| Summary | - Koji's fans besiege Izumi's house, asking painful questions about his past and his relationship with Koji. When Izumi is finally able to get rid of the fans, Koji himself comes to talk to Izumi. He had realised that Izumi intended not to become a famous football player because he did not want to draw attention to his family . Izumi's mother killed her husband by her own hands, that is why Izumi, who was always bullied about being murderer's son, is afraid that revealing the past may affect the future of Serika and Yugo. Koji realizes that he is in love with Takuto, and that girl on a football field six years ago, who he secretly admired, was in fact not Serika, but Takuto. Koji promises to leave Izumi alone and starts dating the famous movie actress Mieko Minamimoto, though in an interview, Koji mentions the unnamed person he truly loves. The interview is read by Serika, who guesses the person Koji loves is her brother. She has also suspected for a long time that Izumi intentionally played badly in football matches to avoid attention and hide their past. She tries to apologise to him, but Takuto says he is going to quit football completely. Koji intervenes in the conversation and during the fight between them, Serika runs onto the road and almost gets hit by a car. Izumi rushes to push her off the road, but Koji saves Serika instead and breaks his hand in the process. Izumi sees no reason for Koji to protect his sister and decides that Koji must be in love with Serika.
- Koji can't stand being away from Izumi, so he arranges a transfer to the same school. Izumi tries to ignore him at first. When he goes to a soccer field for training, Koji is willing to be a goalkeeper. He explains he likes football and especially Izumi's playing. They establish almost friendly relationships. Koji again begins to meet with his former lover Mieko, and even flirts with her younger sister. He uses both of them to deflect the paparazzi's attention from Izumi. On the other hand, Izumi still believes that Koji is in love with Serika, so he is very irritated about Koji's unfaithful behaviour. He demands Koji say, definitely, who he loves. Koji confesses that he truly loves Izumi, but to quickly avoid an argument, pretends it was just a joke. Izumi is evicted from his house due to a "no pets" rule, so Koji's manager Shibuya offers Izumi lodging at an apartment with him and Koji.
- Izumi tries to find a new home, but with no success because he owns a dog. When he goes food shopping and leaves the puppy alone for a moment, it runs under a car and dies. In a state of emotional shock, Izumi goes to Koji's apartment, as he has nowhere else to go. Koji pulls him round and puts him to bed. Shibuya, watching them together, understands that Koji is secretly in love. Shibuya clarifies that the status of homosexual could destroy Koji's career, though Koji doesn't bother listening to him. Finally, he breaks up with Mieko. Izumi is appointed captain of the football team, so he decides to give up all his part-time jobs and concentrate on football. As Koji has previously offered lodging with him and Shibuya, Izumi agrees and decides to do the cooking and cleaning as a payment. Permanently being near Izumi is agonising for Koji, so he spends a lot of time in the recording studio and tries to keep silent about his feelings, but one day confesses everything to Izumi. Izumi feels nothing but bewilderment, fear and disgust. Koji attempts to rape him, but comes to his senses at the last moment. Next day, football fan Minako asks Izumi out. He agrees, hoping that it will help him get rid of Koji.
- Koji wakes up to find himself in a strange bed. He learns that Takuto Izumi found him passed out in the street, and took him home, along with a puppy Izumi found near Koji. Koji remains for some time with Izumi, as he believes that when he was younger he had fallen in love with Izumi's sister Serika. Izumi ignores a high temperature and goes to a soccer match. He helps the team win, but loses consciousness after the final whistle. Koji brings him to the hospital and on impulse almost kisses Izumi, but is scared of the attraction between them and decides to channel his feelings towards Serika. Koji does not want to return to his rock star lifestyle, despite the admonition of his manager Katsumi Shibuya. Izumi sees a newspaper article with a photo of Koji and Izumi at the soccer match with the caption "Found Koji!" Izumi is infuriated.
- Izumi tells Koji that he is ready to forget about what had happened between them. He begins to date Minako and ignores Koji. Koji goes crazy with jealousy and rapes Minako, accusing Izumi of using the girl to escape from Koji's feelings. Next morning Izumi accidentally meets his mother, who he thought had died twelve years ago. She recollects the day when she killed her husband and injured Izumi. She tells Izumi that his father could not find happiness with her, so, yearning to possess him fully, she killed him. Takuto ran out to protect his father and got injured too, but his mother swears she didn't want to hurt Takuto, because she loved him and always will. When she leaves, Koji says he had a strange feeling that she has waited for twelve years to apologise to Izumi and has no reason to live anymore. Indeed, she commits suicide by jumping from a rooftop. Shibuya moved away from their apartment, so that Koji and Izumi now live together. Izumi agrees to accept Koji's feelings, because he doesn't see any other way. Although Izumi is not sure that he is capable of feeling love, Koji wants to be close to him anyway.
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| abstract | - One of the great groundbreaking classics of the Boys Love Genre, Zetsuai 1989 and its sequel series Bronze: Zetsuai since 1989 combine unique character designs and layouts with an emotionally intense storyline brimming with melodrama and always on the verge of breaking out into violence. The story concerns Kouji Nanjo, a young Idol Singer with a dark and violent past and a Big Screwed-Up Family, who is out drinking one night and falls down on the street. He's found and picked up by a highschool student and promising soccer star named Takuto Izumi, who takes him to his home to recover. When Kouji wakes up in bed with Izumi, he immediately recognises him as a person he saw playing soccer six years before and fell in love with -- though at the time, he took Izumi for a tomboyish girl. Now that he knows Izumi is a boy, he finds to his dismay that his feelings have not changed and are still as strong as ever, but Izumi has a fiery temper and a trauma-laden past that makes it hard for him to trust anyone, and Kouji's all too aware that as a public figure he's not free to fall in love with whoever he wants. Zetsuai 1989 ran for five volumes, with the plot reaching no conclusion to speak of; the sequel series Bronze: Zetsuai since 1989 ran for 14 volumes but broke off due to the mangaka's illness; she eventually gave the series a proper ending in a doujinshi. There were four associated light novels, and two single-episode OVAs, as well as a collection of associated music videos with the title Cathexis.
- Zetsuai 1989(絶愛-1989-lit. Absolute Love -1989-) is a Japanese yaoi manga known for its melo-dramatic, almost operatic plot, its "semi-insane characters", and for the controversial style of its artwork. The word "Zetsu-ai" is a compound created by Minami Ozaki which has been translated as "desperate love". Ozaki's preferred English translation is "Everlasting Love". Many western yaoi fans got their introduction to the genre through this series, which defined the genre for them.
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