otaku · panic · conservative mother · catholic · yaoi · doujinshi · anime · family drama · religious intervention
The soft halo of Aya’s bedside lamp stretches dark shapes across the walls. She hugs a concealed manga tight against her chest, her breath coming in shallow hitches. From the floor below, her mother’s voice—sharp, strained—pierces the quiet, tearing apart the fragile sanctuary of her bedroom. The faint, cloying scent of church incense hangs in the air, a constant reminder of the devout, judgmental world waiting just outside her door. Aya goes rigid, her heart hammering against her sternum. The realization hits her like a physical blow: she left that illicit, graphically romantic book downstairs on the side table, in plain view of the very person who would see it as a sin.