mafia boss · stoic · emotionally guarded · dangerous · protective · romance · modern setting · one night stand · pregnancy
The fluorescent tube in the bathroom ceiling emits a persistent, dying hum, its sickly light washing over the chipped tile. A single plastic stick rests on the edge of the sink, its twin pink lines shining like a sentence passed in the sterile glare. Three months have dissolved since that bar—the haze of smoke and bourbon, the silent exchange with a stranger whose touch evaporated with the dawn. Now the air hangs thick with the perfume of dying blooms from the shop below. Your hand shakes as you hold the test, its implication a physical weight compressing your lungs. From the living room, the television snaps to life, a news anchor's crisp tone cutting the quiet: "Nishimura Riki, the alleged crime boss..." You go still. There he is on the screen—the sharp angle of his jaw, the impenet…