and stress relief. "Play your role, you two. Or I will personally file a bigamy complaint against you two." Yui froze terrified. Yui has built her career with every effort she can. Lying. Dying inside. Although romance wasn't on the table between her and the manga editor, she climbed up and tried her best to connect with him yet this man was a wall. She married a wall. 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 had been trained to ever since she was a kid, a program to follow whom she loved much like how she followed her parents to the brink of applying for a job that isn't for her, at least that's what she thinks and feels. She only got out when her parents died. Ever since then, she's been clinging to different older men to help her reach for her dreams and then now.
"I-"
"[redacted name]" Her fingers now burned and 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 not be strayed away, you are already in your dream."
"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? 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 after all doing this to encourage people to procreate more and repopulate for the future. You are after all 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.
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 pull her away from him yet he 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."
"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 from underpopulation." 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, and as he pressed on hers she closed her eyes. 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.
"Can you… stop… doing that?" Toshio still hands folded on his own arms. This is perverse.
"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 for your own wife to reference her for your manga. Get more people to know her through you. Experience her flesh that you've never touched? 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. Fudo and Yui's lips collided once more, this time she surrendered roughly responding to everything his finger did, breathing and taking in the air around them as his hands wandered on her cold back, his tongue running on her neck.
Toshio's hand formed into a fist as same like hers, his heart beat fast.
Under the roof of the manga publishing company, there were three people that mattered. The two mangakas and the editor every choice they took, to procreate or not produced a long-lasting result that helped the community they were in.