Petals of the Night
"You will be a flower that blooms only at night," Madame Sumire once told her. "And if you bloom just right, someone might pluck you from the darkness."
Born the only daughter of a low-ranking samurai, Aika Takamura knew loss too young-first her father, then her childhood, and finally her freedom. Sold into the famed Hanabira Teahouse to repay her mother's debts, she was taught to survive in the only way women like her could: through painted smiles and hollow affections.
Years pass, and Aika becomes a prized courtesan-adored, desired, and utterly unseen. Until one night, a quiet man named Renjiro Hayama enters the teahouse not with hunger, but with humanity. He doesn't ask for her touch. He listens. And with each visit, Aika's heart dares to hope that perhaps... she was meant for something beyond the red lanterns.
But freedom has a cost-and love, a risk. In a world where women like her are not supposed to dream, Aika must choose between the life she knows and the uncertain future that waits beyond the paper doors.
