In which the uke, while getting raped, feels sorry for his rapist. Yes that’s right, while actively having his ass unwillingly penetrated by his boss while at work, he thinks to himself, “aw gee, I feel so bad for this guy, for not having enough chances to blow off steam.” Where can this possibly go from here? Take a guess! Did you guess love? Ah, I see you have also read a lot of old yaoi…
This is a book is about the relationship of two coworkers at a pharmaceutical company. Boss Ishikawa is the arrogant, condescending, always gets what he wants type. He also appears to be aggressively homophobic which turns out to be ironic I guess. His coworker and assistant Takayama is desperately in love with him…for some reason.
Ishikawa happens to see Takayama making out with a dude behind a gay bar one night so knows he’s gay. Shortly after that Takayama meets him in his office one day, and Ishikawa proceeds to rape him out of nowhere asking “what’s wrong? Isn’t this what being gay is all about?” Sorry Takayama but why do you like this guy again?
Takayama then feels sorry for Ishikawa while it’s happening, apparently because his boss hasn’t been able to “blow off steam.”
…and then he pretends like none of this ever happened and continues to have feelings for Ishikawa, lol. Ishikawa seems to have a lot of gay hate for someone who….rapes another dude and then continues to come onto him afterward. He won’t leave Takayama alone and keeps trying to “blow off more steam” with him, while continuing to claim he isn’t gay (actual line: “I’m still not gay, I just love you”). Takayama asks Ishikawa to please stop because he has real feelings for him and cant refuse him, but Ishikawa just takes advantage of this by continuing to pressure him into sex knowing he wont say no. Ew.
Takayama – who clearly has terrible taste in men – continues to turn him down as a serious partner instead of just a fuck buddy, displaying unusual assertiveness for a uke. I liked that about him, as well as the fact that the mangaka didn’t make him feminine or girly (which was kind of surprising considering all the dumb BL cliches in here). He eventually relents though, and they start dating. Hey, remember how this dude raped you at the beginning of the story? No? Ok then!
This rape-becoming-love thing happens in older BL a lot. It was a different time, you know, just like how you forgive your grandparents for racist slurs. Sometimes if it’s like soft dubcon though or the seme grows and changes from it somehow, it can be in a plot without it being too ick (unless noncon is your kink). This wasn’t one of those stories though and this couple generally just had a bad vibe the whole time – Ishikawa being a homophobic ass and Takayama being obsessed with this prick and then falling to his charms. In no way was I convinced these two could have a loving and healthy relationship.
I wished this story had like a 3rd character or something, like a nice-guy type who is a foil to Ishikawa and treats Takayama properly and wins out in the end…but alas. There are certainly people out there who like these kinds of stories, but the rape -> love pipeline trope is pretty worn out nowdays and not too popular with modern readers.
The art is ok, nothing special but fine for the mid 00s. The sex scenes are a bit weak and don’t show anything but I was fine with that since I didn’t feel that great about them as a couple.
It had a side story with two childhood friends now going off to college that was also pretty cliche and they had one of the characters talk in this accent the whole time which made it read like an Irish drama.
The dialogue and writing in this book reads like someone’s bad fanfiction and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re fine with rape in BL. It’s not like it was entirely terrible in every way but like…probably the most important ways.
Ryoku Tsunoda didn’t do much manga and is no longer active. She has one thing scanned which I may check out sometime since she seemed to like salaryman stories and I do as well…just not this one.
TL:DR Salaryman boss x assistant pairing that does the classic “rape turns into love” thing. The uke feels sad for his rapist *while it’s happening* for him not getting enough chances to “blow off steam” and continues to be in love with him and then they continue to “blow off steam” together except consensually. Seme is an arrogant asshole and also straight and homophobic despite…having sex with a man the entire story while trying to date him, lol k. Just an all-around icky relationship and both characters are complete idiots.