The desk looked like a crime scene.
Crumbled papers overflowed the wastebasket. Scribbles layered over storyboards like a chaotic battlefield of broken ideas. Coffee cups at least five were lined up like fallen soldiers. And Kaoru Kagami sat at the center of it all, hunched over his desk with both hands tangled in his hair.
His eyes were dull, cheeks slightly sunken, and his sketching hand hung limp. The pencil he held hadn't moved in thirty minutes. The storyboard in front of him was an empty battlefield blank boxes, vague notes, a title-less idea gasping for direction.
"This is… awful."
His voice cracked.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, like it might rain answers.
"What the hell am I even doing…"
It had been a week since he'd finished his fifth manga. A whole week of trying to start something new. But the ideas weren't clicking. The punchlines felt forced. The pacing? Off. And the worst part none of it felt genuine.
He groaned, pressing his knuckles into his temples.
"I'm a fraud to the manga franchise..…"
The words slipped out like a whisper, uninvited.
"I'm just faking it… like Reigen from M*b Psychic…"
He slumped forward, forehead against the desk.
"Except I don't even consider him as a fraud but a goat to me.. Ughhh...." he groaned of course.
Later that noon..
The door opened.
Aya stepped in first, the only one holding a bag of convenience store snacks in one hand and a lukewarm can of coffee in the other.
Takeshi followed next, hands in his pockets, Emi by his side looking like she had just come from a shopping spree with Takeshi. Naoki strolled in behind them, phone still in hand, clearly mid-battle in some online game. And Kaede? She entered last, humming, phone tucked away neatly. Her eyes were already scanning her older brother's room.
They stopped at the entrance.
Kaoru hadn't even looked up.
Aya narrowed her eyes at the disaster zone. "Seriously?You didn't clean at all…"
Kaoru didn't respond. He let out a long, slow groan into the desk.
Emi frowned, chewing her bubblegum as usual. "Uhh… is he broken?"
Takeshi sighed. "Looks like someone punched him in the soul."
Naoki glanced up from his phone, a bit worrried. "i-i think He's fine. J-just storyboarding hell I suppose.."
Kaede smirked. "Or a dramatic meltdown."
Aya quietly approached Kaoru's desk and peered over his shoulder. Her sharp eyes scanned the mess, the notes, the scratches of story ideas that contradicted each other on every page.
And then, she saw it.
Scrawled in the margin of one page, scribbled like a desperate confession:
"I'm a fraud."
Her heart sank a little.
"…Kaoru."
He barely turned his head. "I'm stuck."
Aya didn't say anything for a moment. She placed the coffee beside him gently.
"I figured."
For a while, she didn't speak. She just read. Quietly flipping through the pages, picking apart his ideas with her editor's eye.
There were good pieces in there. A few solid concepts. A warm character arc buried under weak pacing. It wasn't garbage it was just unfocused.
But as she stood beside him, Aya noticed something else.
Kaoru wasn't just frustrated.
He was tired.
Tired in a way she hadn't seen in a while.
His usual spark the over-the-top declarations, the smug laughter, the exaggerated passion it was gone.
And he wasn't even trying to hide it.
She clenched her fist. Her editor's instinct told her to fix it, to sit beside him and rewrite everything until it clicked. That's what she always did. That's what he expected.
But another part of her a quieter, more fragile part wanted to hold his handinstead.
To just… sit beside him.
To be there.
But she didn't move.
Because she wasn't sure if it was okay.
Because she didn't want to mistake vulnerability for an invitation.
And so… Aya steppedback.
"…I'll give you space," she said, turning around.
Kaoru's head lifted just slightly, eyes still foggy.
"…Thanks."
She gave him a soft smile. "We'll get through this one too."
And she meant it by all means.
Even if she wasn't sitting beside him this time.
From the far side of the room, Kaede watched Aya's movements like a hawk.
She leaned against the wall, arms crossed.
The others were already half-distracted Takeshi and Emi whispering about lunch, Naoki now playing his second match of the hour. But Kaede kept her eyes on the editor who chose to walk away.
Aya sat beside Emi quietly and looked at nothing in particular.
Kaede smirked to herself.
"You've liked him since the start, haven't you?" she whispered under her breath.
No one heard her.
And she didn't need them to.
Because it was obvious now.
"Either way I disagree you being with my brother, Hmph." Typical Kaede.
Kaoru eventually stood.
His knees ached slightly he'd been hunched for hours.
Everyone was here. All of them. Yet he still felt… disconnected.
He didn't want to be the funny guy today. Didn't want to act like he had it together.
Because right now, he didn't.
He walked to the kitchen wordlessly, poured himself a glass of water, and leaned against the counter.
Aya glanced over, but didn't move.
He didn't speak.
And for the first time in a long while…
No one expected him to.
Narrator: YAHOO! Guess who's back? That's right it's me. The narrator.
Did we go missing for months? Yes. we (aka me only.) dealing with the author Maybe. But we not (ARE) talking about that.
Ts author.. Yeah, he been MIA fr. Ts Pmo, icl, man had zero motivation ws prob laid up in bed scrolling, thinking 'I'll write tmr' like five days (months) straight. Bro was cooked. But now? Summer hit, vibes changed, birds chirping, playlists on blast man woke up and said, 'ight lemme cook real quick.' Don't get too comfy tho, he still on that 'write when I feel like it' energy. This ain't no comeback tour, it's a summer drop limited edition type beat.
Ts how you newgens talk right. Right??
"The narrator said that with pure confidence." (Author)
What matters is we're back. And starting now, this volume shifts into third person limited. That's right. T-P-L, baby.
Why? No clue.
I've also been promoted. I'm the main narrator now. My voice is still the same yahoo also Get used to it.
kurukuru~
---
To be continued...
End of Chapter thirty.
I won't post daily chapters anymore. Prob weekly 1-2 chapters a week. Pretty sad huh. Even though I have a life.. touche anyways. Thanks for 16.1k! Im surpised it got so much views still after being on a sudden hiatus. To much "yapping" therefore the main part of this "apology" letter is I am deeply sorry for being on a long hiatus... Promise I no no hiatus ( I will. ) Byeee!!
- Yours sincerely, Author.