After missing his flight back to Seoul, a disillusioned K-pop idol finds love, acceptance, and the strength to fight for his own happiness at last.
10 years ago I started sharing my writing here on Tumblr, not really expecting much to come out of it. That very first project was a serial called Love in Print, and it was because of those stories and characters that I ended up making my most enduring friendships. It's taken me a decade but I'm very excited (uhhh and emotional??) to share the cover of my upcoming cozy contemporary, This Place is Magic, here on the original account where I first sent my writing into the world.
It's also just beyond special to me that @erionmakuo, who illustrated LIP in the yonder days of yore for me (and is one of those enduring friendships mentioned above) is also still my illustrator today!
★ Read the full blurb here!
★ Sign up to request an ARC!
★ Follow me for news + updates on the book (under my pen name!) Tumblr / Instagram
★ And if you're a former reader of Love in Print, thank you so much for supporting my writing back then... and please DO reach out to me because I love to hear from you guys! Even though I definitely want to take everything I wrote in 2014 and hurl it into a bonfire
If you see this and feel so inclined, please reblog and help me get This Place is Magic to someone out there who might really love it!
💌 Request an early copy! 💌 https://bit.ly/TPIMsignups
After missing his flight back to Seoul, a disillusioned K-pop idol finds love, acceptance, and the strength to fight for his own happiness at last.
As a member of the internationally beloved K-pop group Apollo, Eunjae has learned firsthand that fame and fortune come at a steep price. But leaving it all behind is easier said than done, and it seems Eunjae has no choice but to continue… until he steps through the orange door at Wanna Waffle on the way to the airport, fails to catch his plane to Seoul, and upends his entire existence.
Jiyeon and her family don’t know the truth about this quiet, handsome stranger who stumbled into their restaurant. Regardless, it’s clear that he needs them. And the longer he stays, the more Eunjae realizes that he might just be willing to trade the adoration of millions for home, family, and even one chance at true love. But his powerful entertainment agency will never let him go without a fight, and Apollo’s fate hangs in the balance along with his own. If Eunjae hopes to win, he must stand his ground and fight back — not only for himself, but for the brothers who have loved and supported him all this time.
Brimming with warmth, waffles, and too many brothers, This Place is Magic will resonate with any reader searching for a comforting escape. Debut author Irene Te delivers a cozy contemporary read interwoven with found family and gentle romance. Step through that orange door for a heartfelt, hilarious, and irrepressibly hopeful journey of self-discovery, perfect for fans of Axie Oh and Jenny Han.
Want to read... but too lazy to leave Tumblr?? I get it. I really do. You can read Episode 1 in its entirety over here without having to depart this app for... another app.
Read Episode 1!
But what is this story about?? Tbh Mari why should I read it?? (You will soooo regret asking this question)
This story is about:
An extremely charming man who is also amazing at laundry
A girl who just won’t save this guy’s number on her phone
NOT a love triangle because the male lead simply will not allow possible rivals any actual screen time, thereby rendering this trope mathematically impossible,
People who check their work email at weddings
People who hate weddings
People who have strategy meetings re: how to escape from weddings
Romance via calendar invites
Wondering if you’re falling in love or merely sleep deprived?? Both??
Read the first episode here!
And if you decide you want more... it’s over on Wattpad with 15 of the 24 episodes posted. For those who would rather wait for the whole thing to be posted, Masaru’s run will end on 14 Feb!
Thanks for any likes/reblogs, this writer is grateful for your support <3
“But Mari, I don’t WANT to go read this on Wattpad, I want to stay here on Tumblr!” Listen, my friend. Let me help you. Here’s all of Episode 1! (But the rest is over here if you decide you want to read it!)
— SATURDAY NIGHT —
She’s started to think of it as the summer of weddings. Like purgatory, but with more flowers.
Reiko sighs. Another Saturday, another charming garden venue. Soft, flickering tea lights float in shallow porcelain bowls. It looks like something lifted straight out of Pinterest, and it’s pretty in all the right ways, hitting every obligatory aesthetic beat. The music is loud and many of the guests are amiably drunk, swaying in slow circles on the dance floor or queuing up for one more lap around the buffet.
Alone at her table, Reiko hides behind the towering lily centerpiece, nursing a headache. She fishes her phone out of the tiny, mostly useless evening bag she’s bought to go with this dress and takes refuge in her work inbox.
She’d love to go home, but it’s too early to make her retreat. Another two hours, she coaches herself. You can make it for two more.
“Come on,” says Ren, prodding her in the shoulder. Reiko jumps half a mile and nearly drops her phone, not that her cousin notices. “We’re missing a cake opportunity,” he whines.
As usual, Ren resembles a figure pulled directly off some runway in Milan. Impeccably attired, hair artfully tousled, a Rolex gleaming from his left wrist. Reiko plucks at a tuft of fur caught on the cuff of his tuxedo.
“You know, there is such a thing as a lint roller. You have one somewhere in your apartment.”
Ren peers down at the wad of cat hair slowly drifting down to the grass beneath their table. “Lint roller? What lint roller?” And then his face lights up. “Oh! You mean that tape-on-a-stick thing from the last time you came over?”
“Yes,” Reiko answers patiently. “That tape-on-a-stick thing. You use it to make sure you aren’t leaving the house dressed in cat fluff.”
Suzu pops up behind Ren. “He likes for everyone to know that he’s more complex than he appears. An insufferable playboy and a sophisticated cat bachelor.” She loops her arm through his and makes a show of sniffing at his clothes. “Ah,” she breathes. “The smell of too much money, layered over eau de too many cats.”
“I have three. How is that too many? And why aren’t either of you interested in getting some cake? This is a wedding. You go to weddings for cake.”
“That’s definitely the primary reason for attending weddings.”
“It’s from Fujiwara’s, you know. They never do weddings anymore. You’re missing the dessert event of your lives.”
Suzu straightens his boutonniere. “You accosted the Fujiwara grannies for these people?” A low whistle. “Wow. Dad must really like them.”
Reiko follows her twin’s gaze. Their father, Ryuuki, is busy holding court at a neighboring table. He laughs raucously at someone’s cheesy anecdote and is having the most fun out of all of them. “It’s all business, I suppose,” she says, unable to keep from smiling despite how little she’s enjoying herself.
Suzu snorts. “Of course it’s all business. Isn’t it always?” To Ren, she says, “Hey, how long before we’ve done our duty for the family market stall? I still have ten pages left to write on a research paper and it’s…” She grabs his arm in order to check the time on his fancy watch. “… 9:34. With half an hour’s drive back to my apartment.”
“You can spare ten minutes to have a slice of legendary cake, Tachibana Suzuna.”
“God, okay. But it better not be weird like that sheet cake you ordered for the charity auction last month.”
“Not weird. Avant-garde.”
“Uh-huh. Also, it tasted like beets and had radioactive magenta icing. So gross.”
“You and Reiko just really have no appreciation for the finer things in life. Let’s go, the line’s only getting longer.”
“Don’t want any,” Reiko pipes up. “I’ll have a slice vicariously, through Suzu.”
“Twin powers,” Suzu concurs, initiating the special handshake they invented when they were six. Almost twenty years later, they’re still augmenting the sequence with new moves. “Anything I ate, Reiko also ate. And vice versa. Page 2, Line 21 in the Twin Manual.”
“The worst plus-ones anybody ever brought to a wedding,” complains Ren. He pours Reiko a fresh glass of water from the pitcher on the table and gives her a pat on the head, a gesture of silent sympathy.
She watches Ren and Suzu as they stop to tease Ryuuki along the way. And then she blinks back the onslaught of unwanted tears, reaches for her phone again, and taps the newest e-mail notification. Three unread messages beckon through Reiko’s blurred vision. She scans the subject lines, head bowed over the glowing screen. Slipping into the steps of a familiar dance, she starts at the bottom with the oldest message first, because that’s easier than confronting her emotions.
PRE-ORDER CAMPAIGN - SPS OMNIBUS EDITION. A reply from the manufacturer about a shipment of Star Princess Sanna enamel pins she asked about on Friday afternoon. Delayed for another two weeks. Not ideal, but better than never getting them in at all. Reiko marks it for a response later.
TENJOU DELIVERY WEDNESDAY. Timestamped a mere ten minutes ago. She isn’t the only one working on a day off. Reiko notices right away that the message has been flagged as important, which is odd. This e-mail appears, without fail, every Monday of her life. Throughout the long history of this exchange, the message has never been flagged as important. At least, not that Reiko can remember.
She almost opens it, curiosity triggered, but then she sees the subject of the next e-mail and momentarily forgets everything else.
ALL DEPTS: QUARTERLY MEETING — MON @ 10AM
A thrill dances through her, momentarily displacing the throbbing ache in her skull. The sounds of the reception fade away. She taps the message and it unfurls into a calendar invite. Representatives from every department at her publishing house will be expected to attend, including Reiko and the other senior marketing staff.
Most meetings are a dreary prospect, especially when scheduled for first thing on a Monday. At these quarterly gatherings, it takes hours to discuss things like sales figures and future business plans. But this one is special, because they’ll finally present the twentieth anniversary plans for DUCHESS Magazine’s most iconic franchise to date: Red Thread. The first manga she ever read all the way through, start to finish. The reason why she applied at Yumeisha in the first place, as soon as she’d graduated.
Reiko accepts the invite and adds it to her burgeoning, meticulously color-coded calendar. She can’t keep from breaking into a smile. She’s still beaming at her phone when she hears the grass crunching softly under someone’s feet and looks up to find that she is no longer alone.
The someone is tall, just about as impeccably turned out as Ren, and wearing a pair of dress shoes so highly polished that Reiko can see her reflection in them. He’s shed the jacket and rolled up the sleeves of the crisp white shirt underneath.
There is only a bowl of tealights to see him by, so it takes a moment for Reiko to recognize the man now seating himself across from her. But if the head of blond hair hadn’t given it away, the green eyes and trademark smirk would have made it very clear within the next two seconds, anyway.
She blinks at him. “Oshiro?”
“Hi.”
“Um, hi. What are you doing here?”
He leans back into the chair and stretches his long legs under the table, instantly making himself at home. “Attending a wedding,” he replies. “Chatting with the bride’s aunties. Waiting for you to pay attention to me.”
“And sending e-mails?”
“No rest for the wicked, as they say.”
Reiko puts her phone down. “It’s weird seeing you outside of work. This is the last place I’d expect to run into you.”
“Why? Because you figured that I live at the office and camp out under my desk on days off?”
She laughs. “I mean, yeah.”
“To be fair, I’d expect the same of you.”
Well, that really is fair. Sometimes Reiko looks up from the endless loop between work and her apartment, her apartment and then work, and realizes that her entire existence can be summed up in three boring sentences or less. And then she’ll go back to her computer screen, her half empty coffee mug, the pathetic little granola bar that will have to serve as her lunch. But that’s just the way of things, isn’t it? At least she genuinely loves her job. It would be much harder to bear, otherwise.
“I’ve considered just packing myself a bag and living in my cubicle,” Reiko admits, without any real shame. In the background, the band segues into their much livelier cover of a depressing breakup anthem. Over the noise, she adds, “At least it would save me a commute.”
“So dedicated.”
She shrugs. “So lazy.”
“Anyone truly lazy wouldn’t be checking her inbox at a wedding reception,” Oshiro points out.
“Guilty as charged. Have you come to scold me for not participating in wedding activities?”
“No, I’ve come to ask you why you haven’t opened my e-mail.” He waves his own phone at her. “I checked three seconds ago. It definitely still says unread.”
“It’s flagged important and with a read receipt? Seriously?”
“Seriously. It’s high priority. Read it right now.” He angles a covert glance over her shoulder, in the direction he came from earlier. “Oh, and if you don’t mind, don’t reply until I’m back over there.”
“Wait, you want a reply, too? What am I supposed to say? You send me the same four lines every week. I have the thing memorized by now.” To prove this point, she clasps her hands behind her back and recites, “Heading to Tenjou on Wednesday. They need endcaps, window decals, sticker packs, blah blah blah, for insert-manga-title-here. I’ll stop by and grab them on my way out. Thanks. Oshiro Masaru, DUCHESS Sales, 81-4-8914-1111, extension 822.”
His demeanor shifts, now part bemusement and part blatant self-satisfaction. “Look, Tachibana, I’m beyond flattered that you hang onto my every word like this. Not surprising. I’m extremely eloquent in my digital correspondence.”
She rolls her eyes. “There it is. I knew it was coming.”
“You even know my extension by heart,” Oshiro continues blithely. “It’s like my wildest dreams coming true. But what I really need right now is for you to open that e-mail and write me a timely reply. By timely, I mean don’t hit send until I’m at my table again. And then I’ll read your response and write you back. So on, so forth, rinse and repeat, until this torture is over and we can both leave.”
“Ah.” Reiko crosses her arms. “You want a prolonged reason to be on your phone.”
“Correct.”
“Because you don’t want to be here.”
“Also correct, but needs clarification. I don’t want to be at this wedding. I do want to be at this table with you.”
He tips his head towards his original seating arrangements. Reiko risks a covert glance and notes that Oshiro’s vacated chair is surrounded by chattering ladies ranging from middle-aged to elderly. Somehow, without ever speaking to a single one of them, Reiko can tell that they’re the problematic aunties who don’t get along with any of the other aunties. Consequently, they’ve been placed where they can ostensibly do the least damage. From the looks of it, they’re having a fabulous time.
Reiko bites her lip, smothering a surge of laughter. “Wow. How did you end up with the best seat in the house? Like, who did you offend?”
“Ha ha. I owed the groom a favor and he cashed in, majorly.” Oshiro leans forward. “They’re a nice bunch, don’t get me wrong, but if they set me up with another of their nieces, I’ll be double booked from today until Christmas.”
“You’re welcome to sit here instead,” she offers. “We have an extra chair. My dad prefers to migrate between friend groups.”
“Thanks, but I can’t just abandon my post. I wouldn’t put it past them to follow me over here, or else I’d take you up on that suggestion. I figure random texts to my brothers will seem rude, unlike important work e-mails. So play along, won’t you? And keep in mind at least one of them will be reading over my shoulder the whole time.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? What on earth do you think I’d be putting in that e-mail?”
“I’m just saying, don’t use this as an opportunity to confess your undying love or anything. Maintain professionalism and all that.”
“Gosh, what a tall order. How will I ever comply?”
“Dig deep, Tachibana. Find that inner strength.”
Reiko pulls a face. “You came all the way here just to make me do this?”
“Yes,” says Oshiro. “You’re welcome. I’ll look for your thank you note in the mail. I also like gift baskets. The ones with baked goods are okay, but no edible fruit bouquets or artisan cheeses. Nobody wants those.”
“But why me?” she persists. “Don’t you have anyone else you can trade fake work e-mails with? What about Ueda? Or your boss?”
“Hey, take it easy. I’m not used to outright rejection.”
“I’m not rejecting you, I’m just confused.”
“What’s there to be confused about? I don’t want to be here. Neither do you. Let’s help each other out.”
Neither do you. Reiko feels very, very obvious, now.
He watches her expectantly. She can tell that he’s fighting hard not to break into one of his insouciant grins. Reiko can’t decide if she wants to smack him or bask in the infectious warmth of his attention, like a deprived houseplant straining to soak up every drop of sunshine it can get.
This conflicted reaction is more embarrassing than being caught on her phone. For God’s sake, it’s just Oshiro.
Their departments — Sales for him, Marketing for her — are often flung together, which means running into him at Yumeisha is pretty normal. They take the same elevator from the lobby and frequent the same break room on the tenth floor. He stops at her desk most Wednesday afternoons, as promised in his e-mails. Once in a while, if she stays even later than usual, Reiko might see him striding ahead of her through the lobby’s sliding glass doors, crossing the street to catch the same train. They never talk much, though, unless it’s about work.
Still true, she concludes, as Oshiro stands up and pushes the chair into place, preparing to return to the Island of Matchmaking Aunties. He walks backwards away from her, hands in his pockets. “Talk soon,” he tells Reiko, smiling as if he’s guessed all her secrets. And then he’s gone, threading his way through the crowd while she stares after him, utterly bewildered.
LOVE IN PRINT is now on Wattpad, starting with Masaru’s fully remixed and remastered main story! New episodes will be added every Friday/Saturday/Sunday.
A romance series written in homage to Japanese otome games, LIP originally ran on Tumblr from 2014-2016.
How will your story unfold?
In the wake of her broken engagement, workaholic Reiko is convinced that true romance can only be found in fiction. She spends her days marketing swoony shoujo manga for a prominent Tokyo publishing house, believing all the while that her own love story is a closed book. Meet-cutes only happen in the movies. Happy endings are for fairy tales.
Resigned to the idea that lightning won't strike twice, Reiko has officially given up. When a hectic summer unfolds into an unexpected office romance, she doesn't even know what hit her. Masaru strides into Reiko's life armed with quicksilver wit and devastating charm. He's handsome. He's maddening. He ropes her into audacious schemes that leave her stunned, breathless, and somehow wishing for more.
Always one step ahead, Masaru dares Reiko to dream bigger, fly higher, and fall harder than ever before. Can she turn the page and meet him halfway?
{ Read now! }
Love in Print is written by @hrhmariko, with art by Babeesi. For series updates, you can follow @yumeisha!
First of all, if you’re still here, please know that I love you! It’s been a long, long time since the last run of Love In Print, my terrible and self-indulgent otome romance series about a girl named Reiko and all the possible ways her story could unfold. I’m still so happy that I wrote it, even if I do want to hurl every last Google doc into a volcanic inferno by now. The experience connected me to so many people and even led to some of my most enduring friendships, online and offline. Thank you again, if you ever took the time to read.
2020 has been a raging dumpster fire of a year, and I’ve been thinking about how comforting it can be to vanish into a story for a while. Writing Love In Print brought so much light into my life, and although there isn’t much I can personally do about 2020 being 2020, I can at least rewrite an old office romance to be less garbage than it was originally. (I hope???)
Anyway, TL;DR, Masaru’s fully revised main route will run on Wattpad two days a week, starting December 25th. You know, just in case someone’s Christmas wish list included a lighthearted rom-com about workaholics who hate weddings and are then made to attend three of them. I’m still mean, nothing’s changed.
More details will be posted here between now and the 25th. I will answer any and all messages that appear in my inbox, including anything along the lines of, “MARIKO TBH WHY ARE YOU BRINGING THIS BACK INTO MY LIFE WHEN I LITERALLY NEVER ASKED”
Til next time, I hope you’re happy and staying safe!!
xo Mariko
Artwork for the series is, of course, by the incomparable @makuo-san!
NOTE: The last Jar AU is mine and I chose Renharu because I am so trash for them in every way goodbye. xox M
Neighbors who only meet because I cannot get this stupid jar open, can you help? AU
It’s been the longest day. New employee orientation in the morning, an endless round of interviews in the afternoon — Chiharu is thankful for silence. No talking. No decisions to be made, no responsibilities to follow up on. She sheds her office attire like a snake sheds skin, discarding the day’s problems with it.
Barely 7pm and she’s ready for bed. Knotting the sash of her favorite robe, Chiharu steps into her tiny kitchen, forces herself to go through the motions of having dinner. Dinner alone, because this is her life, with its multitudes of social interactions by daylight and serene solitude by night. And she could find someone to eat with, someone to sit across from her at this small table with its two perfectly matched chairs, but Chiharu is fine with only herself for a dinner date. Nothing wrong with present company.
She nudges the fridge door shut with an elbow just as the bell rings, and the sound is so foreign that it takes a moment for her to make the connection. Chiharu rarely has visitors. In all honesty, she isn’t usually at home to receive them.
Warily, she moves to the door. Chiharu ticks off the list of possible interruptions in her head. No deliveries expected, no plans with her small selection of friends. Who could it be, and why?
Chiharu turns the knob. After all, why not?
She finds the answer to that question standing in the hall outside her apartment with a cat tucked under his arm and a jar of pasta sauce in hand.
The family business is housed in an imposing tower of glass and steel, among the most distinctive on the Tokyo skyline. Just now, the side facing west reflects the setting sun in all its glory, vivid orange and smoldering red. Reiko glances up at the building, thinking of Satomi’s mother, imagining the spectrum of color Kiyomi might have seen in one sunset alone.
Not for the first time, she wishes she could have met her.
She steps into the lobby, by now as familiar as the living room of her own house, and the pair of secretaries at the gleaming counter greet her with a friendly wave. “Miss Tachibana,” Reiko hears them say, almost in unison. Preoccupied, she smiles back but doesn’t linger.
Hi! Just recently got into Love in Print and I'm going through all the stories at a really embarrassing speed lol I'm really looking forward to the VN when it comes out! Will Toriko still be writing Yuuto's & Kazuki's routes in the VN, if they're getting routes in the game? I'm sorry if I missed a previous announcement about it :'D
Hello @valiant-muffin! Thank you so much for reading!!! Unfortunately, Tory has left the project indefinitely. Her characters (Yuuto, Kazuki, Isamu) will not be part of the upcoming VN and no new routes will be available for them in either version of the series. I am so sorry to disappoint :( If you have any more questions about LIP, please let me know! I love you very much for reading!!
As promised, here’s a small sneak peak for the art of the Love in Print visual novel! Sprites feature the main heroine, Tachibana Reiko, and one of the love interests. BG art is for Reiko’s apartment.
Love in Print VN is currently in development. Right now we are aiming for the demo release, please look forward to future updates!
Hello to all our followers! Because LiP is a series filled with numerous characters and details, people have all sorts of inquiries we would love to answer. Queen Mariko (the author of the series and the game) is here to answer all of your questions. This is mostly for new followers, who might not be as familiar with the series as others. Enjoy!
The family business is housed in an imposing tower of glass and steel, among the most distinctive on the Tokyo skyline. Just now, the side facing west reflects the setting sun in all its glory, vivid orange and smoldering red. Reiko glances up at the building, thinking of Satomi’s mother, imagining the spectrum of color Kiyomi might have seen in one sunset alone.
Not for the first time, she wishes she could have met her.
She steps into the lobby, by now as familiar as the living room of her own house, and the pair of secretaries at the gleaming counter greet her with a friendly wave. “Miss Tachibana,” Reiko hears them say, almost in unison. Preoccupied, she smiles back but doesn’t linger.
The cab driver is running a yellow light when Reiko’s phone explodes with noise. She dives into her bag, nerves jangling, and sees the caller’s name.
“Oshiro,” Reiko reads out loud. She glances over at Yoshi, sitting rigidly beside her, but his face in profile is unreadable. He hasn’t said more than three words since they left the house, and he says nothing now — no acknowledgment whatsoever, although the man on the other end of the line is the closest friend he has.
She knows that Yoshi has his own phone right there, held tightly in his fist, the screen probably flooded with notifications of missed calls and unanswered messages. They are impossibly late for the wedding. The ceremony must have been over for at least ten minutes, by now. There is no chance that they will still be able to make it.
Not even 8am, and the piano is going in the living room.
Reiko rushes around, fastening an earring while keeping one eye on the alarm clock that sits on her side of the bed. “Yoshi!” she calls out, having to compete with the piano. “Yoshi, you know we have to be there in an hour--”
No response. But there is singing now, filtering through the half closed bedroom door, and two voices joining in for the chorus. Reiko leans into the hall. She is about to call for Yoshi again when she hears a little girl say something that sounds like, “Rocket Man.” And then she can only lean against the doorframe, unable to keep from smiling, because she knows the game they’re playing. It’s a Sunday morning favorite in this house. Interrupting it feels like a crime.
Hello to all our followers! Because LiP is a series filled with numerous characters and details, people have all sorts of inquiries we would love to answer. Queen Mariko (the author of the series and the game) is here to answer all of your questions. This is mostly for new followers, who might not be as familiar with the series as others. Enjoy!
Where does each character work?
Marketing: Reiko, her boss Hasegawa, Tomoko (Masaru’s route)
Human Resources: Daisuke and Chiharu; Chiharu is Daisuke’s supervisor. Can you tell??
Sales: Masaru and Yoshi, salesdorks for all eternity.
As for characters not affiliated with Yumeisha, Reiko’s cousin Ren is employed by the family business, first as Vice President/Whatever Uncle Ryuuki Wants Him To Be That Day and later as CEO. Suzu, Reiko’s twin sister, is a professional student.
Who is the art created by?
The first season of Love In Print was illustrated by @babeesi, who also happens to be Mariko’s baby sister. Somehow she took our vague descriptions and references and turned them into people, and for this we are eternally grateful T^T
The second season (and the VN) is illustrated by Royal Art Sorceress Alyona -- you can find her on Tumblr as alyonam! Long after this series is forgotten, covered in cobwebs in a dusty corner of the Internet, I will still be grateful that Alyona decided to read Love In Print and liked it enough to message me, because that’s how our epic friendship began.
Both of our illustrators do amazing work and the series couldn’t possibly be what it is without their contribution. I mean, I could sob about this for days so don’t even get me started.
Which character is the most popular with the readers?
Officially, Yoshi. Unofficially, Satomi.
Do the characters have nicknames?
Yes! Some are nicknames we gave them over the course of putting the series together, or bestowed upon them by fans, while others are given to them by their fellow characters. I honestly think Masaru has the most? The main nicknames are: Masaru - The Sasslord/Laundry King, Daisuke - Daisy (or Granny, which is what Chiharu calls him), Yoshi - The Gangster Prince (he is never called this in his actual route but it’s still his most popular nickname haha), Ren and Chiharu - Kitty & Tiger.
What is each character afraid of?
Masaru’s fear of insects is intense. Reiko has an aversion to water, which I’m sure everyone’s noticed by now, though it doesn’t figure as heavily in some routes as it does in others. Yoshi is deathly afraid of Chiharu, and Chiharu is deathly afraid of… well, nothing. Bahahaha
What do they like to do in their free time?
Obviously, Reiko’s everlasting love belongs to manga, which she reads even when she doesn’t have free time. Masaru’s free time = laundry time, which is very serious business. Yoshi enjoys horror movies, especially the really bad ones. Ren goes shopping, rescues more cats, and texts Chiharu. Chiharu rearranges her apartment (she’s an avid interior decorator), organizes her closet by color, and doesn’t reply to Ren’s texts.
What is the "cup of doom?"
AN ANCIENT RELIC POSSESSED OF DIABOLICAL POWERS. Well, a hand-painted teacup I bought at a thrift store, but same difference. To make the project a little more fun, and also because I like to be challenged, we contributed a bunch of plot twists and character quirks (via classy slips of paper I tore from a notebook) into this teacup and then drew at random for each of the guys and Reiko. Some of the Teacup’s notable contributions: Reiko’s hydrophobia, Daisuke’s love of opera, Masaru’s college job as a barista… and some major plot twists in the main routes, but we won’t speak of those. Read and find out! The Teacup of Doom has been so effective that I’ve used it for practically every project since. Its whims are scary sometimes, but worth it.
Is it okay to send in messages and questions to the writers?
Every time you don’t send a message, Mariko razes a small village to the ground. Yes, please send messages and questions and emails and whatever else you might have!!
Any warnings?
Mariko is a wicked queen
Never try to read Daisuke’s main route in one sitting
When the time comes for sequels, remember that all is fair in love and war~
