A/N: Thank you so much for the kind comments on the prologue. I really appreciate so much!

This chapter does heavily take scenes and dialogue from Chapter 1 from the manga mainly because I needed the set up for Ritsu starting his new job at Marukawa Shoten. This won't be for all the chapters, but most will still follow what's happening in the manga with slight changes and deviations here or there. It will only take off course from the manga's main story once Takano finds out Ritsu has a child.

Word Count: 2,972

– Remember This: I Still Love You –

Chapter 1: Shoujo Manga?!

"Senpai." Stop. "We are going out right?" Don't say anything. "Because you never say anything."

"Huh?"

"Saga-senpai…Saga-senpai do you…" No! "…do you love me?"

"…Heh"

"Huh?! He laughed at me?! What? Why? Could it be that…he was playing with me?!"

"Wake up Papa!" Ritsu rolled onto the floor, an audible thud could be heard in the small room. He was rudely awakened from his dream, well he would consider it a nightmare. "Come on Papa! We gotta make breakfast." His daughter Sakura, currently five years old, stated while hovering over him with a huge smile. She had light-brown wavy-ish hair and emerald colored eyes. A perfect combination of him and her mother.

"A smile like her mother's," Ritsu thought as he got up. He picked up Sakura and started heading into the kitchen. "When did I become so reliant on you," he said while tapping his daughter's nose.

"Papa, your silly!" Sakura giggled.

Onodera Ritsu, currently twenty-five and living comfortably, sort of, in a small two-bedroom apartment on the twelve-floor. He and his daughter were living there on their own. His wife, An, suddenly passed away five years ago, about two months after Sakura was born. It took a lot to raise Sakura mostly on his own. He wasn't completely alone in raising her, his mother and a good friend from high school, Kiyomiya Nao, helped him raised her. But he still worried that he wasn't giving her the loving family he had hoped to give her.

"Papa, the eggs are burning…" Ritsu looked down to see that the eggs were indeed burning.

"Shit!" He frantically took them from the stove. Sakura covered her ears chanting "daddy said a swear!" while Ritsu chuckled a bit. He ruffled her hair and pulled a ¥500 coin for her to put in the designated "swear jar." She ran off to put the coin in the jar. "I guess what Nao said was true, I can't cook worth a darn" Ritsu defeatedly thought. He glanced over at the clock. "7:30 a.m." "Ah! Shit, hurry up Sakura, you're going to be late for kindergarten and I'll be late for my new job!" Sakura, again, chanting he said another swear.

Ritsu and Sakura quickly ate, got dress and headed for the public transit. It wasn't too crowded today, which was a relief for the both of them. Luckily, Sakura's kindergarten school wasn't too far away from their home or where he'd start working today. He recently got a new job. He was going to be an editor, hopefully for literature. He always loved reading books, subsequentially so did his daughter. When he was first married, he planned to work for his father's publishing company, which he was accepted into as a literature editor. But as soon as he started, he realized there was a lot of pressure from working with big-named authors, like Sumi Ryouichi and Usami Akihiko.

"Although, I don't know if I would go back to editing Usami Akihiko's novels" Ritsu dejectedly thought. "He was one of the most difficult people to work with…" But nonetheless, he was happy working for his father's company. It takes a lot of time publishing hardcovers. Reaching a census with the author, consulting with them on the design of the book, "what kind of image do you want," and "do you want it with a dust jacket? A bookmark? In what color?" He poured his heart into the making and selling of books. "I was happy, but then…"

"This month's best seller is another book that Onodera handled." Ritsu peered over to see who said his name while getting some coffee one day. He started walking over to the people talking.

"You're kidding, again?" Ritsu heard another chime in.

"Yeah well, he's only here because of his parents, so he has is it really easy." Wait a second, that's not entirely true. Ritsu got closer to hear the conversation better.

"Your right. We've been here longer, but the new-comer like him gets to work with important authors. We've been working so hard, but we only get to work with authors at the bottom of the barrel. It's not fair. They're only top-sellers because of the author anyway. All he does is send the manuscripts to the printing office, but he's still valued for his work. It doesn't make sense!"

"He's useless!" His old self would've been too shocked to do anything. But…at the time, he felt like his worth was being called into question.

"I can make a book that sells millions on my own!" Ritsu confidently said aloud. He looked over to see his daughter, staring blankly at him. Oops, they're still on the train to school. "Don't worry, Papa's just having one of his episodes." He patted her head. Sakura nodded then giggled.

Sakura waved goodbye to Ritsu as she giddily ran to school. He was glad Sakura wasn't a shy child, or at least she hasn't developed any tendencies like that yet. He remembered when he was younger, he kept himself closed off and just wanting to read books. It wasn't until he met his senpai that he even wanted to interact so closely with another human. "No! No! No! this isn't the time to think about someone you can't barely remember!" That's right, he tried so hard to forget about him. He wanted nothing to do with his senpai anymore. "It's time to turn over a new leaf!"

"Ah yes! Onodera Ritsu, you're in the Shoujo Manga division!" Ritsu went straight to his new job at Marukawa Shoten. And not two minutes into the initiation, was a bombshell dropped on him.

"Wait a second! I'm being assigned to the Shoujo Manga Department?!" The lady doing the greeting nodded her head. Ritsu groaned audibly. "H-Hold on, I made it very clear during the interview that I wanted to work on literature because that's what I did at my last job!"

"But it says on your resume 'Onodera-san, Employee Mid-career, is to be assigned to the Shoujo Manga Division of Marukawa Shoten.'" The lady smiled. Ritsu frantically tried to think of something.

"A-Are you sure? Is there any way that can be changed?"

"Unfortunately, no, or at least I don't have the power too, only the HR can." She smiled again. Gosh, it was sickening. "Come on, I'll take you to the editing department."

"This sucks!" Ritsu screamed in his mind. He specifically switched jobs so that he could work in literature. Manga huh? He doesn't even read manga, let alone shoujo manga. Wasn't shoujo manga supposed to be about romance? Oh no, he so wasn't down for that. The lady showing him around was going off on how good the shoujo department was and how they won awards before in the past, but Ritsu brushed it aside. He was still peeved he was going into shoujo manga!

"…Plus, the editors are all handsome men!" That caught Ritsu's attention. Wait, all the workers in the shoujo department are guys? Okay, he'd really like to quit now but didn't know exactly how to go about it. She went on something about pheromones at the end of a period, but Ritsu was focused on how he could get out of there.

"I could harm myself in some way or try and say my daughter was deathly sick and use that as an excuse to quit." Ritsu shook his head, he couldn't use his daughter like that. "Hmm…I'll stay for two weeks and then find a reason to quit. I can always beg my old man for my job back." They reached the editing department, known as Emerald, and Ritsu went straight to introducing himself. "Nice to meet you. I'm going to be working with you from now on my name is Onodera…" He looked up to see, well, basically in a nutshell, death itself.

"I'm sorry! It's the wrong phase of the period!" Huh? What does that mean? Maybe he should've been paying attention to her spiel. She was right, all the editors were men, and they all looked pathetic now. Two looked absolutely exhausted and one had the creepiest smile on his face, as they laid there, none of them moving. "Well, do your best!" The lady sprinted off. Ritsu frantically looked around to try and find help, only to see others sprinting away from him. He swallowed his anxiety and walked in, covering his nose immediately. "Oh gosh, it smells like a locker room in here! I don't know if I'll even make it a week!" Ritsu was already going mental.

"Hnngh…" Ritsu heard a noise as one of them peered their head. The man, who had massive bags under his eyes but look incredibly young stared blankly at him.

"I-I'm Onodera!" Ritsu started saying frantically, "Ah, um, as of today I'll be working here…" He really wished the earth could swallow him up right now and to give Sakura a better family to have.

"Oh…was there someone like that coming today?" the young-looking man mumbled out. "Takano-san! Takano-san the new guys here!" the man paused, "Takano-san!"

"Shut up!" Ritsu turned to see who this "Takano-san" was. Another man, who looked more tired than the rest glared at Ritsu. Was this the editor-in-chief? "So? Who's this? A part-timer?"

"I'm a full-time employee!" Ritsu huffed annoyingly.

"Your name?"

"Onodera Ritsu."

"Oh yeah." Takano yawned, "That's right I heard someone like you was coming." What the heck? What's "someone like you," supposed to mean?!

"Please to meet you."

"I wasn't at the interview; do you have any experience in editing shoujo manga or any manga at all?"

"No, I worked as a literature editor at Onodera publishing for three years."

"So, you're completely new to manga?" Ritsu nodded his head. "Useless."

"This guy is the worst!" Before he knew it, both Ritsu and his new boss were heading to the lounge to receive a manuscript. Apparently, this manuscript was due in seven days, but some parts needed to be replaced. And the replacement parts were started on three days ago. Or at least, that's what Takano was explaining. He went back to not really paying attention. He just wanted to find a way out of there. Before he knew it, he heard Takano say something strange.

"…All right, I'll show you a sample, so draw it quickly." Draw what quickly? Maybe he should've been paying attention. "Draw it from an angle where you can see the chin, and add a kind of breezy feeling to it." Hold on, what? He saw Takano get up from the table, so he started following suit. Before he knew it, Takano had grabbed his arm and kissed him. Ritsu, in a state of shock, just stood there, not exactly knowing what to do. Ritsu, his thoughts finally coming back, pulled away immediately. "Did you get that? Good now hurry up and draw it."

"What the hell was that?" Ritsu practically screamed, rubbing his mouth.

"What do you mean? That was work." Takano put it bluntly.

This really sucks. He made his way to the breakroom and slumped down in a chair. Man, after everything that just happened, he'd be okay with just sleeping for the rest of his life. This is definitely what he does not want to be doing. What's worse, he quit his old job for a petty reason. "I should've just stuck it out with my old job. I feel like I've lost sight of who I am." After everything that happened with him, his old senpai and An…he wasn't the same as he was back in ninth grade. Sure, everyone changes with age, but Ritsu changed in a bad way. Although he doesn't remember how he changed so drastically, he just knew from An telling him before they were married how different he was. Heck, he'd probably be worse if he didn't have Sakura with him.

Sakura, the only thing that was keeping him sane at the moment. She was his beam of hope and kept him distracted from thinking about the harsh turmoil he faced in life. He'd give up anything for her, no matter how jaded he might come.

"Hey." Ritsu turned to see the editor-in-chief, who still hasn't apologized for sexually harassing him with that kiss. He was smoking a cigarette. "You're the heir to Onodera publishers?"

"I'm not related to that company at all."

"Annoyed you got assigned here when you wanted to do literature?"

"No," although he was thinking along the lines that he has no idea how ticked he is for not being put into the literature department. "It's more like…I mean…isn't shoujo manga all about love? That's not really my thing." He cringed when he said that. It reminded him that An wanted him to find love again even though he was sorely against it. "It's not that I have a negative idea of it. I just really don't understand it."

"If you're going to be a burden 'cause you don't want to do this, then quit. I think there are lots of people in the world who can do what they like at their jobs." Ritsu glared at him annoyingly.

"But that's –"

"Everyone starts out as a beginner. There's no way that your experience doing literature will be useless here." What the…could Takano be actually encouraging him? Maybe this guy wasn't so conceded after all. "Well, useless guys will always be useless, no matter how hard they try."

"I'm going to kill him!" Ritsu screamed in his mind, clenching his fists.

"Newbie, the other guys have already gone home, so you can too," Takano said while crushing his cigarette.

"My name's Onodera!" Ritsu proclaimed, smacking his hands on the table he was sitting at.

"Listen. Have we met before?"

"Who knows?" He'd rather not be placed in the same group as him. Ritsu entered the office with a pile of shoujo manga that Marukawa Shoten had published. "This office is a garbage dump." He thought to himself. "But…I can't be deemed useless here, I must try my hardest and if I fail, then that's my own fault. But, if I'm deemed useless before I have even started, then I can't stand that. I'll show him what I can do." With that, Ritsu set to reading.

Before he knew it, it was almost seven o'clock by the time he finished reading a few volumes. He cursed at the fact he stayed so late, Sakura would be wondering when he'd be home. He quickly left Marukawa Shoten and decided to take a taxi home rather than tango with the subway. It had been a long day for him. "I'm home."

"Hey! Welcome back" Ritsu heard a voice coming from the living room. He walked in and saw his friend Kiyomiya Nao in the living room with Sakura watching something on the television.

"Welcome home Papa!" Sakura said, running up to hug Ritsu. "I missed you."

"I missed you to Sakura." Ritsu picked her up, placing his bag on the table. "Did you have fun at school?"

"Yeah!" Sakura went on about her day at school while Ritsu heated up what Nao had cooked for him and Sakura to eat for dinner. It wasn't long before Sakura started getting tired. She was already in her pajamas by the time he came home. Ritsu put her off to bed and sat down on the couch where Nao had been sitting and let out a sigh of defeat.

"What's up Ritsu? You got home later than usual today."

"Ah, I forgot to mention I started a new job today and I didn't know when I was going to be home. I'm sorry for not telling you." Nao chuckled.

"No problem sounds like you had a rough day today though."

"Well, if figuring out that you were working in a shoujo manga department rather than a literature one, figuring out all the workers in the said department are all men, and being called useless several times, yeah I would consider it a rough day."

"Wait, you aren't working in literature anymore?"

"No" Ritsu groaned. "They put in shoujo manga and the editor-in-chief is an ass. Let me tell you, he called me useless and basically said I should give up now, without me even proving my worth yet. Not to mention he used me for a manga reference" Ritsu shuddered.

"Manga reference?"

"He straight up just kissed me for a reference!" Ritsu shouted out, then winced hoping he didn't wake Sakura up. Nao covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. "Hey, don't laugh! He sexually harassed me!"

"What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall during that. You haven't been kissed by anyone in years. And it was a man to boot!" Nao was trying his best not to laugh louder than he already was. Ritsu smacked him behind the head.

"Don't you think it's time for you to go home now?"

"Yes, I better, I have some photos I need to shoot for my next job." Nao started packing his stuff and heading out the door. "I'll see you tomorrow and let me know ahead of time if you'll be late."

"Will do! Thank you, take care." Nao was a good friend, he graciously agreed to be Ritsu's babysitter for Sakura. Even though he's busy with free-lance photography, he picks Sakura up for Ritsu after school, makes dinner and cleans around the house. Ritsu was in debt to Nao for this, he greatly appreciated all he was doing for him and Sakura. "Wish my new boss could be like him too…" He shuddered at the thought of having to go back to work there. But for the sake of his pride and needing to provide for Sakura, he needed to press on. "There's no turning back right now, I have to do my best."