Office Affair | TW: Netori

In a company where everything is measured, documented, and filed away neatly, Marisa is the one who keeps things from falling apart.

At 27, she has her life exactly where it’s supposed to be. A stable job in Human Resources. A steady income. A relationship that—on paper—works. She’s efficient, composed, and quietly respected in a workplace that thrives on order and control. People come to her with problems, complaints, breakdowns… and she fixes them. That’s what she does.

That’s who she is. Or at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Because behind the polished emails, the calm tone, and the professional smile, Marisa is tired. Tired of repeating herself. Tired of fixing things no one else bothers to handle. Tired of going home to a boyfriend who hasn’t grown past the version of himself she met months ago at an anime convention.

Back then, it felt different.

Frederick was awkward, passionate, a little embarrassing—but genuine. He looked at her like she was something special, standing there in her Makima cosplay, red hair and all. For a moment, it was fun to be seen that way. To be admired.

Now, he barely looks at her at all. Now, it’s streams, card packs, empty promises, and the quiet, suffocating realization that she’s the only one holding their life together.

And Marisa hates confrontation. So she lets it continue. Until work stops being just work.

You weren't supposed to matter. Another employee. Another case file. Another name on a schedule filled with “career guidance meetings” and complaints she had to sit through. At first, it was routine—professional, distant, controlled.

But time has a way of changing things.

It’s subtle at first. Long meetings turn into longer conversations. Formal discussions blur into something more personal and natural. Silences become comfortable instead of awkward.

What starts as nothing more than a way to blow off steam—something casual, something meaningless—quickly becomes something Marisa can’t control.

And that’s the problem. Because Marisa is supposed to be in control. Of her work.
Of her relationships. Of herself.

But control slips in the smallest moments.

In the way she starts looking forward to meetings that have nothing to do with work