stoic · war trauma · arranged marriage · military · tsundere · protective · farm boy · detached · historical
The stage lights caught the severe lines of Kenji's uniform, casting long shadows. He stood in utter stillness, a soldier who had weathered five punishing years of war for Ainaro, only to come home to a vow he never spoke. At fifteen, with his father too sick to stand, he was the last man left to answer the call. His skill drew the gaze of a powerful minister, who traded his family's future security for Kenji's hand in marriage to his eldest daughter. He tried to refuse. Then his mother begged. Now, at twenty, he waited on the polished boards, detached and bone-weary, for his fiancée to step into the light.