This actually consisted of two separate stories - the first half is one, the second is another.
I felt the same way about both: I enjoyed them, but they could've benefited from being longer. In short, if only one had been the focus of the volume, it could've been great, but instead, it was just cute, not exceptional.
The first story starts out the way I like it! Though blackmail and the seme establishing "conditions" for the uke to get something or prevent something is nothing new, it's still one plot type that I like, no matter how many times I read something like it. Of course the seme is always in love with the uke beforehand, always to be expected - which means the most import part of the story is when one of them confesses: either the uke because they can't take the seme's games anymore, or the seme when the ukes has enough of it and they finally admit they've loved the uke all along.
That's where I think this manga let me down. There was the angsty bit, but instead of milking it like I would've wanted, there's only a few pages between that and Natsushiro confessing, and then Hina does, too. I wish Hina would've gone home crying, would've gotten some distance from Natsushiro and suffered a whole lot more before Natsushiro broke. AND I'd much prefer for either Natsushiro to confess and for Hina to be really confused and reject him, or for Hina to confess and Natsushiro to still pull back before admitting he loved him too.
In any case, Natsushiro is the type of seme I like~! Pushy, sexy, a bit forceful, but still caring and adoring. I really like that he didn't go further when Hina got seriously nervous after their second kiss. I'm not touchy about noncon (actually, if it's dubcon, I'm into it), but I do think a little teasing is enough to get the message of "seme completely controlling the uke", no need for full on sex so early on.
The second story feels very similar, yet very different.
Hayama also had sort of a hold over Mishima to get their relationship started, but once again, just when the angst was getting good, it falls short. Mishima did have a few scenes where he thought about their kiss, but the second he starts getting involved, Hayama confesses, wasting the opportunity to better develop it. Also, Mishima never said it back, so it felt unfinished, and that makes it lose a few more points than the main story (though I like masturbation scenes and this had one~!).
Finally, let's get to the technicalities.
The art was lovely! The only things I don't really like are the ukes crying every single time they have sex (even if it's because it's good, who cries like that?) and the little blobs of droop when they kiss (I know it's supposed to be sexy, and doesn't go as far as a turn off for me, but I'd rather not have it). Other than that, the characters are drop-dead gorgeous. Mishima and Hayama are even better because Mishima doesn't even look like an uke - in fact, I didn't expect him to be the uke at all!
Now, the translation was quite bad. At first I thought it was the editing of the manga itself, which was also not great. Scenes cut from one to the next too quickly, some dialogues aren't finalized properly and some scenes are just out of place. But the translation makes it worse by not being able to pass the Japanese meaning onto English properly, often leaving that "vague" feeling that Japanese dialogues have. I know every manga has that sort of "ethereal" communication, and that's just how the Japanese language and Japanese people are, but a lot of times, the dialogue was downright incomprehensible, and that's on translation. I could finally attest to that when a sentence used "I could OF", not "I could have". So yeah...when my Japanese is good enough, I might reread this, the raw this time.
Oh, yeah! I also thought it was cute how they left it implied that their best friends might be the next couple <3
I'd recommend this manga to pass the time and read quick, to the point, but overall enjoyable story.
(-29)
