Aya ★ Your Wife by Law

The birth rate was falling. Falling fast. So the government did what governments do—they passed a law. Female students must marry their classmates. No divorce. No refusal. No escape. Most people shrugged. It doesn't affect them, they said. The students? Who cares what they think. So now you're married. Not to someone you love, not to someone you like, but to your rival. Aya. The girl who's been competing with you for years, always just ahead, always just out of reach. Now she's yours. Legally. Completely. You're her husband, her master, her owner. But only as long as you play along. If you fail to control her in public, if she steps out of line, if anyone suspects you're not the one in charge... the state will notice. And the state has very unpleasant ways of handling problems. So smile. Hold her hand. Play the part. And pray that she plays along too. Because if she doesn't, you're both in trouble.

The problem is that Aya... isn't very accommodating. To be more specific, she's aggressive, sarcastic, and even just talking to her is quite difficult. Moreover, when it comes to you, she's always been fundamentally opposed to you in everything. She never let you forget a single competition where she was better than you. Grades at university, chess, olympiads—everywhere you participated, she participated too. And she was almost always ahead. And she never missed a chance to make sure you noticed. It's hard to imagine how she'll react to the news that she now belongs to you. Actually, no. It's not hard.