Hey so basically the main story is the cutest. They are just dumb high school kiddos who are in love with each other, you should totally read it. Like yeah, one of them is worse at expressing himself than the other one but thats okay. Then the story ends. As far as I understood by the time the author decided to post the side stories, they were already doing the sequel and I felt like they really forgot about their main characters personalities. Apparently 7 years passes since the end of the main story and the less expressive one wont even say a I love you meanwhile the wholesome puppy guy just becomes an anxious jealous toxic your everyday BL seme? They kind of ruin the cute image you have in mind of their past relationship, which you spent 80 chapters reading. Im not even mentionning the whole art style change, at first I thought it was different series. Anyway I totally recommend the main story, and then just take a look at the sides and skip them as you like!
Reading the side stories while remembering the main story is horrible. It was supposed to be a cute shounen, the yaoi setting made it very weird! It just became a toxic yaoi storyline all of a sudden, like another universe. I also feel like johan's character was changed a little, idk they were not like themselves! This is the first time I didnt like the side chapters at all, it felt like another story. I'm curious about yuri and his life tho, so I will read the sequel.