Chapter 19: Ending – To Their Respective Futures

I put my elbows on my editor’s desk as I lean forward on my tiptoes, my checkered-skirt pointing outward, although I have no cottontail to poke-out above my waistband. I bounce up and down eagerly on the tips of my feet as my editor finally flips to the last page of my manuscript before placing it down on his desk.

“Miss Usagi, this story is fantastic,” the editor begins. He grabs the finished manuscript off his desk and stands up, his coattails swaying side-to-side as he walks over to the trashcan in the corner of the office. My heart sinks as he drops the document into the trash and walks back to his desk. “But it’s just not what we’re looking for this time.”

“Are you kidding me?!” I scream, rushing over to the garbage-can and fishing out my discarded manuscript. “That’s the second story you’ve rejected this year!” I sigh, putting my hands on my hips and walking back over to Mister Fox’s desk.

“Look, Usagi… Can I call you Chou?”

“Knock yourself out.”

“Look, Chou, when I asked for a romance story, this… wasn’t what I had in-mind.”

“Ahem,” another voice interrupts. “I’m not intruding, am I?”

“Mister Inugami?” my editor asks. “What do you want?”

“Chou worked hard to write that story,” my coworker Fumihito Inugami explains. “She humiliated herself time and time again! She endured several awkward dates! She lost her virginity! We climbed down the side of a fucking cliff in the middle of the night to gather up all of the pages of her manuscript after they blew away!”

“Wow, that part really happened too?” Mister Fox says in disbelief.

“Look, Mister Fox, I’m BEGGING you – please accept this story!”

“Chou, quite frankly, this story isn’t marketable. It’s too niche! Look, no offense, but an aromantic lead is a hard-sell, capiche?”

I sighed and hung my head in shame. “Welp, this was a waste of time.”

“No it wasn’t,” Fumihito says. “You want marketable? Put my name on the cover! I technically helped write the damn thing too!”

“Inugami, you know we don’t allow collaborations,” my editor remarks matter-of-factly.

“Ok, then, don’t give me an author credit. Instead, you can put my five-star review on the back!”

“Inugami, even if it’s coming from YOU, a five-out-of-ten review is still a mediocre score.”

“I meant five-out-of-five.”

Mister Fox clears his throat. “This silly little romance novel… endorsed by the King of Romance Novels?”

“Oh, stop, you’ll make me blush…” Fumihito smiled.

My editor turns to me and offers me his decidedly human and definitely not vulpine hand. “Ok, Chou… Against my better judgment, I’m going to approve this story for publication with our company.”

I can’t believe my ears. If I had rabbit ears, they’d probably be twitching right now! I shake Mister Fox’s hand with both of mine, jumping up and down on the spot with joy. “You won’t regret this, sir!”

“I’d better not…”

 

Stepping out of the office, I throw my hands in the air and, with a swish of my brown hair, I shout to the ceiling; “My novel was approved!!!”

In unison, most of my colleagues step out from their cubicles, clapping their hands and giving me their congratulations, like the ending of some cheesy nineties anime that thinks it’s way deeper than it actually is. Sheep, the lot of them. I’d never noticed before how much of a hivemind they were.

“I knew y’had it in ya!” a man says, walking up to me and giving me a painfully hard pat on the back. Goro Komeiji. So much of a jackass that I portrayed him as a literal donkey in my semi-autobiographical novel. “Hey, you wanna hear a joke to celebrate?”

“I’ll pass,” I say, lifting his arm away as I walk in the direction of the front exit.

After all those months toiling away to write a shitty romance novel… I’m finally done! Finally free!

“Hey, wait for me,” Fumihito calls out, running over to me. “Don’t I deserve a break too?” he chuckles.

“Oh, what the Hell,” I think. “Sure, wanna come over to my place?” I ask him.

He nods. “I’d love that more than anything,” he says. “After-all, you’re my best-friend, Chou Usagi.”

“Won’t things be awkward between you two now?” Tye (whose real surname is actually Hendricks) asks. “Y’know, what with that disastrous double date last night?”

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“You told Hendricks?!” I whine.

“I… told everyone,” Fumihito sheepishly admits as he rubs the back of his black-haired head. “Sorry.”

“Ah, fuck it, who cares?” I smile. “Aromantic or not, I think we can all agree that, sometimes, friendship is more important than romance.”

“Oh, absolutely!” Fumihito affirms. “Well, Tye, we’re off for the day! Keep our cubicles warm, will ya?” he laughs.

“…I don’t get it,” Goro says.” Hey, have you guys seen Parker? She hasn’t shown-up for work all day. I’m starting to get kinda worried.”

“She probably skipped town,” I say, “if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll stay far away from Fumihito and I, lest she face a restraining order… or worse.”

Fumihito and I laugh. Collectively, we’ve both been through a lot over these last few weeks. Sure, it wasn’t all great, but most conventional couples could probably say the same thing! As I understand it, a lot of couples go through some rough patches.

As I open the front door, Mister Fox opens his office door in-sync. “Hey, Usagi, wait! Before you go, I didn’t get the name for your novel!”

“I haven’t thought of one!” I reply.

“I’m planning a cover, Usagi! I need a name!”

“It’s a romantic-comedy, just give it a name based off that!”

“A romantic-comedy… a romantic… comedy… Aromantic comedy… Aro comedy…” Mister Fox mumbles. “Aro-com: A Romantic Comedy.”

Fumihito raises an eyebrow. “…Are you quite done, sir?”

“Yes, I think that shall do quite nicely. Carry on, you two. Enjoy your little break. I expect you both back here bright and early tomorrow!”

“IF I come back,” I wink, “after how much Hell I went through to write… ‘Aro-com’, I think it’ll be awhile before I write something else for you guys!”

“But you’ve proven yourself a competent romance author,” my editor begs, “surely you can produce romantic hit after romantic hit?”

I laugh. “Get real, Foxy. This was a fluke! I’m never writing another romance story again!”

Fumihito and I laugh as we exit the office and step onto the busy street. All around us are people – not animals – going about their normal lives. They’re not like us. Our lives are far from ‘normal’. But do you know what? I prefer it this way. After the last few weeks with Fumihito, I don’t think either of us could ever go back to living ‘normal’ lives, whatever that’s supposed-to mean, anyways!

“What’ll we do first?” Fumihito asks, placing his arm around my back.

“Whatever we want!” I reply. “Oh, I know, maybe we could--”

I’m interrupted by a kid rudely pointing at us. He probably wants Fumihito’s autograph, I reckon. “Are you guys a couple?!” he innocently asks.

Fumihito and I exchange glances. “No!” we reply simultaneously, walking off in the direction of the arcade, ready to take our friendship to the next stage and level up our hang-out sessions! …Oh, yeah, even through Aro-com’s finished, Fumihito and I aren’t gonna stop hanging-out. With the cliché rom-com misunderstanding dealt with, neither of us has to fear an awkward moment together for the rest of our lives!

It’s like I said – now that I’m finished writing this novel, I’m free to do whatever I want with the rest of my life! And I had fun hanging-out with my best-friend – that is to say, I had fun writing Aro-com – so, do y’know what? I’m gonna keep hanging with Fumihito! I’m going to keep writing!

“Oh, wait,” I blurt-out as a sudden realization hits, “gimme a sec, Fumihito, I’ll be back!”

“That’s my Chou…” he sighs, shrugging his shoulders and exhaling a large puff of air.

 

“Hey, Mister Fox,” I call out, barging back into his office, “I’m gonna need my manuscript back for a sec!”

“What for?”

“I need to write an epilogue!”

 

ARO-COM: A ROMANTIC COMEDY

END

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