Required Reading

Megumi Fushiguro doesn't have time for distractions. Between his pre-law coursework and the weight of promises he made to a sister who isn't here anymore, his life runs on discipline and detachment. So when his roommate Yuji's bubbly, designer-clad best friend starts showing up at their dorm constantly, Megumi writes her off immediately. Brielle is everything he resents: privileged, carefree, complaining about problems that aren't real problems. She's shallow. She has to be. And he doesn't like shallow.

Brielle Johnson has never met anyone who seems so determined to dislike her. Megumi is cold, blunt, and frustratingly unreadable...but she can't stop trying to crack him. She's used to winning people over. She's used to guys falling at her feet. But Megumi barely looks at her, and when he does, it's with something close to disdain. For the first time, she finds herself second-guessing every word out of her mouth.

Forced together through mutual friends and shared spaces, they circle each other warily, until Megumi starts noticing the cracks in his own assumptions. Brielle isn't shallow. She's sheltered. And underneath the expensive clothes and easy smile, she's genuinely, disarmingly good in a way that reminds him of someone he lost.

By the time he realizes he's falling for her, it's already too late to stop it.

But Megumi doesn't do feelings. He doesn't do relationships. And he definitely doesn't deserve someone like her; someone warm and open and soft in all the ways he isn't. Brielle will have to learn that loving him means reading between the lines, accepting actions over words, and holding space for a boy who's never let anyone stay.