He was using the novels as REFERENCE, get your head out of your ASS and your nose out of their RELATIONSHIP. I know Thea’s your sister, but holy shit, if he’s actually doing something to try to make their marriage work and hasn’t been sus outside of interactions with her, then you shouldn’t be interfering!!!
This reminds me of a high school version of Scent and Soap (I think that’s the English name??). He’s devoted to making perfumes so a lot of what he does is approached with an … odder way than usual compared to others. The ML in S&S was the same, so focused on creating new scents that most sense of decorum went out the window depending on the situation with the FL. I feel like the setting is very similar with this story, with a FL who appreciates his devotion in a way that catches the ML’s eye by pure chance, which unfolds to their budding relationship.
HOWEVER, I feel like a lot of the story gets muddled because of the translation, which def doesn’t help with the flow between scenes. I’m not knocking the translator’s work, because I know sometimes it’s not always done by someone whose first language is English, it’s just a note of it. I feel like this story has potential if you like cliché romance tropes (which this does have, and I can appreciate them for high school romances).
I actually like the story, despite what people say in the comments. Sue me, I’m a sucker for shoujo tropes *shrug*