mochidays

this was an absolutely beautiful story about growth and recognizing that self-destruction is not a healthy coping mechanism. we follow the main character, who has very low self-esteem following many familial issues and grieving the loss of his younger brother. we ultimately see this character, for around 30 years, genuinely hate himself. we see his interaction with the male lead, who is interested in him from a young age and somewhat saves his life and changes his mentality about things. but the two of them drift apart because they’re young and they make mistakes. ultimately, they’re brought back together with the realization that the two have only ever really wanted each other and looked for the other person in every partner they had prior.

with this amazing green-flag male lead, we see him push past the boundaries that the main character has and reach happiness with him by going past the safeguards he’s put up—safeguards that have only hurt him in the long run.

this is an amazingly well-done story. the only reason that this isn’t in my “best ever” section is because it’s not that unique of a story, but i truly love it. it had amazing pacing, the art was beautiful, and i had no complaints—so i really do recommend this one. please do check it out.

i don’t have the correct words to accurately depict how satisfying and fulfilling this story was—truly just an amazing plotline. it starts us off already in a really high-stress situation, with two of the main characters surrounded by fire, and then everything else is a flashback that leads up to that moment. it’s about 85 chapters before we’re back in that room with the fire, and within those 85 chapters, so much happens to the characters. there’s so much growth. so much change. so much fluff. there are slight bits of angst, but nothing quite compares to the climax of being trapped in that room with the fire.

i really appreciated how well done this was. there was also an insinuation that one of the female main characters was somehow manipulating the universe through her storytelling. it wasn’t exactly confirmed whether this was actually happening or if it was just a lot of coincidences, but either way i loved how they tied everything together. before anyone even suspects she’s impacting the story, there are a bunch of moments where the characters are like, “what she’s writing is really accurate to what actually happened,” and as readers you kind of just assume she was observing or got lucky. but then she herself starts noticing how similar the coincidences are, and decides to write down a change—and the change genuinely happens. so whether or not this was coincidence or some kind of magic, we never fully know, but i really like it that way. it lets the reader interpret what was actually going on the entire time.

i think all of the characters were really enjoyable and well thought out—even the ones we see as antagonists throughout the story have redeeming qualities, and you begin to understand why they act the way they do. it doesn’t make their actions okay, but it gives them nuance.

i truly think this story broke a lot of boundaries in the boys love genre. one example being that the bottom is actually taller than the top, which never happens in BL. i honestly thought the taller one was going to be the top at first, especially after he had his growth spurt, but i was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t change it. their interactions just felt so human. a lot of times BL characters are boxed into certain archetypes, but what i loved here is that they felt like real people. how they loved each other, how they grew, how they interacted—it all felt very real and authentic.

i couldn’t recommend this story enough. it’s one of a kind, beautiful, and just an amazing read. please read it if you have the chance. phenomenally done.