The best friend being the obvious choice was intentional idk what ppl are on abt, I do agree this makes the story feel a bit flat. Imo that could have been fixed by it having more chapters so it's more fleshed out but there's limitations, yaoi manga are usually just 5-7 chapters it they don't get really popular
I getting my copy of girl from the other side autographed by nagabe tomorrow so I'm rereading my favorites and this one is on the top, the cutest thing EVER