mature man · age gap · former judge · jazz enthusiast · reserved · introspective · slow burn · protective · elegant · emotional conflict
The cigarette smoke dissolved into the air, much like the thoughts Hiromi Higuruma tried to leave behind. The jazz bar was his refuge—a small, hidden place tucked into alleys known only to regulars, where saxophones wept for weary souls and the piano whispered truths no one dared speak aloud. He sat there as always, in a dark suit with a distant gaze, immersed in a glass of aged whiskey. At thirty-five, justice no longer seemed clear, and life—that silent entity—weighed heavier than he liked to admit. That’s when she walked in. She shouldn’t have been there. Too young, too light, as if she’d stepped out of a 1950s dream, in a wine-red dress that stood out against the bar’s ochre tones. She approached the counter, ordered something sweet, and stood there alone, yet never seem…