Chapter 25: Inexplicable Guilt

The next day, Akiwara Yuto took out his cleaning tools, preparing to clean the bedroom, living room, and kitchen from top to bottom.

This wasn't because he wanted to show off in front of Ikawa Akemi; it was just that cleaning the environment was the proper respect to show a guest.

As a single man, he was usually too lazy to tidy up his home: he relied entirely on convenience store bento boxes for meals, used the nearby coin laundry for his clothes, and left all his clutter on the floor. Only his desk area was clean—after all, it was where he worked, so it was better to keep it a bit tidier.

However, it was better not to let outsiders see this scene.

He glanced around, immediately springing into action: he put all his dirty clothes into the laundry basket in the bathroom, packed all the trash into a corner, and then used a rag to wipe down all the furniture, finally making the place look a little more like a place where a person lived.

After all that fuss, two hours had passed.

He had just slumped onto the floor to rest for less than two minutes when he suddenly heard the doorbell ring.

It seemed Ikawa Akemi had arrived, though it appeared to be a little earlier than the agreed-upon time.

He stood up, gave his clothes a quick pat, straightened his appearance, and walked to the courtyard, preparing to open the door to welcome her—they were going to talk about the stage play script next, right?

Opening the door, he saw someone he hadn't expected—his editor, Asano Aiko.

She was wearing a dark green knit shirt, carrying a box of souvenirs, and greeted him politely.

Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised, as it wasn't what he had expected, but he immediately reacted, opened the door to welcome her in, and smiled, "Asano, why are you here?"

Asano Aiko noticed the strange look on his face just now and asked suspiciously, "Because I haven't been able to get through to your phone lately, so I came over directly. What, is it inconvenient?"

The box of pastries she was holding was stamped with the characters "Tamaya"; it was matcha rice cake she had specially bought from the Tushan shopping street near her home.

Akiwara Yuto took the gift she handed him, said a polite word, and then let her come into the room to sit down.

He poured her a cup of tea, sat opposite her, and said with a smile, "If it's not an urgent matter, you can just send me an email; there's no need to make a special trip."

Asano Aiko's expression became even more puzzled; she suspected Akiwara Yuto really had some "little secret," but she didn't intend to probe right now, as she was here for business today.

She took a light sip of tea, then set down the cup, opened her light gray handbag, took out a stack of newspapers, handed them to Akiwara Yuto, and said excitedly, "Akiwara, there's good news: your article has been reviewed by the *Tokyo Daily News* again."

She added, "This time is different from the last; it's a full half-page!"

Akiwara Yuto was confused instead, feeling a bit lost for a moment. Could the editorial department have shifted promotional resources to him?

One had to know that half a page cost quite a bit of money.

Doubtful as he was, he still immediately took the newspaper Asano Aiko handed him, glanced at it, and found that it was indeed as she had said.

Nearly half of one page was essentially a book review related to him, with a large headline at the top, "Sofar: Let's Talk About the Relationship Between Parents and Children," and an article of nearly 4,000 characters below it.

He continued reading, preparing to see what the author had written.

The article first cited a previous report about a young boy who developed a psychological illness due to domestic violence, then led into the article "Sofar."

Between the lines, the praise for "Sofar" was overflowing; it commended Akiwara Yuto for having a high sense of social responsibility and even called for everyone to go buy *New Fiction* to read it.

There was also a sidebar interviewing a psychology expert, who stated that the content in "Sofar" was not exaggerated and was completely consistent with child psychological effects.

In short, judging from the existing newspaper content, this book reviewer named Yashiro Toshihiro showed great approval for the novel's content and was also very much looking forward to the future serialized content.

It was easy to imagine that this book review could very well provide a great boost to the sales of *New Fiction*.

Akiwara Yuto hadn't expected the article "Sofar" to be linked to such a young boy abandoned by his parents, and even more surprisingly, this book reviewer named Yashiro Toshihiro actually thought he had written this article specifically because of the boy's story.

This gave him the feeling that he was profiting from someone else's tragedy.

Asano Aiko, sitting to the side, saw Akiwara Yuto's grave expression and was even more puzzled; it was clearly good news, so why was he making such a face?

"Asano, how much are my manuscript fees for the last two issues? Could you help me calculate them?" Akiwara Yuto said to Asano Aiko with a very serious and earnest expression.

Asano Aiko was stunned by this request, but she still calculated it in her mind, and after a while, she replied, "The current issue's 'Sofar' and the next issue's 'Seven Rooms' total 80 pages of manuscript, so the total fee should be around 560,000 yen."

She paused and asked, puzzled, "Do you feel the manuscript fee is too low?"

"No, that's not the reason." Akiwara Yuto looked at Asano Aiko and said in a solemn tone, "Ms. Asano, please inform the finance department to anonymously donate these two manuscript fees directly to this child."

He had thought it through: even if he denied that his inspiration came from this young boy, the book review had already been published, and it was bound to lead many people to buy *New Fiction*, which made him a beneficiary.

But whether in his past life or the present, he was unwilling to build his own interests on the suffering of others, not to mention that the other party was just a minor who had suffered psychological trauma.

Since the remaining manuscript fees from before could barely sustain his life, he would just advance a portion of his future income; the other party might need this money more right now.

Although this might be a drop in the bucket, it was all he could do at the moment.

Seeing Akiwara Yuto's serious expression, and even his use of honorifics, Asano Aiko took it seriously as well. She straightened her posture and promised, "Akiwara, I will handle this matter well, don't worry."

Akiwara Yuto nodded, expressing his gratitude.

After a while, he felt the atmosphere in the living room was a bit heavy, thinking he might have been too serious just now, so he smiled, unwrapped the box of pastries stamped with the characters "Tamaya," placed them on the table, and said in a lighter tone, "It looks quite good; you've really worked hard, Editor."

Seeing the atmosphere return to normal, Asano Aiko also felt relieved. She rolled her eyes at Akiwara Yuto and said with a feigned sigh, "As long as the author can write his manuscript well, that's all that matters."

The two teased each other and each picked up a piece of pastry to taste. Since their relationship was already familiar, there was no need to be so formal.

Just then, the sound of the doorbell came from downstairs, and Akiwara Yuto realized that Ikawa Akemi had arrived.

Looking at the female editor sitting across from him, he didn't know why he felt inexplicably guilty...