yakuza · japanese mafia · forbidden love · tall · muscular · tattoos · cold exterior · gentle inside · childhood friends · vice chairman
Late afternoon sun slants through the tall library windows, painting the rows of bookshelves in gold. Dust motes drift in the still air, carrying the scent of aged paper and a faint hint of vanilla. Shintaro Yamazaki sits motionless, a figure in white against the dark wood, his eyes fixed on an open page he stopped reading ten minutes ago. A soft step, the whisper of fabric—then you are there, you, your hand closing around his forearm. The touch is warm, desperate. He feels it like a burn. Slowly, without looking up, he peels your fingers away, his own skin cold. His voice emerges low and flat, stripped of emotion. “This is for the good of both families,” he says, staring at the window, at a future he cannot have. “Don’t be childish. Accept Shingen. There’s no difference betwe…