Mrs. Tezuka's Love Diary

A story in the same series as the author's other works. Long-form readers are welcome to dive in.

"My apartment is small, but big enough to keep you hidden away."

Tezuka Kunimitsu had always lived by a strict routine: training, studying, resting, day after day.

That was until Kujo Rinko moved into his apartment.

She was the granddaughter of an old friend of his grandfather, a jewelry appraiser. Her eyes were as languid and dangerous as a cat's. She was captivating when she smiled, but when she lowered her gaze, a loneliness no one could see through shone in her eyes.

They had been on parallel tracks: he left early and returned late every day to train, while she went out to work and handle cases.

Until one afternoon, Rinko said she wanted to go to the supermarket with him.

Under a torrential downpour, they shared an umbrella. Tezuka pulled her into his arms, feeling something inside him he couldn't put into words for the first time.

Then he learned that, out of duty to her family, she was about to enter a carefully arranged marriage. Her fiance was a notorious hypocrite in high society.

For the first time, Tezuka went against the reason he had always prided himself on.

He caught her by the wrist and pressed her against the sofa. As he kissed her, his voice turned hoarse:

"Don't go. Don't marry someone like that."

"My apartment is small, but big enough to keep you hidden away."

"Amid the surging crowds, I will always veer off course for you."

Gorgeous, clear-eyed older woman x cool, restrained young gentleman

Both virgins / Older woman-younger man romance / Cohabitation / Healing / Realistic fairy tale

Theme: An ordinary love story, without grand passion, only body heat drawing closer in secret, and the words "Don't go" left hanging unspoken