Chiyu

I feel the same way ╥﹏╥

I didn't see any chemistry, as in sexual one. It was a pretty realistic depiction of an old, close friendship until that one chapter had to ruin it. The way their friendship was depicted until then was a pretty believable parallel to how good functional friendships are in real life. You gradually erase boundaries, you have blended personal spaces reminiscent of the kind you share with your real family, you care for each other, worry for each other, try to be there in each other's time of need and help each other out the best you can afford to, and you get protective and defensive over each other in a similar way as you would over your actual siblings. Especially with homo social friendships being historically far more free and less affected by stigma and scrutiny compared to hetero social ones, that progress from casual friends to a pseudo siblings is extremely common and natural. The younger you get to know each other, the more rapid the transition is. If you have shared difficult times together, it's practically inevitable. Everything about the bond between the MC and his best friend makes sense given their history. That chapter where they suddenly decided to soil their friendship with the forced "used to have romantic feelings in the past" angle ruined it for me.

It was completely unnecessary and was only put in feed the drama. When will BL writers clean up their act and go cook up their drama by creating conflict within the realm of romantic relationships itself and to stop exploiting and demeaning pure bonds of family and friendship? Just write two romantic interests that feel intentional and natural instead of a shoehorned one that is only there to feed mate control fetishists who don't know their place and fantasize about dethroning a romantic interest's friends and family in priority. They should just write romantic relationships and have them fight, instead of disrespecting friendships. They should go learn a thing or two from their mom, also known as classic shoujo. That genre has so many great examples that are stories focused around romantic relationships that are nonetheless, extremely respectful and deferential towards the family and friendship bonds they depicted.