Midnight Secretary is a Josei manga series by Ohmi Tomu, which was serialized in Petit Comic from 2006 to 2009 and compiled into seven volumes. It tells the story of a conservative secretary, Satozuki Kaya, who is appointed as the private secretary of notorious lecher Touma Kyouhei, director of the Touma tableware company.
Staying late at work one night, she accidentally witnesses one of his liaisons and sees him drinking the woman's blood. He taunts her, and she throws herself into organizing his blood drinking: his "meals," including picking out gifts for his women. Eventually (because this is a vampire series and we all know what's coming) Kyouhei drinks Kaya's blood and becomes addicted to it, but struggles with his feelings even as Kaya realizes hers.
Complete at seven volumes.
Romance goes here, guys.
Tropes:
- The Baby Trap: At end of the series, when it's confirmed that Kaya is pregnant, she fears this is what Kyouhei will think. He doesn't. He knows her better than that.
- The Beautiful Elite: Invoked by vampire society. While vampires can only reproduce with humans, the offspring has only a fifty-fifty chance of being a vampire. So in order to sustain vampire society, vampires are generally only allowed to marry and breed with humans who pass certain standards of beauty, intelligence, wealth, and position. Being a baby-faced working-class young woman, Kaya only fits the second, which puts roadblocks to the long-term future of her romance with Kyouhei. His working behind the scenes to fix this is part of his Character Development.
- Benevolent Boss: the foundation of Kyouhei's initial relationship with Kaya. Before and during the series, Kaya encounters several executives who don't take secretaries seriously (until Kaya proves otherwise). Kyouhei might be a jerkass to her personally, but once Kaya demonstrates how good she is at her job, he thoroughly respects her professionally. Kaya says outright that one of the reasons she gives him such Undying Loyalty is how Kyouhei gives everyone a chance to prove themselves, and once they do he treats them with the respect they deserve.
- Betty and Veronica: With Kyouhei as the (inevitably victorious) Veronica to Takasu's Betty.
- The Casanova: Kyouhei, and how! Kaya needs a spreadsheet to keep track of his stable of girlfriends, and the gifts he lavishes on them after each date/feeding. Justified by him needing to feed frequently, and unable to take too much from one woman (until he gets a taste of Kaya), as he can't tolerate the blood substitute that's generally used by vampire society.
- Fetishized Abuser: Kyouhei has outright hidden information from Kaya, just so she'll worry and squirm more because it's more amusing to him than to tell her. He's not particularly violent but does know how to take no for an answer. His relationship with Kaya is half mind game and half love affair. Even if he later changes, the narrative has always treated him as sexually attractive.
- Girl Friday: Ridiculously so, even offering her blood to her vampire boss's mom.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Kyouhei. He gets better.
- Hellish Pupils: Vampires when they're craving blood or feeding.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Kaya and Kyouhei. He's way over One Head Taller and more than twice as wide at the shoulder. It's especially clear in several of the chapter covers. During the main story and
especially during love scenes the physical difference between them is much less obvious. - Holy Burns Evil: Whenever the vampires are actually evil is up to debate, but they are weakened by the symbols and places of sincere faith. Kaya gets a crucifix for one of Kyouhei's women with no ill effects on him, but Kyouhei barely copes with eating at a restaurant located in a former church, with Matsuhide the chauffeur revealing that the devout Christian faith of the owner and his wife (who the dinner meeting is with) is why Kyouhei is in a bad state (he's unsteady and extremely hungry in the limo afterward).
- Honor Before Reason: Kyouhei before Character Development.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Kyouhei's the farthest thing from a Pointy-Haired Boss, but Kaya is outstanding at her job. Kyouhei fully recognizes this; when starts the groundwork to found his own company, he warns Kaya that he's taking her with him when he leaves Touma Corp, and it's clear that their after-hours relationship has nothing to do with it.
- Hypnotic Eyes: One of vampiric abilities.
- I Am What I Am Kyouhei after Character Development.
- I Can Change My Beloved: Played with. Kaya doesn't believe that Kyouhei can change and doesn't even try. However, Kyouhei does change, in that he becomes more open and, even though not becoming less proud, he doesn't let his vampire pride control himself so much.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Except it's vampire mom, and she's literally his mother.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kyouhei
- Kiss of the Vampire: Kyouhei finds that women's blood tastes best at the point of the woman's orgasm, and the bite itself is intensely pleasurable.
- Mistaken for Pregnant: About two thirds of the way through the series, Kaya is taken into protective custody by vampire council higher-ups, because they believe she's pregnant to Kyouhei. When asked about her diet and iron supplements, Kaya points out she's anemic (since she's feeding a vampire regularly!). She's been looking at baby clothes because she thought they were cute and she has a friend and former co-worker who's pregnant. Which becomes hilarious when Kaya falls pregnant for real some time later. This incident also triggers Kyouhei into taking his future with Kaya more seriously, setting up his own research project to find a blood substitute that can sustain him, unlike the kind that is already in general use.
- More than Mind Control What Kaya fears Kyouhei is doing to her. He isn't. He comments it's more likely the other way around.
- Noble Demon: The leader of the vampire clan. Although he disapproves Kyouhei and Kaya, even banishing him from the clan, he still upholds his end of the bargain.
- Non-Idle Rich: The Touma family. Kyouhei's father, his uncle and older brother all have high level positions in the company, and are very good at their jobs (except for maybe his uncle). When Kyouhei leaves the Touma Group to start his own company, he says outright he already has enough money from the stock market to live a life of extravagant luxury, but he'd be bored silly.
- Oblivious to Love: It takes Kyouhei a while to realize he's emotionally vested in Kaya.He comes to terms with it shortly after finding out he's addicted to her blood.
- Office Lady: An extremely serious, attentive one.
- Older Than They Look: The bane of Kaya's life (and why she started wearing glasses). A one-off chapter about her earlier daily life illustrates that a shopkeeper who's known her for years thinks she's about to graduate middle school rather than high school. An early chapter has Kaya delivering some important documents to Kyouhei at a corporate office; since she's soaked from the rain, has taken off her glasses and is wearing casual clothes, the doorman refuses to let her go up, saying looks the same age as his middle-school daughter. Kyouhei has to come down to the lobby to get the package.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Kaya gets one of these when Kyouhei proposes to her and then treats marriage as something of convenience. She gets angry and calls him out on it. Both note that it's not very like her.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The vampires in Midnight Secretary are in most respects typical of the Japanese vampire. With the major exception of Kyouhei, whose hair is black without explanation, almost all the vampires seen are pale blonde. All of them are beautiful and pale, wealthy, and supernatural rather than undead. Vampires in this story can only reproduce with humans, not with other vampires, and they generally choose only successful humans to breed with. They are weakened by direct sunlight but can tolerate it to a degree, and the presence of genuine Christian faith (rather than just the trappings; a silver cross in the hands of a non-Christian does nothing) weakens them.
- As for Kyouhei's hair, he DOES look just like his father...
- Plucky Office Girl: Averted. Her employers acknowledge and thoroughly appreciate her dedication and diligence, giving her more responsibilities.
- Puny Earthlings: How vampires see humans. To them, humans are just a source of food, tools, and an occasional sex toy.
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Kaya wears glasses to look older, as she looks very young without them, to point where people don't take her seriously.
- Sex Equals Love: Zigzagged and Inverted. Kaya and Kyouhei were in love before they started sleeping with each other, with Kyouhei not really aware (or accepting) his feelings for Kaya. However, they start to realize that a purely sexual relationship isn't enough for them, and the more they have sex, the harder it becomes to hide their feelings, and the sex (plus bloodsucking for Kyouhei) is less and less satisfying. After they confess their love to each other, they find the ensuing lovemaking the most pleasurable they ever have (it lasted an entire night, and Kyouhei didn't drink a single drop of Kaya's blood), resulting in Love Equals Sex or Sexual Karma.
- Sexy Secretary: Kaya, eventually, once she starts dressing less conservatively for Kyouhei.
- Smoking Is Cool: Kyouhei smokes like a chimney. And usually looks damn sexy doing it.
- Spotting the Thread: How Kaya works out that something's actually very odd about Kyouhei, not just him being so dedicated to his work that he has most of his intimate encounters in his office between meetings and calls. Kaya notices that all his various women come out of his office far paler and often far more shaky than when they came in. She comes to the conclusion that drugs are involved (to be fair, it's a far more logical conclusion), and stays late to search his office, only to accidentally witness his latest tryst, complete with blood drinking. Kyouhei finds the whole situation amusing.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- In one of the earliest scenes, Kaya remarks that Kyouhei's working hours (starting at lunch, and usually going well into the evening), which he expects his secretary to keep as well, not to mention his ferocious work pace and exacting standards means that his secretaries frequently resign... and when it does, the whole secretarial pool has to cover the work.
- Late in the series, Kaya is diagnosed as anemic, and has to start taking iron tablets and adjust her diet to compensate. As might be expected for someone regularly feeding a vampire.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Kyouhei is VERY snarky.
- Tareme Eyes: Compare Kyouhei to Takasu. Devious, demanding Kyouhei has tsurime eyes, while understanding Nice Guy Takasu has tareme.
- Vampires Are Rich: As it turns out, vampires in this series own much of the worlds large corporations. Due to a combination of business talent, experience, and marrying well.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Especially, it seems, Kyouhei, although it seems to be the case frequently in general. Might be part of their evolution in order to attract prey to feed upon. It's outright stated that for many vampires (and definitely Kyouhei) that arousal makes blood more nourishing and taste better.
- Weakened by the Light: Vampires are severely weakened when exposed to direct sunlight, but it does not directly kill them.
- What If the Baby Is Like Me: Reason why Kyouhei doesn't want to have kids, and is meticulous about condom usage. He has to get over it in the final volume, when Kaya becomes pregnant, and the baby is clearly a powerful vampire.
- Workaholic: Both Kyouhei and Kaya - it's one of the cornerstones of their relationship. One of the last scenes of the manga has Kaya fully dressed for their wedding, talking on the phone scheduling a business meeting!
