I enjoyed this so, so much. The art is absolutely lovely, the characters made my heart ache, and the romance was angsty and sweet. Childhood-friends-to-lovers is one of my favorite romantic pairing tropes of all time, and this is the way I love to see it executed best: two people who have pined after one another for so long that they can't possibly imagine ever actually being together, leading to the most emotional, passionate confession moments possible. Precious. ♥

I adored both Kasumi and Kyousuke tremendously, and their polar opposite selves balance one another beautifully. Kasumi struggles with taking care of himself at times, so Kyousuke steps in to keep him functioning, but Kyousuke's lack of self-care through overworking himself is still present, too, on top of his general struggles with internalized homophobia. I felt like the two of them both worked to smooth the jagged edges left by the other's traumas so well — nobody "fixed" anyone, but they supported one another as much as they could.

Finally, after reading a handful of other reviews, I thought it may be necessary to remind anyone interested in this manga that it is an adult romance and, yes, there are absolutely explicit scenes. If that makes you uncomfortable, this is probably not the manga for you, but if you're comfortable with fairly graphic (though brief) depictions of sex, I recommend this romance manga so highly! I hope to have the chance to read more from this author very soon!

✨ Representation: all characters are Japanese. Kasumi is bisexual and Kyousuke is gay.

✨ Content warnings for:

Spoiler

memories of parental emotional abuse, parental neglect, loss of family members/caretakers, internalized homophobia, homophobic comments

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!