Just like every Friday, Yuki woke up early. After washing up, she headed straight to the nearby bookstore, excitement bubbling inside her.
As the owner of three Shirogane fan groups, and the one who had personally led multiple flame-wars against rival fandoms from other magazines, her devotion to Shirogane-sensei's works was unquestionable.
Every week, without fail, she counted the hours until Ametsukage released its new issue.
Arriving at the bookstore, she snapped a picture of the glossy new cover and posted it in her fan group.
The chat instantly exploded.
"So jealous, I'm stuck at work, I can't go until tonight."
"High schoolers really live the dream."
"Group owner please take photos of the chapter! I swear I'll still buy it later, work is hell today!"
"I envy anyone not working Friday mornings."
"I only read Tonight, Even If This Love Vanishes from the World in Ametsukage. When will the tankōbon release? I want it on my shelf. The magazine paper quality is so bad."
"Hey! Ametsukage's paper is already on the better side. You haven't seen the truly scratchy ones."
"Anyone who finishes the chapter, NO SPOILERS. I'm fragile today."
Yuki smiled at their messages.
Shirogane wasn't yet a "top-tier manga artist" in Japan's entire manga industry, but that never mattered.
A reader's love for a creator had never depended on popularity, only on resonance.
And right now, Tonight was the manga that resonated with her most this year.
After paying, she walked to a quiet park, settled into a shaded pavilion, and opened the new issue under the cool morning breeze.
Chapter Four
The chapter picked up exactly where last week's cliffhanger ended.
Māori Hino had completely relaxed around Tōru Kamiya. For someone who woke up every morning only to relearn her entire life from a diary, letting her guard down, even just for a few minutes, was a luxury.
So when she drifted off under the warm sunlight on the grass…
Her memory reset.
In that ten-minute nap, everything vanished.
And when she awoke, she found herself beside a strange boy she could not recognize.
Panicked, trembling, Hino immediately called Izumi.
I woke up in a park, and there was a strange boy next to me!
Even though Yuki knew this moment was coming, Hino's terrified expression still made her chest tighten.
She really remembered nothing. Everything she had told Tōru earlier, their families, their hobbies, their awkward little jokes, all of it now existed only in Tōru's memory.
Izumi calmly talked Hino through the situation, then quietly reminded her: Even if their relationship was only "pretend," this was the first boy Hino was willing to trust.
Izumi didn't want her returning to the lonely version of herself who lived carefully behind emotional walls.
Even if it meant continuing to deceive Tōru.
Yuki's grip on the magazine tightened.
From her point of view, Hino should tell the truth. Now that the situation allowed it, why hide it?
If she truly cared, if she truly wanted something real, she shouldn't keep this from him.
Eventually, Hino returned to the park.
With trembling hands, she checked the photos in her phone, committing Tōru's face to memory.
Then she walked toward him, knees weak, tears in her eyes.
I'm sorry. I have anterograde amnesia. And just now, I forgot you.
The manga shifted perspective here, to someone sprinting desperately toward the park.
Then the panel returned to Tōru, sitting silently on the bench.
Yuki could practically hear her own heartbeat echoing in her ears.
Romance manga had simple formulas, no battles, no intricate schemes, just two hearts colliding.
But fans were merciless.
One wrong sentence from the male lead, one insensitive reaction, and a manga could lose its entire readership.
This moment was the decisive turning point.
Hino wiped her tears and bowed her head.
I'm sorry for making you do something so absurd, pretending to be my boyfriend, that was my fault. I'll keep causing you trouble. So, let's end this here.
Yuki's stomach dropped.
So this is why Izumi hid the real diary in Chapter 1. If they parted here, she wouldn't want Hino to remember the pain.
Then the boy who had been silent finally spoke.
If you don't write today in your diary, you won't remember it tomorrow, right?
Then don't write it.
Don't write about falling asleep here. Don't write about telling me your illness.
The panel shifted to a double close-up.
Tōru's face was tense.
Māori Hino's eyes were filled with quiet earnestness.
Yuki didn't know what Māori and Tōru Kamiya were thinking in that moment, but a wave of emotion surged through her.
'Tōru, he wasn't afraid of her. He wasn't disgusted by someone like her at all.'
That alone made her chest tighten.
That night, Māori sat at her desk, staring at her diary, yet unable to write a single word.
The next day, during class, Tōru looked visibly anxious.
He knew all too well: If Māori didn't want to keep pretending to be his girlfriend, she only had to write it into her diary, or worse, delete every mention of him.
If she did, then in Hino's world, Tōru Kamiya would become someone who had never existed.
But at dismissal time, Māori showed up, right on schedule.
She first checked him carefully, making absolutely sure she wasn't mistaking him for someone else.
Only then did her usual warm smile appear.
"I had a lot of fun yesterday, Tōru."
Did she really, not record any of it?
A sudden realization hit Yuki.
No, she had recorded it.
She just didn't want to end their relationship. So she chose to pretend she hadn't written it down, keeping their connection alive for another day.
The latter half of Chapter Four then showed time passing:
Their usual after-school meetings, their weekend outings,their sweet, everyday moments, taking selfies, filming each other, building small memories day by day.
And then, the last page:
Tōru smiled gently at Māori.
"What are your plans after school tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow?"
"Anything you want. We can do anything."
Māori lifted her phone and snapped a photo, capturing his firm, smiling words.
"I'll make tomorrow's you happy too."
A tear pricked at the corner of Yuki's eyes.
The hardest part of romance manga isn't making the boy and girl fall in love with each other.
The hardest part is making the readers fall in love with them.
Right now, Yuki felt as if Shirogane's monochrome pages had come alive, as if she were standing right there, in front of that boy,hearing him say in that gentle, understated tone:
I'll make you happy tomorrow, even if you forget today.
It doesn't matter if her memory resets, it doesn't matter if every effort is erased by morning.
He'll just do it again. And again. And again.
The final panel of the manga showed Māori's inner voice:
"This feeling, this might be the first time, the despair I feel every morning, suddenly feels unreal.
Tōru, thank you."
Yuki's fingers trembled slightly.
She was deeply moved, yet despite the sweetness in the chapter, tears streamed down her face.
Stories like this depend on personal taste. Some people feel the emotions immediately.
Others find the pacing slow or the plot dull.
But Yuki was completely absorbed.
"Shirogane, how did you come up with something like this?"
She'd been holding it in the whole day, unable to describe the sensation of finishing the chapter.
Sweetness, yes, plenty of that.
But afterward? Sadness. Deep, lingering sadness.
Because the very first chapter had already told her, Hino and Tōru Kamiya would one day truly forget each other, their lives splitting apart completely.
What could drive apart a pair like this?
Was it a long-distance tragedy like Five Centimeters per Second?Pressure from Tōru's family? Or some devastating misunderstanding?
Sitting on a park bench, sunlight filtering through the vines above, Yuki let out a shaky breath.
This manga, touched her deeply.
Oh right, she needed to rally the fan group and gather votes for Tonight.
And she needed to check the forum; fans of other series were probably already stirring up trouble again. Time to defend Shirogane.
That day, countless previously silent fans suddenly became active.
Hoshimori's manga readers might be picky, but when they truly loved something, their passion and purchasing power were overwhelming.
All night long, discussions about Tonight filled the forums.
The next morning, many fans were stunned to see the manga showing up in multiple critic recommendation videos.
Some professional review sites even gave this one-month-old series a shockingly high score: 9.0+
Casual readers of Ametsukage began falling in love with the story as well. They started remembering the name: Shirogane.
And most importantly;
At noon the next day, Rei received a call from Misaki.
"Rei, this week's Ametsukage Weekly ranking is out. Tonight jumped from last week's seventh place to, fifth."
Rei could hear the excitement and relief in Misaki's voice.
Misaki normally kept a cold, professional expression, but when it came to manga, she was earnest to the point of obsession.
And whenever Tonight performed well, she was always happier than Rei himself.
Every Thursday night, before sleeping, she worried endlessly that the ranking might drop. She was probably more anxious than the actual creator.
"Congratulations, Rei. At this rate, as long as Tonight stays stable,you'll definitely enter the top three for the Annual New Manga Artist Award this year."
"Award?" Rei blinked.
He sounded genuinely surprised.
"You don't know?!" Misaki raised her voice a little.
"You're a manga artist! How are you this clueless about the industry?!"
Rei didn't answer. In his mind: 'Because the original me didn't care, and I've been drawing nonstop. When would I have the time to study this stuff?!'
Misaki continued explaining anyway:
Across Hoshimori, there were dozens of well-known manga companies, and new artists debuted every single year.
High school debut manga artists like Rei? Completely normal.
The manga culture was strong here, some people even worked their entire careers, retired at sixty, and then debuted as a manga artist for fun.
The Annual New Manga Artist Grand Prize was a large award,sponsored by major corporations, televised live nationwide.
The judging criteria were simple:
Work quality, Popularity, Collected volume sales
Typically, if a newcomer's series sold 700,000–800,000 copies per volume, and scored well with readers, they had a solid chance of being nominated.
Ten nomination slots.
Three actual award winners.
Originally, Misaki never thought Rei had a chance. She expected Tonight to linger around the lower half of the top ten.
But after only four weeks, Tonight had skyrocketed into top five.
That was far beyond her expectations.
Naturally, bigger possibilities began forming in her mind.
"So you think this manga can only reach top three in the Newcomer Award, not first?" Rei asked.
"To be precise, maybe third," Misaki said after a pause.
"In the first half of this year, the industry produced two monster-level newcomers.
"One is the nineteen-year-old prodigy Ren Kanzaki , son of Takumi Kanzaki, one legendary manga artist.
His debut series already sells 1.5 million volumes each release."
Misaki lowered her voice:
"Some say his plot style strongly resembles his father's, It's suspected he's getting help. But no one can prove it."
"The second is Minami Aoi, thirty-six years old, a romance manga artist like you. Her series runs in Crimson Sky, a secondary journal under the massive Kōken Group.
Three weeks ago, she hit rank one and hasn't budged since. Her collected sales already exceed 1.2 million per volume."
Misaki sighed.
"The entire industry thinks the New Artist Grand Prize is between those two. In previous years, their numbers would guarantee overwhelming victory."
She looked at the storyboard papers stacked on her desk.
"You're young, Rei. Less experience. Less time spent producing manga.
If you can't match them at the end, getting third place would already be incredible. No one in the industry would look down on you."
Rei was silent for a moment.
Then he laughed softly.
"How would we know without competing?"
"If I really have a chance to be nominated, then my goal is first place."
"As for discouraging words…"
His eyes sharpened.
"We can talk about them after they manage to beat me."
Misaki fell completely silent.