Koi ga Ochitara

The night Ise’s boyfriend unceremoniously ended their relationship, the last thing he expected was to be ambushed by a stranger’s falling underwear. Standing in the gloom with his heart still raw from rejection, he barely has time to process the absurdity before looking up to find Hishimoto, the apologetic owner of the rogue garment, leaning out of a nearby window. Despite his own bruised pride, Ise finds himself inexplicably drawn to the man’s flustered demeanor, and the two soon join forces in the middle of the night to retrieve the rest of the laundry tangled in the branches of a tree outside. What begins as an awkward, mundane chore slowly gives way to an unexpected intimacy under the dim glow of the streetlights. Grateful for the assistance, Hishimoto invites Ise up to his apartment to properly thank him. Yet the moment Ise steps through the door, the air shifts. Hishimoto’s gratitude quickly peels back to reveal something far more deliberate—he confesses that the fallen laundry was never an accident, but a carefully staged pretext to finally catch Ise’s attention. His gaze turns warm and probing as he admits he has been watching him for a while, and with a coy smile, he poses a question that sends Ise’s already unsettled heart into a dizzying spiral: is he, by any chance, attracted to older men? Caught between lingering heartbreak and this bold, unexpected pursuit, Ise must decide whether to retreat into his wounds or risk falling for a man who orchestrated their meeting from the very start.