Please, Brother-in-Law Toji

Next up: Kissing and cuddling with his best friend in front of my man-bun crush. Blurb at the very end.

Blurb:

After his wife passed away, Jin'er lived with his sister-in-law Jiaye and his son, Xiaohui.

How to put it? In his eyes, this sister-in-law was a slovenly little brat, lazy and shameless.

And yet...

Every single one of her exes was desperately in love with her.

The young master of the Atobe conglomerate stood by the door with a bouquet of roses, looking confident and flamboyant. He pulled out a diamond ring the size of a pigeon's egg. "Where's my fiancée? Hmm?"

Jin'er: Wake up. She already dumped you. Hurry home. You can leave the stuff here...

A mustachioed, cat-eyed Public Security officer rang the doorbell. "Xiaoye keeps coming home late at night lately. I'm worried about her. How about I move in with you?"

Jin'er: You creepy stalker, stay away from my Xiaoye!

A furious white-haired Six Eyes shouted in protest. "She went on a date with another man behind my back! Aren't you going to do something about it, Onii-san?!"

Jin'er: Calm down. You broke up ages ago, so she can do whatever she wants now. And don't call me Onii-san, or spy on her again!

Were all these people crazy? Jin'er couldn't make any sense of it.

He might not understand, but he had to do his duty as a brother-in-law and protect his "little Tang monk" from being snatched away by demons and monsters.

Reader's Guide:

1. Third-person narration.

2. The story starts before the romance. The early chapters lean toward plot, and there's a theme I've really been wanting to write about.

3. Multiple endings.

Upcoming story blurb:

My name is Fushiguro Akari. I'm a first-year high school student, the eldest child in the family, and my mom remarried last year.

My unreliable stepfather, Jin'er, asked me to help with an assassination. Then I, even more unreliable than he was, fell in love at first sight with the target's man-bun-wearing bodyguard.

I guess being a hopeless romantic runs in the family.

The mission was called off, and my stepfather left in a huff.

With no income left to support us, Mom promptly ditched her three burdens and ran.

With my little siblings crying for food and nowhere else to turn, I had no choice but to ask a shady middleman surnamed Kong to find me a job.

My technique is pretty abstract. It lets me give myself and others all sorts of buffs and debuffs.

The next day, the middleman brought my crush over and asked me to give him a buff so he wouldn't have to "eat dishcloths" when absorbing cursed spirits.

Being clever, I claimed my technique required kisses and cuddles to activate, and only lasted 24 hours.

And so, every day I got to hug my dream guy (his pecs are huge) and kiss his cheek (his skin is so nice). Even when life got tough, I could keep going (he often brought me souvenirs).

One day, my dream guy brought his white-haired best friend along and asked me to give him a buff that would filter out useless information and lighten the load on his brain...

As it turns out, you shouldn't lie, or you'll have to keep digging yourself deeper.

Why do those two come together every time?!

And so I ended up living this strange life, kissing and cuddling with my crush's best friend right in front of him every day.

Until one day, the black-haired boy grabbed my wrist, his beautiful phoenix eyes dark with emotion. "I heard your technique only needs physical contact to activate."

Me: "..."

And of course, the Six Eyes had to make things worse. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. "So, do you like kissing him or me more?"

God! Save me!

Theme: The bonds between people are proof that we have lived.