Title: Zetsu Ai(Suppressed Love)
Author/Artist: Minami Ozaki
Publisher: Margaret Comics
Style: Shojo -- Romance/Drama
# of Books: 5
Rating: PG-13
Summary written by: Gloria Oliver
Main Characters:
Koji Nanjo
An idolized Pop star, Koji is 188cm tall and weighs 78 kg. Aside from being a talented singer and actor, Koji is also quite adept at Karate and Aikido.
Despite his popularity and sucessful ways with
women, Koji still feels that he is missing something. When we
first meet him, he is unconcious on the street, overcome by a
high fever. He awakens at the home of a stranger and finds that his
voice is gone. It is then that he discovers that his rescuer,
Izumi, has never even heard of Koji Nanjo and doesn't
particularly care. The young boy lets him stay in his home until
Koji recovers.
Izumi Takuto
Izumi is 175cm tall and weighs 55kg. He is an excellent soccer player and is determined to succeed at the sport at all costs. His parents were seemingly killed five years before and he's been doing all that he can to both support himself and his siblings. He works two jobs as well as attends school and plays soccer. From 7 to 11 pm he works at the Club D and from Midnight to 3am, he works at a gas station.
When Izumi contracts the fever he'd helped Koji get rid of, Koji temporarily takes over his jobs and cares for him as well.
Story Summary
Zetsu Ai is about a numbers of things, but mainly deals with Koji's attempt to repress feelings he has never had before. Always, up to this point, Koji had thought himself strictly as a ladies man, yet as he gets to know Izumi better, he starts feeling a strange attraction for the 16 year old.
What first attracts Koji to him is Izumi's eyes and the intesity they show about his need to excel at soccer. Koji wants to figure out the mystery of why Izumi has such an intese gaze. The more he proves into Izumi's life the more he realizes why he is the way he is and the more he feels for him.
Koji also comes to remembers that he had seen Izumi before, five years ago. And at the time, he'd thought Izumi was a girl and had been trapped then as now by his intense gaze. In an effort to stem his rising feelings, Koji makes a pass at Izumi's sister. Nothing works. And as Koji's fame and life begin to intrude in Izumi's and his family, Izumi's resents having ever helped him at all.
The antagonism springs from the fact that Koji is so often in the news. As Koji comes to find out, Izumi's parents' death was a crime perpetrated by the husband and wife before his eyes. The media hype of the crime made his life and that of his siblings a living nightmare. The last thing Izumi wants is to be in the media light again.
So, as Koji fights his growing feelings, he is also trying to find out all he can about Izumi's past, as well as become as much a part of Izumi's life as possible. The battle between them goes back and forth even as we slowly get to find out what really happened five years ago. It will suck you in and not let go!