#Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko made mo

[nozunhinged]

What kept me sane in the second week without playboyy is this man in this cheesy overdramatic romcom.

When he took out her hairband and stroked her hair I seriously questioned all my life choices.

[jasonbehrs]

🍬 corollary 🍬

by airauralintensity (aka me, jasonbehrs!)

If you lose your food-obsessed fiance in a crowd, here’s how to find her in three tries or less.

fandom: incurable case of love, koi wa tsuzuku yo doko made mo characters: sakura nanase, tendo kairi ship: sakurendo genres: romance themes: introspective, character study, tendo focus, post-canon word count: 3.3k+ book: 2/2 rating: T

read it on ffnet, aff, wattpad, ao3, or below!

~~~

A/N (7.26.2023): "Another Sakura-Nanase-loves-food fanfic from airauralintensity? What gives?" Listen, there are so many plot points in the show that are driven by Nanase's love of food. More fan content needs to acknowledge that if she had to choose between a falling patient and a falling plate… well, she would still choose the patient, but she would hesitate.

If you happen to be reading this fresh off of finishing the show, I'm ignoring the timeline of Episode 10. This fic is set after she returns but before they're married, which isn't a very long time period according to canon.

This isn't a sequel to 'a delicious conspiracy of love' in the consequential narrative sense, but they're still heavily related, so I encourage you to read that one first. I named this fic 'corollary' not just because it suits the plot but because this fic builds off of themes from the first one.

~~~

Sometimes, Kairi still needs to offer Nanase a hand.

He doesn't just mean pulling her to the side so that she doesn't accidentally run into a tourist because she's too busy window shopping to pay attention to her surroundings (though that does happen with an alarming frequency), but he also means literally.

In the times when she is too conscious of him, she won't hold his hand herself.

Despite the many professional advantages her year of community nursing abroad has brought, one of the personal disadvantages was that it also sort of reset their relationship, at least where Nanase was concerned. She didn't break off their engagement or anything, but there is a certain composure present where there was none previously.

They kept in regular contact during their time apart, which did a lot to ease the longing and keep their relationship feeling like a relationship, but he supposes a year's worth of conversational intimacy doesn't immediately nor necessarily translate into physical intimacy, even one as simple as this.

She has never been shy around him—as her blatant overtures for his affection back when she really was just a rock in his way made abundantly clear—but they were the actions of a woman on a mission. All years considered, she has spent more time pining for him than actually having him, and the relationship habits they were building before she left didn't have time to truly settle in.

All this to say: when she returned, she still treated him like he wasn't completely and irrevocably hers.

Kairi has enjoyed reminding her (oh, has he enjoyed reminding her), but now he thinks he needs to work harder.

He will. Once he finds her.

The Sumida Park Farmers' Market isn't that new, but it's new to them. It started up while Nanase was gone, and Kairi didn't have a reason to visit until she came back. It's also in the half of the park that isn't on their side of the river, so neither of them were that familiar with its layout even without the influx of people and vehicles and vendors.

Unfortunately, these are not as good excuses as he wants them to be. He ends up losing her in any given crowd nine times out of ten. She's always bouncing back and forth, admiring the wares and sampling the goods and talking to anyone who makes eye contact with her like the extrovert she is—which wouldn't be such a problem if only she would hold his goddamn hand.

But like he intimated, this happens pretty often; and he wouldn't be the man he is today if he didn't learn from his mistakes the first time. When a quick 360 doesn't immediately reveal his favourite smile or the sound of excessive cooing over someone's baby, he doesn't panic. He just closes his eyes and focuses on his breathing.

More specifically, the scents he's breathing.

If you lose your food-obsessed fiance in a crowd, here's how to find her in three tries or less: identify the smell of cooking then follow your nose to the closest food stall. It hasn't steered him wrong to date.

Nanase is always so surprised to be found, mostly because she's always surprised that she's lost in the first place. "How did Sensei know how to find me?" she would ask. He never tells, though, instead affecting a burdened air and moving forward with their date, lest he accidentally sully the sanctity of his trick.

The scent of friend dough catches Kairi's attention first. He follows the lead to a baby castella stall. There is no sign of his fiance, but he does buy a basket for her and dusts it with powdered sugar.

Repeating the process brings to his attention a smell that reminds him of the sea on a hot summer day. The takoyaki stall he comes upon also has no Nanase, but he buys a half-dozen anyway and prepares it the way she likes: topped liberally with pickled ginger and accompanied by a dollop of mayonnaise on the side.

Finally, he smells fried vegetables with an undercurrent of something sweet. It takes him to a crepe stall, and he's finally run out of hands and composure. Nanase is still nowhere to be seen.

He stands in the middle of the path and forces the flow of people to go around him as he furiously thinks of what to do now. This strategy has never failed him before. Besides, what good are two handfuls of warm food when there isn't a fiance with a never-ending appetite around to eat them?

Kairi spins in a circle, looking for a place to sit and set down his prandial burdens but mostly hoping that Nanase would still appear and validate his methodology. He needs to be right about this.

It was his job to be right about things like this.

.

An enthusiastic "Tendo-sensei!" was the first thing Kairi heard when he answered the phone.

Nanase picked a good time to call. He had already eaten breakfast, and it's easier to talk when he isn't concentrating on not overcooking his food.

They realised pretty early on that her night shift ended just in time for his day shift to begin. This sweet spot when she's getting ready for bed and he's getting ready to go became the obvious choice for any video calls. They couldn't call every day; but when they could, it happened around now.

He chuckled as he set the phone on a stand he bought for this specific purpose. "You can start calling me Kairi, you know. Isn't it weird to call your fiance by his last name and an honourific? I'm not even your attending physician anymore."

"You still call me Sakura sometimes!" By the echo, he could tell she was in her bathroom too, and something about being in a similar place at the same time made the distance feel smaller.

"But I call you Nanase the other times."

"Awww." The pitying sound made him glance over from the mirror to see a cute little pout on his fiance's face. "I miss the sound of my name."

He leaned in closer so she could see his incredulity. "What do they call you over there if not by your name?"

"No, no! They do call me Nanase. It's just, with the accent, it sounds more like… Nan-ase? I don't know. I feel bad saying this because it's not like I get all their names right all the time either, but…"

"Nanase."

"Hm?"

He turned away from the camera to reach for a towel with the added benefit of hiding his smile. He didn't say her name to get her attention, but he could pivot. Flexibility was a strength of his. "Not too tired from the night shift?"

"Not too tired to talk to Sensei~ Besides, I had coffee in the second half of my shift. I'll be good until after the call ends!"

He stopped what he was doing and looked back at her. "Since when did you start drinking coffee?" He worked alongside her for over four months and never even saw her drinking matcha.

"It's recent! It actually surprised my coworkers that I wasn't drinking any. Besides the long shifts, Berlin has a huge coffee culture. I wanted to fit in, so I started ordering some from the cafes that my coworkers recommended in town. I like it! I think. There's a lot of variety, at least. They even have matcha over here!"

Kairi let her elaborate on her journey of discovering coffee and tried not to overthink. Sakura Nanase, more energetic than a fully-charged battery and sweeter than Japan's finest wagashi, was not the sort of person he associated with coffee. It wasn't something he thought she'd enjoy.

It's not that he was against her drinking coffee. It's not about the coffee at all. It's the fact that there could be things about her that he couldn't predict. Considering he fell in love with her for her transparency, the discovery unnerved him.

Kairi was a man who prided himself on accurate deductions. From the moment he received a patient's echocardiogram, he could map out their entire recovery journey in his mind's eye. Of course, when the facts changed, he changed his mind; but anticipating and addressing viable changes in condition were the cornerstones of his entire career, and he was only capable of such astute assessments because he was an expert on cardiology. He didn't become one of the most successful heart surgeons in the country by wasting mental or temporal resources on understanding things that didn't matter to him. Heart health mattered to him.

Sakura Nanase also mattered to him.

He knew exactly how much rain it took to dissuade her from her outdoor plans. He knew the earliest she could wake up given her bedtime the night before. He could narrow down to the minute the point at which she needs a snack to boost her blood sugar.

Nanase wasn't predictable, necessarily, but humans were creatures of habit; and he observed and studied hers to the point of expertise.

If he wasn't an expert on the things he loved, what was he?

This was why he wasn't nearly as worried about her study abroad as she was. The distance was immaterial. Whether she was right next to him or on the opposite side of the world, he remained the foremost, citable, preeminent authority on all things Sakura Nanase.

"Does this mean I'll have to start sharing my coffee supply with you when you come back?"

"Maybe!" She giggled. "I like sharing things with you."

But mastery wasn't a checkpoint. It was a lifelong endeavour, and his chosen field of expertise had a similarly lifelong intention to keep growing, evolving, maturing. He reminded himself that this was actually exciting, and he was actually lucky. He got to witness those changes in real time; he got to remain the expert.

Especially in circumstances like these, he needed that assurance. Their time apart wouldn't matter because when she came back to him, she wouldn't be a stranger.

"I'm running a little behind, but do me a favour before I go?"

He directed his full attention to the phone, as he always did for the last few minutes of their calls. She shuffled closer so that her whole face took up his screen, and he refrained from mentioning that he took a screenshot of it. "You name it!"

"What's the name of your hospital, again? I forgot."

The sight of her fond eye roll did more to wake him up than his own cup of coffee did. "You didn't forget, Sensei. You just like to hear me butcher German."

He shrugged. "I forgot how much I like hearing you butcher German."

"Fine, fine. I'll say it so you won't be late." She cleared her throat. "Ge-ma-i-n-sha-fu-su-ka-n-ke-n-ha-u-su Ha-fu-hu-u."

"Oh, that's why it's so small? It's half of a real hospital?"

"One day, that joke will stop being funny," but the smile on her face said otherwise.

.

"Kairi! There you are, I've been looking all over for you."

He whirls around, barely keeping the food in their containers as he does. "What. No, you weren't. I was looking for you."

Nanase tilts her head. "Couldn't we have been looking for each other, then?"

He doesn't have an answer for that, still hung up on how his three-tries-or-less strategy failed him. "Where were you?" he asks instead.

"Oh! Here, have some." She opens her mouth, encourages him to mimic her, then plops something smooth and sweet onto his tongue. "Isn't it so good?"

Hard candy. She was buying hard candy. Hard candy does not emit an odour.

He doesn't know if he's annoyed that his strategy doesn't account for things like this or pleased that it still has merit under most but specific parameters.

"I saw a family back there holding a bag of something colourful," she continues, "so I asked them where they got it."

He follows her pointed finger to find that the hard candy vendor is literally right behind the castella stand, which is only a few stalls down from when he noticed he lost her.

He makes up his mind: he's definitely annoyed.

"Can I have some?" she asks about the food he forgot he is holding.

He offers both of his hands to her, looking down at the food both literally and figuratively. "They're for you," he grumbles.

Her eyes light up at the prospect of eating, and it says something that that alone isn't enough to lift his mood.

She points out a seating area with picnic tables a little ways away from where they're standing—which Kairi probably would have seen sooner if he were actually looking for those instead of blatantly focused on looking for Nanase instead—and he follows her lead. There appear to be no places for them to sit together, but a pointed glare at a pair of teenagers who are done eating rectifies that problem very quickly.

"Ah! I love pickled ginger with my takoyaki!" she effuses once they're seated side by side.

He waits until she takes her first bite—"It's the perfect temperature, too!"—before he brings up his concern: "Nanase, you need to hold my hand more often when we're in public."

"Really?"

"Yes…?" He meant to say that definitively, but the absolute delight and obvious relief on her face puzzle him. "That isn't a problem?"

"Not for me! I thought it would be for Sensei, though."

He ignores the reversion to an honourific. "What possibly gave you that idea?"

She does a quick, breezy shrug, more focused on preparing the next takoyaki ball for her consumption. "I didn't think you were happy to hold my hand when we're in public. You always looked burdened. I thought, 'Ah, he doesn't like it,' so I stopped," she explains casually, like she didn't just shatter his entire perception of their relationship in the ten seconds it took her to say that.

He, unfortunately, knows exactly what she's talking about; but the burden is fake!

Moreover: "That never stopped you before," he accuses. If there's one thing he understands about Sakura Nanase, it's that she chases after the things she wants without abandon or shame, even in the times when it would behoove her to exhibit more abandon or shame.

"Yeah, but I was pretty single-minded before, wasn't I?" she says plainly. This self-reflection is evidently not new to her. Where was he when she decided these things about herself? "I did and said so many things just because I wanted you to keep looking at me, even if it was in annoyance… which it usually was. You didn't like it even back then."

Sure, but that was back then.

"I was able to calm down in Germany, though," she reminisces. "Not getting to see you every day made me treasure the times I do have your attention, so it became easier to respect your boundaries."

"I don't have those!" he blurts out.

"Eh?"

He doesn't even know where to start. He was so misunderstood. He misunderstood so much. He's spiralling.

"I love it when you hold my hand. I love holding your hand. Hold my hand all the time."

"O-okay," she agrees with wide-eyes and an offered palm, thinking the directive started now.

He stares at her waiting hand, suddenly feeling like he doesn't deserve to hold it, but ultimately grasps it like a desperate man.

He is pretty desperate. He's spiralling, but her touch is a tether. "You're not a burden. You haven't been for a while, and I thought you knew that."

Her smile is brilliant. "Yeah, I worked hard to become an asset in the ward—"

"—With me, too," he interrupts. "It's an act; it always has been. I can't be straightforward about my affection; it feels weird. I'd rather be subtle about it,"— he gestures to the food—"but that only worked because I thought you knew to look past my pretense."

"I definitely thought it was real," she admits sheepishly. "Or at least coming from a real place. I just was willing to ignore it."

She didn't even know he was acting. He relied on the notion that she knew he was acting. Does he know anything about her, about this relationship?

"I thought you had become self-conscious," he confesses like a man who gambled everything he had and lost it all.

"I-I sort of did!" she gets out in a rush, a misinformed attempt to uplift her dour fiance. "I became conscious of how my past self behaved when I was pining after you and realised that I didn't need to do that anymore because I actually have you now," she ends optimistically.

He misunderstood so much. "What else don't I know about you?" he asks in all seriousness.

"Huh?" She chuckles in confusion. "What are you talking about? You know everything about me."

"Evidently not."

"Of course you do!" She holds up her half-finished takoyaki. "You remembered the mayonnaise!"

"Nanase, this is important!" he groans. "Just because I supplied mayonnaise for your takoyaki doesn't mean I know everything about you."

"And just because you misunderstood this one little thing about me doesn't mean you don't."

She doesn't get it. It's not just the hand-holding. It's the illusion of transparency, it's about inaccurate deductions, it's because she matters—

Nanase tugs his mouth open and puts in a baby castella. "Here."

For a split second, he considers spitting it out on principle before realising spitting it out would be disgusting. "I got those for you," he reproves once he's done chewing.

"And I'm letting you have some. I'm not the only one between the two of us who likes sweet bread, right?" she argues as she holds up another one to his mouth.

Kairi acquiesces on sharing the food, but he doesn't let her feed him. "See, you do have a limit on public displays of affection," she points out when he eats a castella of his own volition. "I just misjudged where that limit was."

He looks at her incredulously. "We're already holding hands," he retorts, covering the sight of his half-chewed food with one hand while the other waves their joined ones for emphasis. "Additional intimate interactions are superfluous."

"I would certainly appreciate 'additional interactions'."

"Appreciate what you have," he snarks on habit before remembering himself. He checks her reaction out of the corner of his eye. Will she start looking past his pretense?

Her exaggerated, coquettish blinks are answer enough. "So you won't hug me?"

He maintains a beleaguered veneer through the relief. "Hugging and hand-holding are mutually exclusive activities. One must replace the other; therefore neither will surpass my quotient for ardent displays."

She immediately releases their grasped hands and sticks her arms out in a low invitation. "How about now?"

He knows—he knows—his heart is not physically swelling from overwhelming fondness. His syncopated heartbeat is not arrhythmia. He requires no medical attention… but the sight of his adorable fiance and her cheeky but earnest ploys for his affection wreaks just so much havoc on his constitution.

He can't smile, or blush, or do something else with his face to betray that affection, but he doesn't have to. That isn't what she's asking for.

He wraps her up in intentional, unhurried movements, and he's rewarded with the squeeze of her arms around him. It's as grounding and reassuring as it always has been.

"I can't say I fully understand what you're worried about," she murmurs right below his ear, "but I can say I'm just as in love with you now as I was six years ago. I can also say that I know you love me, too."

He does. He doesn't say it nearly as often or as easily as she does, but he loves her.

"So how about this," she continues. "I show you love the way I know how, and you show me love the way you know how, and we can make up for the difference with honesty." It is framed like a proposal, but she speaks like she already knows how he'll respond.

Maybe she does.

"I can agree to those terms," he says as a formality, and she hugs him tighter.

Maybe she is the foremost, citable, preeminent authority on all things Tendo Kairi.

~~~

A/N (7.26.2023): Believe it or not, this was only supposed to be around 500 words…

The location I picked for Nanase's community nursing study abroad program is Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Havelhöhe (Havelhöhe Community Hospital) in Germany, which is a small academic teaching hospital in a very suburban area of Berlin and actually practises community nursing. It's associated with Charité, one of Europe's biggest university hospitals and the primary hospital in Berlin, which makes it even more likely to actually host a study abroad nursing program. (It does not in real life, though. The Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Havelhöhe mostly trains doctors, not nurses.)

Kairi's joke about it being half of a hospital is because the first two syllables of the neighbourhood it's located in, Havelhöhe (hæ-fu-heu-eh), is pronounced like how the English word 'half' is pronounced in Japanese.

[engshoujosei]

An Incurable Case of Love

7 volumes.

Licensed by Viz Media.

Nurse Nanase has striven to once again meet the prince of her dreams, so how is it he’s become such an aggravating doctor?! After witnessing a handsome and charming young doctor save a stranger’s life five years ago, Nanase Sakura trained to become a nurse. But when she meets the doctor again and they start working together, she finds Kairi Tendo to be nothing like the man she imagined him to be!

Status in Country of Origin:

7 Volumes (Complete) 

Tags:

Bickering Love

Chasing After Love Interest

Coworker Relationships

Doctor-Nurse Relationship

Doctor/s

Female Lead Falls in Love First

Harsh Male Lead

Hospital

Neighbor/s

Nurse/s

Tsundere Characters

[dreamsandstars24]

Giggling like a little girl because I'm watching Love last forever (Koi Wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made Mo) and she just saw Tendo again in the hospital but he doesn't remembers her.

[mostlyfate]

Would it be okay to ask you for jdrama recs? Coming from someone who hasn't watched a single jdrama in their life 😊 Kind of a jdrama starter pack please? ❤️

*sweats nervously once again* bc as I said before I honestly don’t like to rec things bc I think my taste is all over the place... 😂 and I'm not one who really pays attention or think about the faults of dramas. I just watch and enjoy (most of the time) lol. It also has only been almost four years for me with watching jdramas so I feel like I'm still pretty new to them haha. but I will try~ and what I mention is honestly more of ones I enjoyed the most watching and can remember!

okaaay! if you want to start out v short and sweet w some 🦋's i have two favorite drama specials 💘

— Tadashi Koi no Hajimekata (2023) | episodes: 01. genres: romance, youth. » there's only one episode but with two different versions! the name mentioned above is the first version and then tadashi koi no hajimekata: horoama? horoniga? date hen is the second version. it basically the same but shows the perspective of the two male leads with additional scenes! i just loved the pairing of mako and eita and their chemistry was soo good and fun. i am still v sad it wasn't an actual full length drama 😭 and the song that played at the end of date version was on repeat for months! 10/10 reccomend ✨

— An no Ririkku: Sakuragi An Haiku Hajimetemimashita (2021) | episodes: 02. genres: drama, youth. » i remember enjoying this one a lot it was definitely one of my favorite watches in 2021! since this one isn't the freshest in my memory (i have the worst memory fr) i can't say much but i swear i was obsessed w this special and the leads back in 2021!! 😆

before i get into mentioning actual full-length dramas i'll mention my two favorite jmovies that i actually physically own :)) so if you're interested in watching a movie before diving into dramas 💐

— Murder at Shijinso (2019) | duration: 2hr. 0 min. genres: horror, mystery, thriller, youth. » i love this dumb (affectionately) silly movie so much!! it might also be because i love the main actress hamabe minami but it's definitely just a fun murder mystery to watch :D

— You're Not Normal, Either! (2021) | duration: 1hr. 38 min. genres: comedy, romance, drama. » i enjoyed this one a lot!!! obviously since i also went out of my way to own it haha. but yeah my reviews for literally everything i like is "i enjoyed it" 😅 but seriously i did 🙇‍♀️

now for dramas!! i'll mention my two all time faves then ones i remember enjoying the most! 💐

— Talio Fukushu Daiko no Futari (2020) | episodes: 07. genres: comedy, law, mystery. » it's been three years since it aired and i'm still crying about it 😭 it's the one drama i never shut up about and think about all the time. it's my favorite drama of all time like nothing throughout the years has had a hold on me since!! (what i've previously said about it~) | the way both leads played off each other and their chemistry was just- a++ the soundtrack for the drama was also such a treat and the vibes matched it so well! the vibes of the whole drama though!! I think it was also shot beautifully. and the consistency (!!! the way they kept things going even the smallest details !!!) throughout was something i really appreciated and looked forward too :’) i really be missing it everyday... </3 | i literally have a talio collection that i finally completed a few months ago 🥹 i have the dvd, cd, vinyl, and the magazine the leads were on the cover of 🫶

— Itsuka, Nemuri Ni Tsuku Hi (2019) | episodes: 06. genres: fantasy, friendship, supernatural, youth. » this one still makes my heart hurt whenever i think about it and i just simply love it to pieces. it really has left an lasting impression on me. short and bittersweet. 🖤

dramas that are romance focused 💓

— Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo (2020) | episodes: 10. genres: comedy, medical, romance. » ahh so i think this was my first jdrama i watched!?! i honestly cant remember if i watched any before this bc this was the first jdrama i actually made gifs of so i'm going off of that as it being the first haha. but if you want something nice and fun to watch with romance at the forefront this is for youuu! bc i feel like most of my recs aren't romance heavy! and i just remember being obsessed with the leads and pretty sure it's what made me continue to watch jdramas 🫣

— Animals (2022) | episodes: 08 (+ 2 specials). genres: business, romance, drama. » loved loved loved this drama! one out of the five favorite dramas i watched in 2022!! great friendships, great message, funny and sweet moments, lovely lead— umi-chan i miss youuu. 🤧

— Oshi ga Joshi ni Narimashite (2023) | episodes: 12. genres: comedy, drama, romance. » definitely one of the funnest and sweetest drama i watched last year and suzuki airi (female lead) it's just such soo good, love her acting! she's also the lead in the drama animals i previously mentioned! pure rom-com with great chemistry!! ✨

— Kieta Hatsukoi (2021) | episodes: 10. genres: comedy, romance, youth. » high school setting with romance/friendship being the focus!! all the characters are so likable and it was such a cute and fun watch!!

— Ore no Kawaii wa Mousugu Shohikigen!? (2022) | episodes: 09. genres: comedy, romance. » easy fun and cute watch with great leads!!

dramas with all other kinds of genres (w hints of romance) ✨

— Bishoku Tantei Akechi Goro (2020) | episodes: 09. genres: comedy, food, mystery, thriller. » ooh i was obsessed w the leads of this one as well LOL. idk i really had so much fun watching this one and i loved main female lead a lot. 😭 also it had some really funny moments 😭

— Toki wo Kakeru Bando (2020) | episodes: 10. genres: comedy, music, romance, sci-fi » #wasnt expecting any crying to happen going into this drama 😩 #miura shohei's performance though?? AMAZING #he had me in tears every time #ryo i love u #not that it's similar but this reminds me of itsuka nemuri ni tsuku hi 🤧 | tags from a post i posted when i watched yeah 😂

— Dr. White (2022) | episodes: 10 (+ 1 special). genres: comedy, drama, medical, mystery. » also another favorite from my five favorite dramas watched in 2022! even though it wasn't finished being subbed until last year i still very much enjoyed what eps i watched back then! like i really looked forward to every episode and soo grateful the subber decided to finish it and subbed the special as well! i might be bias because i love hamabe minami who's the female lead (and is in two other things i mentioned above lol) but all the characters are v likable and they all have great chemistry together! plus i enjoyed the v subtle hint of romance between the two mains like it isn't really there but it is and i was quite satisfied with the ending. 🫶

— Ryosangata Riko: Puramo Joshi no Jinsei Kumitate Ki (2022) | episodes: 10. genres: business, drama, life. » i adore the lead so much, she's the cutest! i find this one to be such a fun and relaxing watch! and there's a cute little hint of romance which was soo good to me and wish we got more of them. 😭 there's also a second season: Ryosangata Riko: Mou Hitori no Puramo Joshi no Jinsei Kumitate ki / with same cast members but set in a new universe that just aired last year!

— Okaeri Mone (2021) | episodes: 120. genres: life, drama, romance. » the number of episodes might scare you but this drama is an asadora (morning drama) which is only 15 minutes per episode! so if you're looking for a longer watch about life with a bit of romance i 10/10 recommend checking it out!! yes hello i always miss them 😭

what i'm currently watching ☕️

— Uchi no Bengoshi wa Te ga Kakaru (2023)| episodes: 11. genres: comedy, law, mystery. » i totally have a thing for law and mystery dramas lol. but i've been enjoying this one a lot and recommend if you want something fun but somewhat serious to watch! and if you just like law dramas like mee 😂

— Nanyobi ni Umareta no (2023) | episodes: 09. genres: drama » this one is keeping me really interested and is definitely a type of drama i haven't really watched much of?? it's engaging, surprising and the actors are great! i feel like most dramas i mentioned are easy going ones to watch besides a few so this one is the latter!

+ special mention if you wanted to watch something base on an manga w anime-like feel ❈

— Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai (2020 - 2022) | seasons: 03, episodes: 03, 03, 02. + a movie Rohan au Louvre (2023) genres: horror, fantasy, mystery, thriller, supernatural. » i had been watching since the first one came out in 2020 and i didn't think we would be getting a season every year since and then even a movie! definitely check out if you're in the mood for creepy mystery with pleasing visuals + great outfits!

yeaaah that's it from me! ✌️ i feel like this isn't much of a starter pack-friendly list since it's kind of all over the place sorry 😭 but hope even just one peaks your interest!!

[flicksnfilms]

An Incurable Case of Love: 1st Season (2020)

Plot premise:  Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo Sakura Nanase is a 22-year-old rookie nurse. She met Doctor Tendo Kairi several years ago and fell in love with him. To meet him again, she studied hard and became a nurse. After 5 years, she finally meets Tendo again, but he has a totally different personality than what she imagined. Tendo, who is 33-years-old, is commonly referred to as the "Devil" at work. He is a level-headed perfectionist and often makes biting remarks to doctors and nurses. Sakura works hard to receive recognition from Tendo and she also expresses her feelings honestly to him. Due to her persistence, Sakura becomes well known at the hospital and she picks up the nickname of the "Warrior-Chick".

Network: TBS Episodes (and episode length): 6 (51-58 mins) Creator: Kaneko Arisa, Watanabe Mako (screenplay), Enjouji Maki (manga) Cast: Kamishiraishi Mone, Satoh Takeru, Karina, Maiguma Katsuya, Katase Nana, Watanabe Keisuke, Yamamoto Koji, Yoshikawa Ai IMDB | RottenTomatoes

± It's half-ridiculous and half-respectable. At the start, i'm just like "i hope you didn't waste 5 years just based on a chance encounter with a crush" and then "do the work properly first before chasing the romance." Thankfully they do and while she remains a dork and infatuated all the way through, there's growth and character development --for a lot of the characters actually. The words don't change but the dynamic does is definitely one of my favourite relationship tropes.

Is this how Japanese romance ideas really function? The two main with the Tendou siblings seem (at least at the beginning) so based on the idea on a pedestal rather than actual 3 dimensional people. Thankfully, again, growth.

They definitely cast Satoh Takeru properly as the prince :))) The kilig is real.

I love that they focused on the Cardiology and Pediatrics departments. While 10 episodes is a lot shorter than many an American hospital drama, it helps it feel more connected, especially with the patients, and definitely had me crying a couple of episodes just for the patients' subplots. Feels a lot less forced connection than New Amsterdam's push to be like House M.D. with a heart that effectively made their specializations feel meaningless.

[aylinaliens]

3, 7, 10 💕

3. If you had to watch one drama forever what would it be?

oh wow this is hard.

i was going to go with someone or one day because if you know me you should know that i adore this drama so much but i think i’m going to go with my most rewatched drama which is…an incurable case of love aka koi wa tsuzuku yo doko made mo. i don’t know why this drama just makes me so happy but it does. the characters and plot is infuriating but i am a sucker for how cliche everything is. i would rewatch it forever and probably never get sick of it. if i had to watch only one drama forever i would probably pick something that wasn’t emotionally devastating…at least i probably should? so yup i’m going to go with my sugary sweet mildly annoying comfort shoujo drama instead of the drama that leaves me emotionally drained.

but if not wanting to be emotionally drained it would be a toss up between the untamed and someday or one day!

7. If you could change the ending of a drama which one would it be?

almost all the more recent dramas of 2021/2022, especially the ones that loves supposed realism 🥰 no but honestly? 2521. yeah. no explanation needed. honorable mentions to scarlet heart ryeo, mr. queen, youth of may and uhhhh…eaw (but not for the reason some might think)

10. A trope/genre you’d like to see more of 

time travel/body migration. nearly all of my favorite dramas use this genre/trope. i just eat it up every single time which is bad for me because tragical or open endings nearly always happen.

as for tropes i really would love to see friends to lovers! actual friends to lovers. i’m talking fight my way and lovely us and my only 12% type of friends to lovers. years and years of friendships slowly evolving into something more. the trope gets a lot of flack but i love it—if it’s handled right. i love slowburn and i love the distinct angst that goes hand in hand with friends to lovers

Drama Asks

[druee]

Hello!

OH.MY.GOD

It's been a while since I wrote on my tumblr. I almost forgot that I have this account, LOL.

What should I write?

How about my current interest? Lately, I've been drowning on J Dorama called 'Love Lasts Forever' (Koi wa tsuzuku yo doko made mo). Satoh Takeru and Kamishiraishi Mone casted as the lead role.

Story-wise, it's similar with Itazura Na Kiss : naive girl and tsundere boy. both are nurses and doctors. but... I love this drama more. I'm sorry Irie Naoki-sama, hahaha.

Satoh Takeru and Kamishiraishi Mone (takemone) chemistry is no joke! I saw some clips of their interaction off drama and successfully tingled my shipping instinct. They're so cute even they have 9 years gap! So the prod team really cast actors with real age gap like the manga. Ah yes, this drama was live adaptation from manga called An Incurable Case Disease of Love by Miki Enjoji.

I read the manga and wow, Satoh Takeru was a real Tendo Kairi. He's just a perfect fit! and both Tendo and Satoh have hay fever. What kind of destiny is this.

When I found out that Satoh Takeru was initiated more kiss scene on drama, I think he read the manga for reference. And the adlibs he did, convince me more. Too bad no sexy scene, hahaha

[khaoray]

this is that 0.0001% chance

[jasonbehrs]

🍱 a delicious conspiracy of luck 🍱

by airauralintensity (aka me, jasonbehrs!)

an incurable case of love fanfic about food as a love language

“Hi hi, Sebentous! Welcome back to my channel. If you’re new here: this is Rakki Seben, I’m Nana-chan, and I love food.”

ship: sakurendo chapter: 2/2 book: 1/2 word count: 4.7k+ rating: T for depictions of attraction

read it on ffnet, aff, wattpad, ao3, or below!

~~~

A/N (7.18.2023): Only two more terms for you~

meronpan: a Japanese sweet bread that tastes faintly of cantaloupe.

seiza: a traditional way of sitting during formal occasions. There are a lot of specific ways certain body parts are positioned, but the one relevant for this fic is that the hands are placed palm down on the upper thighs with the fingers closed and pointing inward. There are other ways your hands are allowed to be positioned, but the palms-down one is the most deferential and often the precursor to a bow.

This chapter may be shorter, but it's definitely also sweeter!

~~~

Nanase makes the last train home and runs through the motions of preparing for bed, but she can't bring herself to sleep no matter the fact that it's well past midnight. She did anticipate not getting a lot of sleep tonight, but only because she thought she'd want to get started on video editing right away. Unfortunately, she's much more preoccupied with some other things about the evening.

"How do you know Kairi, Nanase-chan?"

"Between you and me, I think Tendo-sensei was pretty nervous about how you'd react to the food."

"Anything special to say about the dorayaki?"

Maybe alone, those conversations wouldn't make her wonder so much, but together…

She decides to rewatch her lunch day in Odaiba to see what Tendo-sensei was talking about. She sits at her desk, turns on her laptop, and pulls up the video. As her on-screen self walks through a shopping street in search of food, Nanase is more and more certain that she didn't eat any dorayaki on this day… and then she gets to the part of the video that shows the end of her lunch.

The Nana-chan in Odaiba cheerfully buys a meronpan at a small bakery on her way back to the subway. "Because no lunch date is complete without dessert!" she says in the video, but there's different text edited on screen. It was a throwaway comment, something she put up as a reward to the Sebentous who watch her videos instead of letting them play in the background.

Meronpan is tasty, but of course I love dorayaki the most!

Tendo-sensei was right. She did mention it in her Odaiba video. Not in the way she was expecting, but it's there.

Embarrassment surges through her a second later. Having just finished rewatching it, she cannot believe this is the video by which he based her invitation to Ha-to. She's proud of it, sure, but it's barely about the food! No wonder he was so judgemental. She's lucky he even gave her a chance.

Nanase slouches in her seat. She had no control over it, but she can't help but feel regret. Maybe if she paid the extra money so that YouTube could promote her best and most relevant videos, this night would have gone differently for her. She would only have been up against herself instead of both her anxiety and Tendo-sensei's poor impression of her.

As if to mock her, YouTube autoplays another Rakki Seben video after her Odaiba one ends. It's the one where she toured a farm in Chiba.

She lets it play just as a distraction, but she soon finds herself actually just rewatching it. It was a good day. Among the many reasons she's glad she took up YouTubing, the preservation of her favourite memories in a more interactive format is definitely one of them.

A clip finishes of the farmer/tour guide explaining that even though beef is a relatively new introduction to Japanese cuisine, almost every part of the cow that you could name gets eaten somewhere in Japan. Then it cuts to Nana-chan sitting down to eat lunch at the on-site restaurant, and she muses out loud to the camera that she wouldn't mind eating a cow heart ("or any animal heart really!") just to try it.

Nanase pauses the video. Rewinds. Plays it forward. Rewinds again and plays it at three-fourths the speed. Of course, her words don't change.

Like, to this day, they haven't changed. Hasn't she been saying that exact thing all night? Sure, she's a consistent person, but it's not like she's been hoping to eat animal heart anytime soon.

Something about this seems like the result of a force stronger than coincidence. After all, another thought she's been having all night is the fact that all of her favourite or desired eating experiences were represented in Ha-to's menu… eating experiences which she is increasingly certain she's shared on the channel before. It's what you do on a food vlog.

Before she knows it, it's already four a.m., and she's rewatched every one of her published videos. (Thank goodness she's not scheduled to work at the clinic today.) As she suspected, she's explicitly mentioned or discussed the nuances of her tastes in food in most of them, and she can directly connect a kaiseki course to one of those specificities.

Nanase shuts her laptop shut immediately. She needs to get her butt in bed. Her sleep deprivation is obviously affecting her. What is she even thinking right now? That every aspect of Ha-to was tailored to her exact tastes? Ludicrous. She's a nobody YouTuber who doesn't even focus on the food in a video hosted on a food vlog; she isn't worth the time. Besides, accepting that her delusions are true is predicated on the idea that everything was orchestrated by none other than Tendo Kairi, who would certainly agree on how much time she is worth.

"Sounds like you'll need more than three minutes of my time, Sakura-san."

She flops backwards onto her bed with a groan. The sooner that she sleeps, the sooner she can stop being reminded of all the ways she embarrassed herself tonight and let go of the weird feelings these suspicions cause.

The repeated buzzing of her cell phone wakes Nanase up earlier than her bedtime this morning would prefer, but that's the ringtone she set for her family. It might be an emergency.

"Hello?" she mumbles into the receiver.

"Nana-chan!" her brother yells into her ear. "Have you checked the news yet?"

"The news about what?"

"That fancy dinner you went to last night! It made the entertainment column on Yahoo! News. You and that dress you spent too much money on are in the background of some of the photos," he teases.

That certainly wakes her up. "Eh? No way! Do I look bad?"

"Not really?" he says, to her relief. "If I didn't know it was you, I'd think you were the heiress of a mid-sized trading company."

Leave it to her older brother to keep her humble. "Better than a bankrupt trading company."

"You've got the spirit! I'll send you a LINE with the articles where your face is visible in case you want to pull the photos for your vlog."

"Thanks so much for looking out for me! I'll take a look."

"Take care today!"

"You too."

After they hang up, Nanase valiantly tries to fall back asleep, but the intermittent buzzing from her phone in the next few minutes makes that a lost cause. She might as well read the articles that her brother is sending her.

She starts with the shortest one, still hoping she might wind up falling asleep soon.

[Chef Tendo Kairi Bears Ha-to at First Kaiseki by Negishi Mariko for The Tokyo Post

Saitama-born Tendo Kairi-sensei (33 years old) is a Tokyo-based chef best known for his skillful and timely rescue of an important dinner at the Peninsula Tokyo's restaurant last year after the head chef could not oversee the cooking due to personal reasons. Last night, he held a public, one-night only kaiseki dining opportunity in Ginza for a paying audience of about 200 people. The event was called 心臓(ハート), and there were eight delicious courses including an appetiser and dessert centred around the 'heart' theme. Despite being a kaiseki, there was minimal ceremony in presentation and explanation. Tendo-sensei simply and neatly introduced each dish's ingredients and preparation.

Tendo-sensei declined a formal interview, but reception of the meals were generally positive. "Unlike anything I've ever tasted before," "unique in every way," "a game-changer for the Tokyo culinary scene"—these are some of the things that were overheard through the night.

Pictures of the event hall and each course are included in the slideshow below.]

She doesn't click the slideshow, though, because something else catches her attention. Tendo-sensei declined an interview with the Tokyo Post?

She clicks through the other links her brother provided, and they all say he declined an interview with them.

Horror makes her bolt upright in bed. Did she perhaps monopolise all his allotted time for interviews?! She is so embarrassing.

Nanase opens LINE, sensing that it's far too late to apologise but feeling like one must be given anyway. Maybe she can transcribe the first interview Tendo-sensei did, where the light balance was off, and provide that to his management to distribute to the media in lieu of an in-person interview. Do chefs even have managers like actors do? She'll find out.

She intends to message the account that had sent her the invitation to Ha-to…

… Which has already messaged her this morning while she was asleep.

(Coincidentally, so did Yuki-san, but she'll read that later.)

[< cuisinebytendokairi

Sakura-san, Thank you for your patronage last night. I look forward to your review. Tendo Kairi]

The message makes her heart pound. Not just because it's a personal note from the chef himself but because right underneath that is a stamp of a cat wearing a mochi donut as a necklace with text that reads, 'I'll be in your care.' It's adorable.

It's familiar.

She uses the exact same stamp set. Fresh off the heels of rewatching all thirty-or-so of her videos, she knows for a fact that she's shown plenty of screenshots of her LINE messages. Any Sebentou would know she uses it.

Nanase slaps both her cheeks at once, forcing herself to get it together. She must still be seriously sleepy—why else would she still be so cognisant and even suspicious of what can only be coincidences? This is probably a very popular stamp set.

… Even though it's a premium set that costs 150 yen.

She will later attribute her next actions to a combination of sleep deprivation and the overinflated confidence that comes from being able to hide behind a screen, but she decides her curiosity is something worth satisfying, and she tries her luck.

[< cuisinebytendo

Good morning! Thank you for the invitation. It was wonderful to attend.

The wait for my next upload shouldn't be long. I started editing last night! Thank you again for the interview. I will properly edit it so that you look the most flattering despite my poor camerawork.]

It doesn't take a full minute for her message to be read and even less time to get a response, which makes her so giddy it borders on delirious.

[Poor camerawork? I thought that's what the second interview was for.

I'm sorry! I was so nervous and focused on fixing the first camera problem that I created a new one. Tendo-sensei is not fully in the frame…]

The typing dots on screen stop and start in obvious frustration, making her laugh more than they make her nervous. This is probably really rude and unprofessional of her, but she's committed to the ruse now.

[Must I record another one?]

There. She's got him.

[Would you mind?

If this is the way you always produce your videos, it's a wonder you get any out at all.

Is the Skytree out of the way for you, Sakura-san?

Not at all!

Meet me at the plaza there today at 1300.]

She smirks. That's plenty of time.

In response, she only sends back the same mochi donut cat stamp.

~~~

When Nanase arrives at the Skytree, Tendo-sensei is already waiting at one of the rock-shaped seats spread around the plaza for decoration. He's wearing another fashionably long coat and a black turtleneck. The aesthetic suits him, and she wonders what he looks like in the summer.

She waves blithely and grandly when he looks over in her direction, and he is still sneering at her when she gets closer. "Oi, where's your camera?"

As casually as possible, she sits on the rock next to him. She didn't bring it, obviously. This isn't an interview, but an interrogation. "Yuki-san LINE'd me this morning," she opens without apropos.

"... Okay?" he says, clearly wondering what that has got to do with anything.

Nanase waits for more, but when it's clear that he has no intention of picking up her very blatant lead, she realises she's going to have to put in a little more effort to get anything resembling a confession out of him. If she's honest with herself, she knew all along that this would not be an easy feat. "She took a look at my YouTube channel when she got home last night, and she likes me. She says she wants to help me grow my brand," she continues.

If she weren't specifically looking for a reaction, she would have missed the fleeting crack of satisfaction through Tendo-sensei's otherwise stoic face.

"The YouTube channel that you're supposed to be interviewing me for right now? That YouTube channel?" he snarks.

She purses her lips and tries another approach. "Ryuko-san also LINE'd me asking when I was free so that we could plan for our collaboration video."

"Did you tell her that 1300 today at the Skytree works for you? It's not like you're busy interviewing me, or anything."

Nanase has to fight a giggle. Interrogations are much easier when she isn't infatuated with the subject and he unveils a wit that she didn't see coming yet undeniably suits him. "Plus, Koishikawa-sensei and Kisugi-sensei were very pleasant company. I had a great time meeting them." At his expectant stare, she finishes, "I'm kind of thinking there's a lot more merit to Ryuko-san's theory last night than you're willing to admit."

Tendo-sensei crosses his arms and looks down his nose at her. "My sister is the legal definition of intoxicated ninety-nine percent of the time. If you believe she's even capable of having theories, then you're more gullible than you look, Sakura-san."

Her good humour evaporates at the slight against her appearance and her ability to judge someone's character. This must be the Devil that everyone was talking about.

Well, she's armed with a secret weapon, and it's time for her to use it.

She looks the man directly in the eye and states, "I loved every meal last night."

"Uh, thank you," he says, slowly but in obvious appreciation for a more relevant topic of conversation.

"Sensei knew I would."

He uncrosses his arms and leans back on one palm with practised nonchalance. "And how would I know that?"

"You tell me, YouTube user C-B-Y-T-K!" she yells out, standing to point a dramatic finger in his face.

Honestly, Nanase had hopes that the revelation of his YouTube account username was all it would take but she clearly underestimated her opponent. Aside from furrowed brows and flared nostrils, he doesn't react at all.

She takes her hand back to fish for her phone and continue her onslaught. "'This was an insightful look into the animal husbandry industry that anyone who enjoys eating meat should watch. Great video as always,'" she reads out, unable to resist pitching her voice low in an approximation of his deep voice which probably harms her cause more than it helps. "'The cuisine of Kyoto is unlike anything Tokyo can produce. I hope you can try it one day. Great video as always.' You didn't just vet me. You actually watch my videos!" she ends back in her voice, shoving her phone in his face to show him the screenshots she collected of the thirty-or-so comments he's left her.

He isn't fazed. "Why do you sound mad about that? Doesn't a YouTuber��want viewers?"

"I'm not mad!" but the high-pitched, emotional rebuttal probably doesn't help. She forces herself to take a breath at the eyebrow Tendo-sensei raises in her direction. "I'm not mad. I'm confused… maybe also a little disappointed."

The atmosphere between them becomes cold for reasons that have nothing to do with the season. "I didn't know it would be so disappointing to meet a fan."

"Oh my gosh, no!" Nanase plops back onto the seat and covers her mouth with her hands, appalled at how misconstrued she was. "I absolutely didn't mean that, I promise! I could never be disappointed with you! It's the circumstances; it's myself."

He doesn't say anything, but the lines of his face soften from consternation to interest, so she explains, "I always told myself I'd make it special if I ever got to meet a fan."

"I'm not a fan."

"You just called yourself a fan," she points out.

"I was speaking in the hypothetical," he refutes easily. "If anything, I am just a regular viewer."

She rolls her eyes and lets him have that. "Well, you're still the first 'regular viewer' I've ever met."

He rolls up from his relaxed position to lean a forearm on his knee. "So I'm your first, huh?"

"Don't be crass," she admonishes as she lightly shoves him backwards.

He takes the hit in stride, and they both chuckle—in humour and in dissipation of the brief tension from the previous conversation. When they settle down and the silence turns comfortable, he asks, "So you would have treated me differently?"

"I would have made it special," she counters.

For the first time all afternoon, Tendo-sensei turns serious. His blatant facade of unflappability is replaced with a version of him that somehow seems more authentic than the one that introduced the dessert course last night. "Then I'm glad you didn't know, Sakura-san. I just wanted to meet you, not whomever you would have made yourself to be."

Her heart beats faster. "You wanted to meet me?"

He may not be looking at her, but she can tell none of his attention is trained somewhere else. "You weren't invited by accident."

Nanase didn't think it was by accident. She thought she was just… lucky.

Well, maybe she is lucky, but in a different way.

"Why was I invited, Tendo-sensei?" she asks, voice quiet but searching.

He directs his gaze the distance, taking his time to give her a proper resolution to her confusion. He's still looking when he answers her. "As I said before, I loved my late wife's cooking. It didn't matter how much I learned in school or from other chefs, her meals would always taste the best to me… When she died, I didn't think I could still love food—not in the same way, and not ever again. I was even considering changing careers, going back to school, finding something else.

"It seems that my YouTube algorithms didn't get the memo, though. Your Odaiba video was recommended to me, and I clicked it. To this day, I still couldn't tell you why. I sat and watched the whole thing… and I just kept watching. I had seen all of your uploads by the end of that week."

He pauses, looks over at her, steals Nanase's breath away. There is a smile on his face. It isn't the biggest one she's ever seen, but it's genuine and directed at her. "You… You really know how to enjoy food, you know."

She tries not to flush at that. It isn't appropriate, and what good would it do to be embarrassed now? She's built her entire online platform on the fact she loves food.

"In my grief, I had forgotten what that was like."

He falls quiet after that, and Nanase joins him in his contemplation. There is something swirling within her, too complicated to identify and even harder to express. It weighs her down but is coloured bright.

Movement to her side brings her attention back to Tendo-sensei, who turns to face her properly. His back is straight with his hands on his knees as if in seiza. "You saved me, Nana-chan. Not just my career, but me. Thank you."

The use of her internet persona's name completely undoes her. The unnamed feeling inside her bursts out in tears and bawls; she completely ignores his ensuing bow and hugs him with all her might.

"What is this?" he demands, trying but not very hard to exit the embrace.

She would love to answer him, but she needs to get some of this emotion out of her before she can even think to articulate it. She cries harder.

The tears and prolonged contact are making him uncomfortable, though. "Nana-chan?" he tries again.

He said it again! Somehow, it's what she needed to hear. "You suffered so much loss!" she sobs into his shoulder. "I cannot even imagine the pain and darkness you were going through, all while I was off trying to find something tasty to eat for dinner. And I took videos of it and put it online, hoping that it could brighten someone's day, no matter how much or how briefly. And it did, and that person is you."

She squeezes him tighter, his farcical resistance abandoned. "I'm so sorry, but I'm also so grateful!" she wails.

"We're in public, Sakura-san. Compose yourself." In spite of his curt words and tone, though, Tendo-sensei snakes an arm out of her grip and tentatively rubs her upper back, brushing against the ends of her hair as he does.

After a moment, he rests his hand there.

A moment later, he shuffles them to sit side by side on his rock.

Not long after, her cries subside into sniffles, and then he reveals, "It was for you."

"Huh?" She tries to lean back to look at him, but the arm at her back doesn't let her go very far.

"The entire pop up kaiseki was for you," he confesses with his head down, speaking into the space between them. "I wanted a reason to meet you. I wanted you to try my cooking. I wanted to make you food you'd enjoy."

Nanase fully disengages from the hug, and he lets his arms drop to his sides. He still avoids looking at her, but he raises his heat at least. She roughly wipes away the vestiges of her tears, wondering if maybe she just can't see clearly, but they're still there, painted plainly across his face. Embarrassment, nervousness, hope.

She clears her throat, as composed as she's going to get. "What kind of food do you enjoy, sensei?"

He finally looks at her, inquisitive and hesitant, but answers anyway. "Crab."

She tries her luck one more time. "I happen to know a great crab place," she offers with a tiny smile. "Would you like to join me for lunch?"

~~~

When the doorbell rings, Nanase is putting the final touches on the decorations in her apartment. She looks it over one last time and nods to herself in satisfaction before letting in her guest.

"The streamers are crooked," Kairi says in lieu of a greeting as soon as she opens the door.

She gasps and turns on her heel in indignant inspection. "Where?!" She even used a level!

Her offence is quickly forgotten with the feel of Kairi's lips on hers. His warm chest against her back and his fingers on her cheek gently guiding her face to his never fail to give her butterflies, and she hopes they never will. She doesn't ever want to get used to this feeling.

He gently pulls away, and Nanase slowly blinks back to awareness to find him smirking at her. "Gotcha."

It takes her an embarrassingly long second to get the joke. "You can't do that to me!" she shrieks as she tackle-hugs him. "This is important, you know that!"

He laughs as he returns the hug. It's the laugh where he's amused that she's so gullible but endeared by it at the same time. "I know, I know. I also knew that you didn't answer the door immediately because you were decorating."

His voice turns slightly admonishing towards the end, and she pulls her head back so that he could see her regretful wince. "I'm sorry. I know I said we could do it together, but I got jittery just sitting here and waiting."

Kairi squeezes her sides in forgiveness and leans in for a swift kiss on the lips before letting her go. "Ah, but it would have been nice to see it come together. I never thought I'd have the chance to see it in real life," he says as he walks closer to inspect her handiwork. She moved her dining table deeper into the kitchen to create space for her loveseat against a blank wall, which she decorated with streamers, battery-powered fairy lights, and a hang-up blackboard sign she got from Daiso that she wrote Rakki Seben on in chalk.

When he turns back to her, he has a smile on his face that reminds her he's loved her longer than she's even known him. "It looks great, as always. Can I sit on the couch?"

Nanase nods, and he lowers himself onto the loveseat slowly, like he's savouring it. There's a silly, saccharine feeling bubbling up in her that she tampers down. "Did you come here today as a Sebentou or as my boyfriend?" she asks instead of letting it out. She should save it for later.

"What kind of question is that? I'm both, obviously," he says absentmindedly as he bounces a little to test the cushions.

She turns, ostensibly to continue preparations but mostly to hide the smile on her face. "I appreciate the diplomatic answer, but I know who I'm dating. You're a Sebentou first and my boyfriend second, and I've made peace with that."

He doesn't acknowledge her teasing, so she looks over to find him observing her apartment, the apartment he's been to plenty of times before, from this specific point of view. Yeah, she knows who she's dating.

"Remember, I'm going to call you 'Tendo-sensei'," she says as she walks back to him with bottles of water.

"Yes, yes, 'Nana-chan'," he dismisses, and she giggles. She's glad he's broken out of the habit, but sometimes she misses the early days when he could only call her Nana-chan. "That's who you were to me for so long," he had defended every time, and there's just no word for the emotion that that causes other than love.

She double-checks everything one last time before she settles next to Kairi on the loveseat. The ring light isn't too bright, the new camera Kairi bought her is fully charged and on the tripod, and the settings are correct. The only thing left now is to start recording.

"Are you ready?" she asks rotely as she organises her index cards in front of her.

"Hmmm, ah. No, I forgot something."

Nanase's head snaps up. "Like what—!"

With the second of such an arduous interaction in a matter of minutes, she's admittedly kind of wondering if he'd be willing to postpone filming by an hour or two.

Kairi ends the kiss decisively, though. "I'm your boyfriend before I'm a Sebentou," he maintains, and then he faces forward.

The haze she was under clears enough to make room for emotions other than desire. Namely, exasperation. (Granted, it is still fond.) "Alright, sensei, you've made your point. Are you ready now?"

Kairi crosses his legs and folds his hands on the top knee. "Sure."

She clears her throat a little, throws on a smile, and presses 'Start Recording'.

"Hi hi, Sebentous! Welcome back to my channel. If you're new here: this is Rakki Seben, I'm Nana-chan, and I love food… Almost as much as I love my boyfriend!"

She splays her palms out in a presenting way, and he takes his cue. "Hello, everyone. I'm Nana-chan's boyfriend, Tendo Kairi."

"As you might have guessed, we're doing something a little different on Rakki Seben today. Instead of introducing you to food, I'm going to introduce my boyfriend to you! That's right: we're doing the boyfriend tag!"

.

@watanabe_wants_nabe 12 hours ago nana-chan is taken! i am totally okay with this and not at all devastated. guess i'll go comfort myself by going to the nabe place in nihonbashi she recommended :')

@mochi.wo.mochi 7 hours ago if i couldn't be the one to date the hot tokyo chef guy, i'm glad it's nana-chan 😌✊ i'm so happy for you two!

@daikondaisuki 3 hours ago not even 30 seconds into the video and BOTH of them have already done that 'gazing adoringly at the other person when they aren't looking' thing? they're in love your honour and i have 11 minutes and 6 seconds of content to prove it

@CBYTK 38 minutes ago Thank you for showing us a more personal side to yourself and introducing us to your boyfriend. Great video as always.

~~~

A/N (7.18.2023): the usernames explained-

tamagotamako: tamako is a common female name, tamago is the word for egg

yakini-kun: yakiniku is the word for Japanese-style barbecue, -kun is a familiar honourific

watanabe_wants_nabe: watanabe is a common last name, nabe is the word for hot pot

mochi .wo. mochi: literally 'I have mochi'. mochi is a homonym that can refer to the sticky rice cake (analogous to the Korean tteokbokki) that is used in sweet or savoury dishes or to the concept of possessing something, wo is the participle used for direct objects in Japanese grammar

daikondaisuki: daikon is the Asian radish, daisuki is the word for love

CBYTK: cuisine by tendo kairi a la sato takeru's real life clothing brand abyts (answer by takeru sato)

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope you liked it :)

[kdramaxoxo]

It’s absolutely unacceptable that it’s 2022 and there isn’t another Takeru Satoh romance drama. Like work harder please.

just saying

[dreamsandstars24]

Love lasts forever (Koi Wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made Mo) Episode 4:

The paramedic listening to Sakura declare her heart out: O mah God, I need popcorn.

[okabehk]

Title: #AnIncurableCaseOfLove #KoiwaTsuzukuyoDokoMademo #恋はつづくよどこまでも

Main Cast: #KamishiraishiMone #SatohTakeru

Episodes: 10

This is probably one of my favorite jdramas so far. I mean you still have the goofy ML and overblown acting but this drama is pretty heartwarming. It's about a crush on a doctor that started with her witnessing him saving a persons life she came across that needed help, at that point she decided to be a nurse and after graduation she works at the same hospital as the doctor. Let's just say it takes her a bit of time to open his heart. Luckily the FL is super sweet and loyal, of course that makes other men fall for her as well which is a problem lol. I just loved Kamishiraishi Mone, what an absolute sweetheart, she is worth watching it alone. If you're in the mood for a short, cute little jdrama with a wonderful FL definitely give this one a watch, you won't be disappointed.

[jinnie-channie]

I FOUND ONE!!! I FOUND MY FIRST KOITSUDU FIC

Anyways here it is, if anyone would actually be reading this. Again. 😭

I Hear You

It was a rare morning where Kairi was the first one to get up. Usually Nanase gets up first and cook even though Kairi had told her many times to not to as they could get breakfast in the hospital. Even before they were married Nanase had already been acting like a devoted wife, now it was a great opportunity for Kairi to take care of her, seeing that Nanase is tired from their activity last night.

Kairi quickly got into work, making some pancakes that Nanase had been planning to cook for their breakfast. Just as he was about to finish cooking the last one, he felt someone wrap their arms around him and a small peck on his back. He couldn't help but smile at his wife's action, knowing that she was too small to reach his neck which was obviously her target.

"Kairi." Nanase whined after getting no response from Kairi. Kairi continued to ignore her, finishing up the meal that he was preparing. Nanase's arms was loosening when he turned around and captured Nanase's lips into a deep kiss. He could feel her legs turn jelly as he gripped her waist pulling her even closer. This was the best part of his morning, the warmth that Nanase brings to his life was something that he was always grateful for.

"Morning." He mumbled on her lips before kissing her again. "Good morning." She answered, a smile crept up to her lips as her husband doesn't seem that he was stopping from pecking her lips. "What's with you today, Kairi?" His heart fluttered as he heard his name again from her, which was something that Nanase recently done after calling him sensei ever since they met. "Come on, let's eat. I made pancakes." He was just overflowing with love and wanted to show her but he wasn't going to tell her that. She would probably become so hyper with happiness again if he told her.

Nanase couldn't help but stare at her husband as they eat. The man may seem cold and uncaring at first but nowadays he was smiling more and more. He couldn't even keep his hands off her both literally and figuratively if you know what I mean. Even now his feet was gently tapping hers as they eat, she found it adorable though he would probably call her stupid again if she mentioned that.

---

Nanase yawned for the nth time that morning, which was unusual for the warrior who was always energetic so it was evident to the other staff. "Nanase, are you okay?" Nurse Negishi asked as Nanase was in mid yawn. "Ah! Yes of course! I just didn't sleep well last night." Nanase blushed as she remembered what really happened last night. "Eh? Does it mean that you and the devil..." Nurse Ishihara trailed. "Impossible! You know the devil. He would probably rather read than do that!" Nurse Numazu's loud voice boomed through the nurse station.

Nurse Negishi could just stifle her laugh as behind Nurse Numazu was the said devil. "If you are all finished gossiping about my and Nanase's life at home can I please have the chart of the new patient in our ward? And Nanase, you forgot to cover the hickey on your neck." The last part was supposedly a whisper but with the defeaning silence that occured when his presence was felt made it seem louder than it was supposed to be.

"Kairi!" Nanase shouted in embarassment as she covered her neck where the hickey is. All the nurses gasped at what Nanase said, the warrior always called him Sensei and it was the first time they heard her call him that, and of course because now covered hickey. Nanase turned even more red as she realized what she had said. Kairi only chuckled and pecked Nanase's cheeks. "Now about that chart?" He asked once again.

Before anyone actually had the chance to react to the surprising turn of events Nanase suddenly swayed and was fortunately catched by Kairi. Kairi shouting her name was the last thing Nanase heard before she fainted completely.

---

"You should really stop worrying me, Nanase." Kairi grumbled through Nanase's palm, holding at his face. He could still feel how his heart stopped when he saw her faint. He had no idea what happened, did he tease her too much? But he was really happy to hear her call him his name outside their home after 2 months of marriage. It wasn't easy doing that as Nanase is really a professional nurse and preferred to call him Sensei in front of everyone. But if she had to call him sensei for the rest of their life to stop her from fainting then so be it.

"Kairi?" His trail of thoughts was interrupted with a soft voice. "I'm here." He answered as he placed a soft kiss on the inside of her wrist. There she was again giving him her cute smile as if nothing happened. "We must've done it too much last night." She joked, gently caressing Kairi's face in attempt to ease the frown and worry etched on his face. "If that's the reason then we won't do it anymore." He answered seriously which stopped Nanase. "Eh???"

"Oh good you're awake." A doctor entered, making Kairi stand up and Nanase sit up. "I'm Doctor Misao, I'm an ob-gyne. You two should probably need to sit and relax for this one." Kairi and Nanase unconsciously reached for each other's hand. "What seems to be the problem, sensei?" Kairi asked, trying to stop his voice from trembling. He needs to be strong no matter what, even though he was really scared. "There isn't any problem. In fact, you two are expecting! Congratulations, Mrs. Tendo is 2 months pregnant!" Kairi felt his heart stop again, but this time he felt it restart and beat faster. Nanase couldn't help but gasp at the news. They haven't actually planned for a kid yet but her heart felt full of love for the baby that was growing inside of her. "Knowing that you two work here, I won't bore you with medical details. Let's just schedule your check up. I'm sure you two want some privacy." Doctor Misao said.

After a few short minutes, Doctor Misao already left. Silence filled the private room that they occupied. Nanase was so happy, a baby, she couldn't believe it. A childish crush eventually turned into love, turned into the most beautiful thing that happened to her after Kairi. She didn't even know that she was patting her lower tummy as she smiled until she heard a sob. Kairi was sitting with his head bowed. He stiffled his sobs with a hand as his other hand reached out to Nanase's. "Kairi." She softly called. "I'm so happy. You're okay, and I'm going to be a dad." Nanase brought his hands to her lips. "I know. I'm happy too." She muttered, smiling at his vulnerability, it wasn't that she was enjoying it. She was just glad that he trusted and loved her enough to rely on her. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" She asked. He was silent fora few moment. Gathering his thoughts on how to say how he really felt. "I'm relieved that you're okay. And I'm scared." Nanase held his face and tilted it to make him look at her. "Scared of what?"

He took a deep breath. As if scared to even say it. "Pregnancy can have a lot of complications. I am scared for you and our baby. And not only that. I'm scared that I may not be a good father. After what happened to Minori, I have a hard time expressing how I feel. I am not good at handling my emotions. I'm already having a hard time believing that I deserve you, I feel like I haven't done enough to prove that I deserve our baby." His eyes were filled with tears. He was nervous and scared. The last time that he had been this open Nanase was when she had an accident. He hated that he had to wait for something big to happen to tell her how he really felt.

"Stupid." Nanase mumbled, surprising Kairi. She was glaring at him with teary eyes and if this wasn't such a serious moment he would have pinched her cheeks for being so cute. "I didn't choose you because of that. I knew your flaws and I embraced them. I know that you barely talk about your feelings but when you do, you do it in the gentlest way, and you pour your heart out. I know that eventually you would be able to talk with me freely. Remember when you told me that my smile was gross? And when I had the accident you told me I had the cutest smile. And how would you be a bad father when you're with your patient you're the kindest person ever. And even when I fail at being a good housewife you're there comforting me, not minding the ruined dinner or your favorite shirt that I ruined. You may not voice out your feelings a lot but you show it through your actions and that is something that a good father posesses." Kairi was surprised by how good his wife was in dealing with him. He is an excellent doctor and he knows that, but despite that, he also has insecurities. But his wife, his Nanase, eased his worries while glaring at him.

"And also about the pregnancy, that's why we have monthly check ups. And whatever problem may arise, we can deal with it. We will deal with it because we're together. I am here." He couldn't help but smile. "I hear you." He said and kissed her forehead and hugged her tightly. "I am glad though. That you talked to me about it." Nanase felt him chuckle, she slapped his chest in response. "You always did enjoy seeing me like this." He smoothed out her hair, enjoying their closeness. "I love it when you talk to me. About work, about random things, or even about something painful. I love that you can tell me anything. But that doesn't mean that I enjoy it, I am in pain when you're in pain." Kairi could hear the pout on her words. He pulled back from the hug and kissed her deeply. "I love you, Nanase and our baby" Kairi gently placed his hand on her flat tummy. "A baby, Kairi. We're going to have a baby!" Nanase squealed, the fact that they are going to have a baby is finally sinking in. Kairi's smile widened even more as his wife rambled on.

---

The next morning, Kairi and Nanase arrived at the nurse station just before their morning meeting. "Tendo sensei? I thought it was your day off today." Nurse Numazu asked. "Oh, I completely forgot. Why are you here?" Nanase who was used to walking to work with Kairi was also confused. "I am not here today as a doctor. I am here as Nanase's husband." Kairi answered smiling at his confused wife. "Please take care of Nanase." He said before bowing deeply, Nanase not knowing what was happening also bowed down. "Nanase is 2 months pregnant. I am not asking for special care towards her because I know she would hate being treated specially as she is very dedicated to her work. All I am asking is that, to look after her when I am not here." Kairi was obviously awkward, talking about a personal matter in front of his co-workers was something he was not used to. "Eh???? Nanase you're pregnant?!" Nurse Numazu exclaimed. "Congratulations Nanase and Tendo-sensei!" Sakai hugged Nanase who was frozen in surprise. Finally coming out of her shock Nanase hugged Sakai back and happily said "I am pregnant!!!" Making the nurse station filled with excited shouts and cheers.

"Tendo-sensei, 2 months eh? You guys have been married for only a month and Nanase has just been back for 2 months. I didn't know you had it in you." Nurse Numazu teased Kairi, and Nanase who heard it laughed. "Even before I left Kairi had it in him. Of course after a year of not meeting-" Nanase stopped talking after realising what she just had said, slowly facing Kairi who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms. "You just dug your own grave." He muttered as everyone was now looking at Nanase with wide curious eyes. "I didn't mean to." She whined. Kairi just laughed and kissed her lips. "I'm going home to do the laundry. You deal with them."

"Kairi!!!!" Nanase could only shout as all the staff gathered around her.

[hnnhgrce]

[8stepsoffthebeatenpath]

Who gave this man the right to be this pretty ✨