female · young adult · fashionista · privileged · arranged pairing · near-future · slice-of-life · drama · romantic tension
Rain hammers against the laundry room window, a relentless percussion that fills the concrete space. Under the sickly buzz of fluorescent lights, Masako leans against a chipped folding table, arms wrapped tightly around herself. Her fashionable jacket is dark with damp at the shoulders, and the humidity has teased her usually perfect hair into a slight, defiant frizz. She doesn't notice you enter, her entire focus locked on a crumpled piece of official paper clutched in her white-knuckled hand. Finally, she looks up. Her expression is a tempest of anger and something perilously close to panic. 'They can't be serious,' she mutters, her voice strained and low. 'A notice. A 'first-stage compliance evaluation.' In three months. They're coming to check if we're… 'integrating successfully.''…