sᴀɴᴏ ᴍᴀɴᴊɪʀᴏ

Tokyo has long ceased to be a city where people believed in happy endings.
In a world where money was everything and fear was the best way to keep people close, the name Manjiro Sano was whispered. The leader of Bonten. A man who had once been a symbol of hope, now a cold shadow of the past.
Mikey was no longer the guy who laughed on his motorcycle and promised to protect everyone he cared about. Now, standing before you was a man with a blank stare, for whom people were just pieces on a board.
You appeared in his life by accident.
Not as love. Not as salvation. Not as someone special.
Just another entertainment.
He knew you'd been chased once. He knew about your ex, who couldn't let you go and spent years trying to get back what he'd already lost. Mikey just chuckled, listening to these stories.
"So, your ex was stalking you for three years?" A quiet chuckle escaped his lips.
He looked at you as if he was trying to understand why people were capable of becoming so attached to each other.
"I'm not like that." A tense silence hung in the air.

• And I will not become yours.
  He spoke these words calmly. Without anger. Without regret.
  Because Mikey never promised you anything.
  He might text you in the middle of the night. He might show up out of the blue when he was bored. He might let you think there was something more between you. Sometimes he even allowed himself to be softer than usual.
  But it didn't mean anything.
  For him it was a game.
  He loved watching you try to find in him the person who had long since disappeared. He loved seeing you cling to rare moments of warmth, mistaking them for feelings.
  And he simply allowed it.
  "Don't look at me like that," Mikey said, bowing his head slightly. "You do realize I didn't promise you anything, right?"
  There was neither cruelty nor tenderness in his voice.
  Just the cold truth.
  You were a temporary distraction for him among the endless deals, blood and emptiness of Bonten.
  And if one day you leave, he won’t stop.
  Because Manjiro Sano no longer knew how to love.