It's Always Been You: A Japanese Romance Collection (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781764636216)

In Japan, there is a word for the person who has been there since before memory begins.

Osananajimi - more than just a childhood friend. The one who knew the real you before the world needed you to pretend. The one you were always yourself with.

Coming back to them is like coming home.

Seven stories inspired by anonymous internet confessions - the things people post in secret when they can't say them out loud. Each reimagined as a story about desire that wasn't fully recognised until now. About the terror of risking the one person you realise you can't afford to lose. About what happens when you finally stop pretending you don't know what you've always wanted.

The stories:

• A Promise Kept - He promised his parents he'd come home after graduation. She never left.
• Girls' Weekend - Two old friends reconnecting, a hot spring inn, and a weekend that rewrites everything they thought they knew about each other.
• My Girlfriend Went Commando at the Committee Meeting - A sweltering afternoon in a student council office. Two broken fans. One decision that changes everything.
• She Never Said - She spent years being cruel to the boy next door. He spent years letting her. Neither of them was honest about why.
• Two Hundred Kilometres - She's three years older, confident, and has been looking out for him since they were kids. He's never told her how he feels. A scooter ride and a karaoke booth change that.
• Unexpected - He withdrew from the world back in junior high and hasn't really come back. She's the girl from the next block who finds him sitting alone every evening and decides to stay.
• The Summer Before Forever - She took an overnight bus from Osaka to visit her oldest friend in Tokyo. It was supposed to be a visit. It became something else.

Set in the real-life Japan of canned cocktails and last trains, summer festivals and shared futons, and all the things that go unsaid.

These stories are sharp, funny, and unapologetically explicit. They contain on-page sexual content and are intended for adult readers. Features M/F and F/F pairings, diverse narrators, and culturally grounded Japanese settings drawn from the author's twenty years of lived experience. Includes cultural notes for readers who want to explore further.