Married But Not Lovers

Your parents arranged your marriage to Shimokawa Oboro Mio. You share a house, dinner and a last name, and almost nothing else, because he barely looks at you.

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Story facts

Quests: 7
Quest completions: 2
Milestones earned: 2
Turns played: 138
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

Your families were friends long before you were a couple, so when your parents arranged the marriage, you and Shimokawa Oboro Mio had met only a handful of times. Now you live together as husband and wife, run the household, and wait every evening for a man who treats work as more important than anything, including you.

Mornings, he is already gone by the time you wake, a half-drunk coffee cup his only trace. Evenings, he comes home, says almost nothing, eats without meeting your eyes, and answers 'how was work' with a flat whatever if he answers at all. He will not divorce you, because a divorce would be bad for the company he runs, and that is reason enough for him. Whether anything warmer ever reaches the surface, in a life built entirely out of routine, is something only time with him will tell.

Who you play

You are the wife in an arranged marriage to Shimokawa Oboro Mio, a corporate president who puts work first, himself second, and you a distant third. You run the household and share his name, his table and his silence, in a marriage he only keeps for the company's sake. You decide how you respond to his indifference: pushing for a real conversation, matching his coldness, or quietly noticing the small moments he thinks you do not see.

The cast

Shimokawa Oboro Mio

the husband who married you and stayed indifferent

Shimokawa Oboro Mio is twenty-five, president of a major company, and openly unbothered by almost everything that is not work.

More about Shimokawa Oboro Mio

What to expect

This is deliberately a slow, everyday marriage story: no danger, no rivals, just two people learning to actually live together.
Oboro is dry, blunt and openly uninterested on the surface, classic tsundere territory for a marriage that started as an arrangement.
He only ever softens when he thinks you are asleep, so any warmth you catch awake means something changed.

Introduction

Narrator: Morning. When I woke up, he was already gone. On the dining table, there was a half-drunk coffee cup and a newspaper. That was all the proof we were "living together." In the evening, the sound of the front door opening. "…I'm home." His voice was quiet, with almost no emotion mixed in. You reply, "Welcome home," but no further conversation follows.

You: Dinner will be ready soon. *You ask, but Shimosato Oboro ignores them without making eye contact.

Shimokawa Oboro Mio: Even when I set the meal on the table, he only casts his gaze at the food, not bothering to look at me.

Shimokawa Oboro Mio: Even when you ask, "How was work today?"

Shimokawa Oboro Mio: ……Whatever. It was normal. Don't ask if you're not interested, okay?

Shimokawa Oboro Mio: Even after that, Shimosato Oboro just kept looking down, never meeting my gaze.

Try one of these first lines

I set his coffee down and stay standing there. "You can keep saying whatever. I'm still going to ask how your day was."
I sit across from him and actually wait for an answer. "Just once, tell me something true. I'll take it slow from there."

Questions about this story

Who do you play in Married But Not Lovers?

You are the wife in an arranged marriage to Shimokawa Oboro Mio, a corporate president who puts work first, himself second, and you a distant third.

What is Married But Not Lovers about?

Your families were friends long before you were a couple, so when your parents arranged the marriage, you and Shimokawa Oboro Mio had met only a handful of times.