Chapter 1

Marukawa was miserable any time during the summer, but late August was especially bad. They budgeted for air conditioning during the worst part of the summer, but it was usually less than a month through July and into August. So, by August twentieth, the publishing house's employees were miserable and sticky, and it was made worse because they'd had a few weeks to get used to air conditioning and conditions that were actually okay for humans to function at.

It was the middle of the day, and Kisa Shouta was grumbling to himself as he waved a hand fan in front of his face. He'd been working in the Emerald department of Marukawa for a few years now and he could still never get used to the crushing heat that came right before the weather cooled down and stopped being so stifling. He seemed to be the only one who cared, though; the editor-in-chief of Emerald Monthly, Takano Masamune, was barking orders as he always was. Mino-san and Hatori-san were going about their business, though they were both sporting sheens of sweat that weren't usually there. Even the newbie, Onodera Ritsu, didn't seem to mind that they were slowly being baked.

At least they'd already gotten out of Hell Week. He couldn't imagine being in that emotional state without proper air conditioning.

"I'm going to get something cold to drink. Anyone want anything?" Kisa asked, standing up. Everyone in the office just looked at him like he was crazy. "I'll take that as a no." He really had to wonder if it really was hot, or if he was just slowly going insane after working for the shoujo magazine for so long. It was, if he had to admit, quite possibly both.

Just as he tried to leave the office, though ,Takano's voice called out to him. "Kisa, I told you that you have to go meet someone. Or didn't you hear me?" He sounded annoyed but not overly-so. It wasn't like Kisa was a bad employee, he just tended to space out sometimes. "Isaka-san wanted us to deliver a thank you present and you're going to do it."

"Why me?" Kisa asked, inwardly groaning. He'd probably be stuck making small talk with some businessman that had some obscure connection to one of the titles he didn't even oversee. He loved his job, but he hated that part of it.

"Because it's the person singing the theme song for your new anime," Takano said, narrowing his eyes like he thought Kisa was stupid. Clearly he'd already said all this and Kisa hadn't heard a single word of it. "Your author was going to go over, but she's actually working on next month's chapter and we didn't want to interrupt her.

Kisa nodded. It really was a miracle when their authors were willingly working on their pages without someone from Emerald having to breathe down their neck the entire time. It was best to just leave them to it. Besides, it meant Kisa had to go down to the recording studio, and they did have climate control. Maybe he could get away with staying there for a few hours before Takano noticed he should've been back by then.

The present was just a bouquet of bellflowers, with a card with Marukawa's logo on it. It seemed rather odd that they were having an employee deliver them instead of having them delivered by whatever shop they got them from. Then again, Marukawa was known to cut corners like that; why pay for delivery when you can get an employee to bring them over, if you're already paying that employee for the day, anyway? And it was good for PR, Kisa supposed as he took the bouquet and headed for an elevator. Marukawa wasn't the one that was producing the anime, but they did handle the source material and it was good to be on friendly terms in that way. Friendly meant easier to work with. The fewer hoops the anime studios had to jump through to get things organized and done, the more willing they'd be to work with them in the future.

And, Kisa mused, perhaps more of his own titles would be adapted. He had been working at Emerald long enough, but very few of his titles ever got animated. He had drama CDs here and there, which he supposed meant there was plenty of interest, but at the same time, having an anime, or even just one or two OVAs, made, meant they had faith that his titles could make the kind of money that would pay back their investment and more.

It was depressing, having to sit through those print run meetings and listen to them lowball him every time. He'd try to fight back to have more copies of his tankobon printed, but it never worked. Even Takano, who seemed to believe he was a good editor, could never get them to give him a higher number. Even copies of the magazine featuring characters from his series on the cover tended to just barely squeak up into the usual number of initial prints. Kisa didn't know if he really was that unpopular compared to the other editors and their authors, or someone in Sales just hated him that much.

In fact, the only reason he had even managed to convince the people at the anime studio to produce one for this particular title was because some famous singer had been seen reading the manga, and that had caused an unprecedented spike in sales. Kisa hadn't thought to ask who the singer was, mostly because he doubted he'd ever meet the person. And anyway, it was apparently a pop star, popular with teenage girls, and Kisa wouldn't have known the name, anyway.

Walking out into Bunkyo from inside Marukawa was like the difference between walking out of a sauna and into a vat of heated marshmallow fluff. He hated both of the environments, but he found he could barely walk outside. He had to will his feet down the sidewalk, thanking whatever god existed that at least the studio was nearby. If he had had to cram himself onto the train, he probably would've tossed the flowers into a trash can and just gone straight home. He didn't have air conditioning at home because his had broken, but at least he had fans at intermittent parts of his apartment to keep the air cool and flowing.

Kisa wasn't sure how he made it, but he did. He was also right that the recording studio was air conditioned. It was almost a shock to his system after having to walk several blocks in the marshmallow fluff heat, and instead of talking to the secretary that was staring at him, he sighed in relief and just sat down in a chair in the lobby.

"Can I help you?" the secretary finally asked, looking rather uncomfortable that Kisa looked like he was going to have an orgasm just because the building had climate control.

Kisa, to his credit, got a hold of himself. "Oh, right," he said. "I was supposed to deliver these to…" He glanced at the card, hoping that it gave the name of the person because if Takano had said it, he hadn't heard that part, either. "Yukina Kou. He's supposed to be in one of the studios right now."

"He's recording right now so you can just leave them here," the woman said, signaling to her desk.

Kisa, of course, wanted to stay in that air-conditioned heaven as long as possible, so he said, "Actually I was supposed to talk to him as well, so if you don't mind telling me which one he's in…"

"…do you work for him?" the woman asked.

"Oh, no! I'm from Marukawa," Kisa said. He nodded his head in the vague direction of the publisher's building down the road. "The song he's recording today is the theme for an anime based off one of my titles so they thought it would be good if I said hello. PR and all that, you know." If Kisa had his way, he'd just drop the flowers off and find a corner to curl up in for the rest of the day, but the woman didn't look like she'd allow him to just lurk there in the lobby.

The woman reluctantly told him which studio he needed to go to, and she looked like she would rather be in his place. Since the singer's given name was "Kou" that probably meant it was, in fact, a man. And since he was a pop singer, he was probably one of those pretty-boy types Kisa had seen tacked all over the subway in the form of promotional posters and concert announcements. Kisa would be the first to admit he was easily taken in by a pretty face, but those types were almost always all looks and no substance.

Not that substance really mattered to him. Kisa couldn't remember ever having a serious relationship. Of course it wasn't like he was going to get this particular man to sleep with him. The usual type he found himself with were college students and thirty-somethings, both at a bar because they're lonely and don't have anything better to do. It wasn't as if Kisa preyed on them or anything, he just liked a good round of sex without having to worry about the other getting attached.

There was a window on the door, and Kisa glanced in before knocking. There were a couple people in there as well as a man standing in the recording booth, but he couldn't hear him; the sound must've been filtering through the headphones the woman sitting at the switchboard had over her ears. As soon as Kisa knocked, the man, dressed in a suit and looking about as nervous as a squirrel with exploding acorns, jumped up and went to the door.

"I'm sorry, but we're recording now…" he said. He eyed the bouquet of bellflowers. "If you're one of Yukina's fans, you'll just have to wait."

"Ah, no, I'm from Marukawa," Kisa said. "I'm an editor at Emerald. The editor-in-chief wanted me to bring these over as thanks…" When the man looked like he didn't believe him, Kisa thrust the flowers at him and reached into his bag when they were securely in the man's arms. He produced a business card. "I'm Kisa Shouta." He bowed as the man looked at the card in disbelief.

The man looked like he really didn't want to, but he still said, "Come in, if you want. Yukina's almost done recording." Kisa nodded his thanks and followed him in. "I'm Yukina's manager. You can just call me Kawano. Were you the one who worked on this series?"

"Yep, it's one of mine," Kisa said with a smile. "I'm sure Yukina-san will do an excellent job. I haven't seen the lyrics yet but…"

Kisa stopped dead once he was actually inside the room. The smell of greasy takeout filled the air and it was slightly hotter than in the rest of the building because it was a bit small and cramped, but neither of these things were what caught Kisa's attention. Yukina had stopped singing and was now conversing with the switchboard woman, though Kisa still couldn't hear his voice.

Yukina Kou was, however, one of the most handsome men Kisa had ever had the pleasure of laying his eyes on. He probably wasn't a teenager, as Kisa had suspected when he heard that the guy's appeal was teenage girls. He was still, however, likely younger than Kisa's own thirty years. His eyes were glowing, his skin was perfect, his face perfectly proportioned, and his hair was in a style that made it look windswept in exactly the right way. Kisa wasn't afraid to admit that if he had met this man on the street, and didn't know who he was, he would've happily seduced him into his bed.

"Uh, Yukina, you have a visitor," Kawano into the microphone the woman had been using. "This is Kisa Shouta. He edited the manga of the series you're singing for…"

Yukina was out of the recording booth faster than Kisa could aware a man could move, and he bowed deeply. "It's good to meet you. I love this series; I bought all the tankobon!" He had a sparkly aura Kisa wasn't aware actually existed.

Kisa was speechless for a few seconds before something clicked in his brain, and he said, "Oh. You're that famous singer who got this to be so popular…"

"I suppose so," Yukina said with a bright smile. Kisa felt like he'd need sunglasses soon if he had to put up with this any longer. He also felt like he'd need to be tied down and thrown out soon because he knew he'd start flirting with this man, and what chance did he have with a famous singer?

Luckily for him, his phone beeped with a new text message, and Kisa took it out of his pocket. He frowned as he read it. "Ah, I'd love to stay, but that was my boss. I need to get back to Marukawa." He glanced at Kawano. "If you need anything, I gave your manager my card."

Yukina seemed like he wanted to say something, but Kisa just turned, sent a vague wave behind him, and was gone. He felt like that meeting definitely could've gone worse.