For as long as Kira Timurov can remember, her life has been dictated by her father's ruthless vision for their family legacy. At seven years old, she learned her future was already decided: an arranged marriage to Yumeko Jabami, the daughter of a powerful Japanese family. Summers were spent together under watchful eyes - some were bright with laughter, others heavy with resentment - until the bond between them frayed into wary silence. Years later, St. Dominic's Academy becomes their battleground. Kira, cold and calculating, refuses to be caged into a future she didn't choose. Yumeko, all patience and quiet defiance, wants only to reclaim the childhood friend she lost. But in a school where power is gambled and won at the table, every smile hides a strategy and every glance could be a wager. Told through the push and pull of the present and summers past, their story unfolds in high-stakes games, reluctant alliances, and moments neither of them can quite forget - a scraped knee and whispered comfort, a stolen kiss under drunken lights, a dare that lingers for years. As the games escalate and family pressures tighten, both must decide what they are willing to risk: the power they've fought for, or the person who's always been at the other side of the table. Because sometimes, even in an arranged marriage, you get to choose how you play the hand you've been dealt.

"How are you holding on?" It was Yumeko who broke the silence first. Her voice was soft and quiet, and she didn't stop staring forward-almost as if she knew that if she looked at Kira, the other girl would shut down completely. "That's none of..." Kira started, but then exhaled heavily. Was there a point in lying? Yumeko had already shown her that she was on her side. At least for now. "Not sure yet. Father's angrier with me for framing him. He thinks I did it because he chose Riri, and that I'm 'rebelling' like a lost teenager." She scoffed and finally looked to her side before continuing. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question? You killed a man." Yumeko hummed in response. She could feel Kira's eyes studying her face and let the silence stretch a little longer. "I feel alive," she finally said, "and ready to work my-our-way through the rest of them. They deserve it." In a gilded world of power, secrets, and betrayal, Kira Timurov and Yumeko Kawamoto were never meant to align. One is the icy heir to a ruthless corporate empire; the other, a wild card with a vendetta buried under manic smiles. But after a murder sparks scandal and opportunity, the two find themselves sharing more than a summer estate-they share a mission. Bound by blood, manipulation, and the slow-burning need for vengeance, Kira and Yumeko form an uneasy alliance to take down the corrupt board members behind the death of Yumeko's parents-members deeply intertwined with Kira's own family. Enemies become co-conspirators. Partners in crime.

Yumeko Jabami has everything - a perfect fiancé, a powerful family, and a future the world envies. But none of it feels like hers. Then she meets Kira Timurov. Elegant, guarded, and quietly magnetic, Kira is everything Yumeko was never allowed to want. Their connection is immediate. And impossible. What begins as a spark deepens into something neither of them can name - something that asks Yumeko to risk everything she's ever known. But love this real doesn't come without consequences. And silence, once chosen, is hard to take back. Told across cities, letters, and late-night confessions, this is a story about first love, impossible choices, and the long road back to the person who sees you clearly. A slow-burn sapphic romance about yearning, legacy, and the kind of love that keeps finding its way home.

At St. Dominics, power isn't earned, it's gambled. And no one plays the game better than Kira Timurov, the cold, unshaken president of the student council. Then came Yumeko Kawamoto, all red lips and sweet danger, smiling like she already knew everyone's secrets. One win, then another. And suddenly, Kira wasn't just watching. She was interested. Threatened. Drawn.

Kira Timurov has spent her life fighting for her father's approval, forged into steel by Arkadi's relentless expectations. Now, she finally has her chance to prove herself - leading her family's bid for a high-stakes gambling venture. Everything must be perfect. Everything must be controlled. Enter Yumeko Jabami - the heiress with a perfect smile, the media's darling, and Kira's greatest rival since their teenage years. Reckless where Kira is disciplined, fire to her steel, Yumeko has a way of pulling her off balance - on the boardroom floor and behind closed doors. What begins as rivalry and manipulation twists into something neither of them can deny: an obsession, a chemistry too sharp to ignore. Between power struggles, smear campaigns, and the ghosts of their fathers' empires, Kira and Yumeko find themselves torn between destroying each other and burning the world down together. They were raised to be heirs, pawns, enemies. Instead, they became fire and steel - rivals, lovers, unstoppable. Cover art sketched by amazing @roarosaurr and colored by me <3

"It's about Yumeko Jabami." Kira stopped walking. Of course it was. Everyone knew Yumeko Jabami by then. New transfer. Untouchable posture. Eyes that seemed to catalog people rather than greet them. She had dismantled a senior in poker club her first week and smiled while doing it. Rumor said she gambled for fun, not money, which made her either very rich or very dangerous. "And?" Kira said. Chad exhaled. "I like her." That, at least, tracked. "She doesn't care," he went on, too quickly. "About the usual stuff. Parties, cars, whatever. I've tried talking to her and it's like-" He gestured vaguely. "She's already ten steps ahead. Like she's waiting for something interesting to happen." Kira raised an eyebrow. "And you think that something is me." He hesitated. "I think that something is... what you do." She turned to face him fully then. "Be precise." "You sell brains," Chad said. "Not answers. Frameworks. Games. You think sideways. She'd notice that."

Kira Timurov doesn't need distractions. As the icy CEO of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate and the fiercely protective single mother of a two-year-old menace in pigtails, her life runs on control-and caffeine. She's gone through thirteen babysitters in six months. Lucky number fourteen? Yumeko Jabami. A broke, brilliant medical student with a knack for surviving chaos and a dangerous inability to keep her mouth shut, Yumeko takes the job only to pay off her crushing student debt. But between toddler tantrums, power lunches, and unexpected midnight heart-to-hearts, she finds herself tangled in something far more volatile than a Timurov temper: feelings. Kira doesn't do vulnerability. Yumeko doesn't do silence. And little Runa? She just wants to stage her preschool opera in the boardroom

This is a love story about two idiots: One who gets electrocuted, One who does the electrocuting, And both who needs therapy. Because nothing says romance like a taser to the heart. Literally.

At St. Dominic's Academy, appearances mean everything. When Yumeko Kawamoto-sharp-tongued, fearless, and fresh off a humiliating breakup-is offered a chance to make her ex, Ryan, jealous, she agrees... even if it means fake-dating Kira Timurov, the ice-cold student council president with a God complex and a thirst for popularity. But Kira isn't doing this for free. She's aiming to win the school's upcoming election, and dating Yumeko could make her seem more "relatable." A simple agreement, right? Wrong. Because pretending to love someone gets messy when one of you starts falling for real. And secrets always come out in the end.