The reviews arrived two months after the manga's final chapter, and Ren sat curled on the sofa, scrolling through the comments with a blank expression that slowly twisted into something between disbelief and resignation. The screen was filled with emotional pleas.
"Again?" Kai asked from across the table, noticing how Ren kept sighing.
Ren nodded and handed him the tablet. "Look."
Kai leaned closer.
Readers begged for a continuation. They wanted to know what happened after the tragic ending. They wanted reincarnation. They wanted healing. They wanted more.
And Ren, unexpectedly, felt the spark return.
"I think," he said quietly, "I want to write a sequel."
Kai turned to him. "You do?"
Ren's smile was small but certain. "Yes. And… the new protagonist should be you."
Kai froze completely. "M-Me?"
"Because you're the person I want to spend a lifetime with." Ren brushed his thumb along Kai's cheek. "So why shouldn't you be the person who walks beside the hero in the next story?"
Kai swallowed hard, but he didn't pull away. "If you want that… then okay."
Ren's heart warmed. "I want it."
Before Ren could tell him more, his phone buzzed loudly. His mother's name flashed on the screen.
Ren answered, and immediately her cheerful voice filled the room.
"Ren! The fifty-year ritual is happening next month. You must come home! And bring your partner too!"
Ren stiffened. Kai sat up straight, eyes wide.
"M-Mom, that's sudden—"
"Come home," she insisted. "We're all waiting."
Ren hesitated only a second, then said softly, "Okay. We'll come."
When he hung up, Kai whispered, "Are you sure? Bringing me there… is it okay?"
Ren took both of Kai's hands and held them tightly. "Kai. I want a future with you. And I want my family to meet the person who makes me feel safe. So yes—come with me."
Kai's fingers trembled. "Then I'll come."
They hugged in the quiet room, holding onto each other like two people who had finally made a decision they would not back away from.
A week later, they were on the train to Nagano Prefecture, luggage tucked above their seats. As the city vanished behind them, the scenery shifted into rolling rice fields, winding rivers that glimmered in the sunlight, and forests dense with cedar and spruce. The air through the window felt cooler, fresher.
Kai pressed his forehead to the glass, staring at the mountains. "It's beautiful here."
Ren smiled. "My family's shrine is even more beautiful. You'll like it."
He didn't add the rest—that the shrine was sacred, ancient, and tied to legends of a dragon ancestor. He didn't know how much of it was myth… until recently.
Hours later, they reached the ancestral home, a sprawling wooden estate surrounded by tall trees and moss-covered stone lanterns. The smell of sandalwood and river air drifted around them.
But before they could even knock, a small figure burst through the door.
"RENNNNN! YOU'RE HOME!"
Mika, Ren's tiny tornado of a cousin, jumped straight into his arms.
"Mika— I can't breathe—"
She pulled away, eyes widening as she looked at Kai. "Are you Oniichan's boyfriend?!"
Kai nearly dropped his bag.
Before Ren could silence her, voices echoed from inside the house.
"THE BOYFRIEND'S HERE?!"
"THE ARTIST?!"
"THE CITY BOY?!"
"COME IN, COME IN!"
The sliding doors burst open in a chaos of relatives.
His mother Aki hugged Kai immediately. "Welcome, Kai-kun! You're even cuter than in photos!"
Kai's soul left his body.
His father Daichi stepped forward, intimidating until he nodded and said, "Good. Polite. Approved."
Ren whispered, "…Dad, what does that even mean?"
Grandpa Shun bounded over and clapped Kai's shoulder. "So YOU'RE the sweetheart he talks about!"
Kai's ears went red.
His brother Haruto laughed loudly and ruffled Ren's hair. "About time you brought him home."
Emi, his younger sister, gave Kai a thumbs up. "Welcome to the madhouse."
His cousins Riku, Hana, and Tomoya peeked over each other's shoulders.
"Bro-in-law!"
"Kawaii!"
"Do you guys kiss?"
Ren grabbed them all by their collars. "STOP."
Kai looked overwhelmed, but there was no coldness in the welcome. No rejection. Just pure, chaotic affection.
And Ren felt relieved.
Over the next two weeks, their life in the household fell into an easy rhythm. In the mornings, Ren helped his mother cook while Kai brewed tea and watered the small garden behind the house. In the afternoons, Kai sketched the surrounding landscape—river mist curling like silver threads, the mountains rising in soft blue layers, and Ren sitting beneath the swaying bamboo. Ren wrote his plot outlines beside him, occasionally leaning on Kai's shoulder while Kai hummed quietly.
In the evenings, they sat on the wide veranda wrapped in light blankets, watching fireflies drift over the garden. Sometimes they talked about the new manga. Sometimes they sat in silence. Sometimes Ren dozed against Kai's shoulder, and Kai gently stroked his hair until Ren fell asleep.
It was the kind of simple, intimate life Ren had never known before—soft, warm, and real.
The day before the ritual, Ren suggested they visit the shrine alone.
They walked through the forest path as the sky melted into streaks of lavender and gold. The air was cool, carrying the scent of pine resin and fresh water. Lanterns lined the pathway, glowing softly as evening approached.
The shrine stood at the top of the worn stone steps, ancient and majestic. Ren pushed open the heavy wooden door, and they stepped into the dimly lit hall. Lantern flames flickered in the corners, casting wavering shadows against the walls decorated with old murals of dragons and celestial beasts.
They prayed quietly, hands pressed together.
When they finished, Ren whispered, "After the ritual, I want to talk to my parents about… us. Our future."
Kai looked up, eyes soft. "I'll be with you."
Ren smiled, feeling his heart settle in the safest place it had ever known.
But then, without warning, the shrine door slammed shut behind them.
Kai jumped. "Ren…?"
Ren shook his head. "I didn't close it."
A cold wind swept through the shrine. The lantern flames wavered violently, stretching shadows across the wooden floor.
Footsteps echoed—slow, light, deliberate.
A figure stepped out from behind the central altar.
Silver hair shimmered like moonlight.
Golden eyes glowed with an unearthly warmth.
A kimono flowed around him like mist, revealing not quite human proportions.
Ears—foxlike—twitched atop his head.
And behind him, eight long, luminous tails swayed in a hypnotic arc.
Kai's breath hitched. Ren felt his heartbeat trembling inside his ribs.
The being smiled gently, almost amused.
"So," he said, voice echoing through the shrine as though carried by wind, "you are the chosen pair."
Ren swallowed. "Who… who are you?"
The being's golden eyes softened. "I have watched your family for centuries, Ren of the Dragon Line."
Ren froze.
The Dragon Line.
The ancestral myth.
"How do you know that name…?" he whispered.
The eight-tailed fox walked closer, each step silent and fluid.
"Your ancestor and I forged a pact long ago. The ritual you will attend tomorrow is not merely a ceremony." His tails unfurled like silver flames. "It is a summons."
Kai tightened his grip on Ren's sleeve. "Ren, what is he talking about?"
Ren could only shake his head, unable to find words.
The fox spirit shifted his gaze to Kai, eyes gleaming with a deeper, older knowledge.
"And you, Kai…" he murmured, "you must awaken soon."
Kai felt his blood freeze.
The fox smiled faintly.
"Because you—are not human."
The lanterns extinguished instantly.
Darkness swallowed the shrine whole.