Poor uke with multiple jobs, former judo-ka/heir of a martial arts style. Seme is a once sickly childhood friend. His clan is rich and influential and now he has inherited it, he's out for revenge. Now their once-warm childhood friendship is gone. Just cool, hard cash. (LOL I feel the overprotective mom but she just destroyed a budding relationship & created a domino of misunderstanding. No sympathy for her)
An embittered, wealthy man patronizes an illegal gambling club where huge bets are placed on fighters, called "steeds." Steeds, while they get a percentage of the prize money, are effectively owned by the wealthy men who sponsor them and are subject to their master's sexual whims - effectively, they agree to be slaves. This wealthy man has no steed until by chance he reencounters his estranged childhood sweetheart. He has been harboring a bitter grudge against his former lover for years, believing that he had left him for dead. He decides to take advantage of the fact that he needs money for his sick father in order to coerce him into acting as his steed.
This is an indulgent and surprisingly sweet story, given the rather over-the-top and brutal premise. It isn't as dark as the setup might suggest; while there is (definitely) rape and sexual humiliation baked into the very nature of the club, the fact that the man's friend has remained completely in love and devoted to him since they were children mitigates what might otherwise be an unreadable rape revenge fantasy. I was afraid of a "rape-turns-into-love" story, but this definitely isn't that; while the relationship isn't healthy or always perfectly consensual (he signs up to be a steed under financial duress, after all), he seems motivated as much by his desire to be close to his former friend and he has agency in his decision to stay. Having said this, there is definitely graphic rape and sexual humiliation in this story, so if that is a dealbreaker for you I would give this one a miss. Otherwise, if you're in the mood for a melodrama based on a simple (and kind of ridiculous) misunderstanding with a fairly compelling plot and a ridiculous setup, you'll probably enjoy this. Warnings should be apparent from the summary.
A night club where many steed came to compete. However, the loser will suffer the ultimate humiliation by becoming the show for the spectators. And that ultimate humiliation is to be...