The Shadow of the Tiger
By: Carol and Mariana
Tokyo glowed in the darkness, its neon lights flickering over the streets wet from the rain that seemed to never end. Yasu walked in silence, the drops sliding down his face without him bothering to dry them. The nighttime atmosphere of the city had always been his refuge, especially now, when the preparations for his wedding had him on the verge of collapse.
The Engagement Dinner
Everything had started at a family dinner, elegant and opulent, with fine porcelain plates and a long table decorated with exotic flowers. Yasu could barely concentrate on the conversations around him. His father, Katashi, had organized that meeting with Suzu’s parents, his fiancée, to formally announce their engagement.
“It’s a wise decision for both families,” said Makoto, Suzu’s father, raising his glass in a toast. “A union that will strengthen our ties and allow us to grow together.”
Yasu forced himself to smile, even though he felt a knot in his stomach. He didn’t love Suzu. He never had. He had known her since childhood, but he always saw her as a spoiled and selfish girl. Suzu, for her part, didn’t seem excited about the marriage either, but accepted the engagement because it was expected of her. The luxuries and status that the union with Yasu guaranteed made it more bearable for her
After the dinner, Suzu glanced at him, annoyed that Yasu showed no interest in the wedding plans.
“You should be more involved. This wedding is as much yours as mine,” she said coldly.
Yasu didn’t reply He knew his fate was sealed, and any attempt to rebel against his father’s decision would be in vain.
Encounter in the Red Light District
Weeks passed, and the closer the wedding date came, the more suffocated Yasu felt. The pressure from his family and Suzu’s extravagant demands for the ceremony drove him to seek a way out. That’s how, one night, he decided to lose himself in the shadows of Tokyo’s red-light district. He walked among the neon-lit bars and dark alleys, looking for a way to release all the stress that consumed him.
He entered a small bar, one of the many hidden in that part of the city As he drank silently, a man watched him from the other side of the place. It was Ren, the owner of several illegal businesses in the area, a cunning and calculating man who had learned
to survive in Tokyo’s underworld. Ren approached, intrigued by the seriousness and loneliness that Yasu gave off.
“You seem to carry the weight of the world,” Ren commented with a smile, sitting next to him.
Yasu, already a bit drunk, vaguely told him about his life, the engagement with Suzu, and how everything seemed to be slipping out of his control. Ren listened with interest. Something about that lonely and lost man sparked a dangerous fascination in him.
That night was only the beginning. Yasu and Ren began seeing each other frequently, first by chance, then deliberately Ren became his escape, a way out of everything that oppressed him. Yasu found in Ren a freedom he had never experienced, a way to disobey the rules imposed on him since childhood.
A Forbidden Love
Over time, the relationship between Yasu and Ren stopped being just a friendship. There was something deeper, something neither of them could ignore. The change happened one night when Ren, after a tense conversation, kissed him. Yasu, surprised, didn’t know how to react at first, but the feeling of liberation was so powerful that he accepted that forbidden love without thinking about the consequences.
“You don’t have to keep living that lie,” Ren whispered one night. “You can be who you really are with me. You don’t have to marry her.”
Yasu knew that what Ren said was true, but reality was more complicated. The wedding was already scheduled, and his parents wouldn’t accept any excuse to cancel it. Despite this, his meetings with Ren continued in secret, and with each new encounter, Ren’s obsession with Yasu grew.
Ren even convinced Yasu to get a tiger scratch tattoo on his chest to match the tiger Ren had tattooed on his back, a mark that symbolized their secret bond, something only they would understand. Yasu agreed, not knowing that the tattoo would represent much more than a simple token of love.
Suzu’s Discovery
Suzu began to notice that something was wrong. Yasu was becoming more distant, and his lack of interest in the wedding preparations deeply irritated her Determined to find out what was happening, she asked her friend Yu to investigate. Yu, always loyal, followed Yasu one night and saw him in the bar with Ren, closer than just friends would be.
When Suzu found out the truth, her fury knew no bounds. One night, she stormed into the bar where Yasu and Ren were together She caught them in an intimate moment and, without thinking, lunged at Ren, filled with rage.
“This ends here!” she shouted, hitting Yasu in the face, leaving him unable to react.
Yasu, desperate to avoid a scandal, tried to calm her down, promising her he would stay away from Ren. But those words ignited a dangerous fire in Ren, who couldn’t bear the thought of losing Yasu.
Ren’s Deadly Plan
The following days were hell for Ren, consumed by jealousy. He couldn’t stand seeing Yasu with Suzu, even knowing it was all out of obligation. Determined to get rid of her, he planned her murder On the day of the wedding, while Suzu was preparing in her room, Ren sent his men to kill her. They found her dressed as a bride, waiting for the moment to go to the church. She never made it.
Yasu, unaware of everything, waited at the altar until someone whispered in his ear that Ren was waiting for him in a car behind the church. Without thinking, he left the guests and ran to Ren. He didn’t know that, at that very moment, Suzu’s lifeless body was lying there.
The Fall into the Abyss
After escaping with Ren, Yasu thought he could finally be free. But Ren’s obsession trapped him. Ren took him to an isolated house, far from the city, where their love became a prison. Ren’s jealousy grew day by day, until, in a fit of rage, he chained Yasu, making sure he could never leave him.
“You’re mine, and only mine,” Ren repeated as he beat him, his love turned into a destructive force.
One night, in the middle of an argument, Yasu asked Ren what had happened to Suzu. Ren, coldly, confessed that he had ordered her to be killed. Yasu, full of remorse, broke down in tears, realizing he had fallen into the hands of a man who knew no limits.
The final confrontation came when Ren, blinded by rage and obsession, began strangling Yasu. In his madness, he didn’t realize he was killing him until it was too late. Seeing Yasu’s lifeless body in his arms, Ren refused to accept the reality He hugged him, believing he was still alive, as his mind sank into an abyss from which he would never escape.
