muse ✨'s manga / #Yakuza(60)

A 17yo looking for his missing older brother comes to the city where he meets Joe, a hustler. Thus begins this strange, strange love story. This started out fade-to-black and ended up tastefully explicit, and while the love story between Joe and Otoji was a nicely developed slow-burn, the author threw so much unnecessary drama at them it got ridiculous. I'm not sorry I read this, but it's not something I would re-read.

My boys are back! The sequel to "Rouge."

Walking home from work, a surgeon finds a man who has been shot and cares for him. The man, a member of the Yakuza, misremembers the doctor's name and believes he was saved by a woman. He tries to find her, only to meet the doctor. What follows is a really sweet love story! I adored this.

The prequel to Rouge and deals with why Ai is so indebted to Yamato. It explores his abuse a bit more and Yamato's kindness to him. (When Nagato showed up toward the end, I screamed.) It's also the romance between Yamato and Yukio.

Hana and Ikuun are back in a bit of a screwball comedy! Ikkun's insensitivity causes some fights with Hana, whose desire to take care of Ikkun surpasses practicality. When Ikkun takes a part-time tutoring job and gets involved with the young son of a yakuza boss intent on seducing him, Hana comes to his rescue. These two continue to be a delight. Previous story: http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/hana_ni_kuchizuke/

After a good decade apart, an older brother - now yakuza member - returns home to take care of his younger brother now that their mother has died. While caring for his injuries, they cross some lines you probably shouldn't cross with siblings. What was interesting about this story is that nothing seemed to be done out of attraction at first. It was like... "Hey, that must suck, I'll help..." which is still way, way outside the boundaries of normal sibling relationships, but this wasn't the typical "And I'm in love with my brother" story. Will they get there? Probably, eventually, but this was a slightly different take, at least. Leaving it unstarred, though, since I'm not sure how much I actually enjoyed it. It's not bad! It's just not really my thing.

A hot guy with long hair who works for an organization beating people up, I think, ends up in a bizarre relationship with the younger brother of a yakuza boss who can only see from one eye. He likes to choke the long-haired guy during sex, which is freaky at first and then turns into a kink. Super unhealthy relationship involving dubcon and drugging people, but they seem pretty happy about things by the end. I've read chapter 4 before: "Unknown Letters," the yakuza and detective who had been in love in high school and now sleep together in an information exchange. It was sad the second time too. The final story I've also read, which was a 36yo who took in a 15yo after his family died, and then feelings develop. He vows to wait until the kid's 20. It's a little...hm.

Head's up for past nonconsent in the blind neighbor story.