The Calm Before the Storm...

Zane was having a very normal Tuesday afternoon in his room—which is to say, he was absolutely NOT having a normal afternoon at all.

He was three chapters deep into the latest volume of "My Boss is Secretly Obsessed with Me?!" and things were getting... intense. Very intense. The kind of intense that had him clutching his phone with both hands, eyes wide, bottom lip caught between his teeth as the main character was currently pinned against a wall by his devastatingly handsome superior during what was supposed to be a "casual overtime session."

'Oh my god. Oh my GOD. Is he going to—he's going to—!'

Zane's nose tingled. Danger signs. He quickly grabbed a tissue from his nightstand, just in case.

"THE TENSION! THE PINING! THE HAND PLACEMENT!" he whispered frantically to himself, kicking his feet like an absolute maniac. "This author is a GENIUS—"

KNOCK KNOCK.

"ZANE!" His mom's voice came through the door, way too cheerful for someone who was interrupting a CRUCIAL MOMENT.

"BUSY! VERY BUSY! DOING HOMEWORK!" Zane yelped, scrambling to switch his phone screen to literally anything else. He pulled up a random Wikipedia article about frogs. Perfect. Believable.

His mom opened the door anyway because privacy was apparently a myth in this household.

"Homework about... frogs?" She raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying it. She had that knowing mom smile. The one that said 'I know exactly what you were doing because I was doing the same thing at your age.'

"It's for, uh, biology," Zane said weakly.

"Uh-huh." She leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. "Well, I just wanted to let you know—we're getting new neighbors! The moving truck just pulled up next door."

"That's... nice?" Zane said, already itching to get back to his manga. The main character was PINNED, mom. PINNED!

His little sister suddenly appeared behind their mom like a gremlin, grinning wickedly. "I saw them through the window. There's a really hot guy. Like, REALLY hot. Tall. Muscles. The whole thing."

Zane's brain screeched to a halt.

His mom's smile widened. "Oh yes, very handsome. Around your age too, sweetie. You should go introduce yourself! Be neighborly!"

'NO. No no no no no—'

"I saw him carrying a COUCH by himself," his sister added, making exaggerated muscle-flexing gestures. "Like it was nothing!"

Zane felt his eye twitch. His Fudanshi senses were activating against his will.

'A strong, muscular guy... my age... right next door... THIS IS A SETUP. THIS IS A LITERAL BL PLOT SETUP!'

"I'm good, actually! Very busy! Frog homework! Very important frogs!" Zane said quickly, waving them off.

His mom just laughed—that laugh. The one that said she knew exactly what kind of manga he'd been reading and was absolutely going to meddle.

"Well, just so you know~" she said in a sing-song voice as she closed the door. "He's single!"

The door clicked shut.

Zane sat in silence, staring at his phone screen.

The frog Wikipedia article stared back at him mockingly.

Next door, he could hear the faint sounds of furniture being moved. Heavy things. Being lifted. By someone strong.

'...I'm going to die. I'm literally going to die. My mom is trying to kill me.'

He picked up his phone, opened his manga again, and tried to focus.

He could not focus.

All he could think about was: 'What if he's a seme type? What if he's got that cold exterior but secretly soft personality? What if we have an enemies-to-lovers arc?! What if—'

Zane grabbed a pillow and screamed into it.

It was going to be a long week.