Extra 1: Leave It to Someone (+ Afterword)
On a fundamental level, Sakae thought that he and Shitara didn’t mesh all that well together. However, there were a number of points where they shared the same opinion or saw things eye to eye—and one of those things concerned their sleeping positions. They both preferred to sleep faced away from each other. Sakae didn’t care if he had the left or right side of the bed or if he slept on the side next to the wall or not, but anyway, he felt the most relaxed when he had his back to his partner.
So when Sakae slept in the same bed with Shitara, they turned their backs to each other, and their bodies formed the shape of a loose X. When a part of their backs touched, Sakae felt more self-conscious about Shitara’s warmth than when they shared their limbs and chest in much more wicked ways. Just a little nudge together was like a fire from a matchstick that was struck in the dark. And when Shitara pulled away, there was a slight chill in its place, which woke Sakae up. Under the dark cover of drowsiness, Sakae gazed at the hotel furnishings and the giant curtains over the floor-to-ceiling windows. Shitara seemed to be drinking water from the mini-fridge because there was the sound of a glass being used. Sakae didn’t hate guessing what happened around him like this. The hard echo of the glass was unpleasant, but the sound of the throat swallowing down the liquid made him slightly hot and bothered.
Eventually Shitara returned to the bed.
“Sorry, did I wake you?” he asked.
Sakae had been perfectly still, but apparently Shitara had sensed something from his back.
“You woke me up when you talked just now.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
“What time is it?”
“5:30. We can probably sleep for two more hours if we account for breakfast and the time to get ready.”
Sakae wanted to skip the first part and sleep for another 30 minutes, but he was sure that Shitara wouldn’t let him.
“See you in another 2 hours then.”
The mattress sunk behind his back, and a chilled pair of lips kissed his bared shoulder. Shitara crawled under the sheets, returned to his original position, and Sakae’s back warmed up again. His fatigue after sex and the backlog of work that he was sure he would face later—they weren’t such a big deal to him right now in front of this tiny little fire.
They fell asleep with their backs left to each other. The slumber before dawn was cool and clear.
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After blocking things out, we now have a story about opening up and connecting things together. Just like in the previous book Block It Out, Takemiya-sensei has drawn for us a sneaky producer and a prickly but at times vulnerable producer. Thank you very much!
By the way, Announcer Asou only makes an appearance in this book via his socks, but don’t worry, he has a full character design, and I hope that you can see it one day. He looks incredibly cool…
I’m sure that many of us right now in particular keenly feel how powerless we are as humans in the face of nature, disease, and all sorts of things, but please be healthy, everyone. Let’s do our best. Let’s try not to give up.
And with that, thank you very much.
Ichiho Michi
They are so domestic for how fiercely independent they both are! I love it.
If you haven’t seen the design reveal for Asou-san, you can see it here:
https://daydrop.nowaki.net/2020/12/07/side-profiles-and-irises-vol-4-ch-13/
I’m curious if Asou will be a main character in one of Sensei’s books!
Thank you so much!
You’re welcome!
they 🥰🥰💕💕💞💞
thank you for the chapter!
❤❤❤
You’re welcome!
Thank you so much for the wonderful translations and introducing me to sensei’s works through them!
To be honest I was afraid to start this volume while the translation was still ongoing due to the fear of possible painful “cliffhangers” between the chapters, but turns out that I had underestimated Shitara and Sakae.
It was great to see Sakae getting comfortable to his new role. He knows that everyone including Shitara have great expectations of him, yet he’s just suffered a setback and he knows that his biggest weaknesses are his personality and human skills..which are required for this job, so his fear of letting Shitara down and possibly his actions affecting Shitara negatively, makes the expectations and support even more suffocating for him. But with Shitara and Asou’s (massage haha) help and he slowly regains his passion and confidence and he is ready to face new challenges.
Despite being opposites personality wise, there’s no one else who understands Sakae, his fears and ideas as well as his fan #1 Shitara does, and I believe it works in both ways. Shitara always has his back yet he gives him enough space when it’s needed. With the way they are now, I think they’ll be able to overcome anything in the future.
Although Sakae is a tsundere and Shitara knows it and fully understands that Sakae loves him, I do want to see this tsundere directly tell Shitara that he is in love with him in the next volume. And Shitara struggling with something and Sakae giving his best to support him would be really nice too (I’m sorry Shitara 😂). I’m also hoping for more Kei/Sakae interactions in the future volumes, and Sakae finally filming a documentary about his town.
Sorry this ended up being so long;;
Thank you so much for the lovely comment! I’m glad that you enjoyed Sensei’s work so much, and I’m happy to share it with others.
Shitara and Sakae really do fit together like pieces of a puzzle. They’re both so fiercely independent, but they still work so well together. I really love that aspect of their relationship.
You see some glimmers of Sakae supporting Shitara through some tough times, like when Shitara learns about how Miyoshi never thought of them as friends. And when Sakae tells Motoi that he should ask Shitara about accepting the job offer because he goes wherever Shitara goes—that’s basically Sakae declaring his love to Shitara in public. But I understand the feeling of wanting more, lol. Gosh, my heart just swells so much whenever I read about them! I would absolutely love to read about your ideas and suggestions!! ❤❤❤