Boku No Orion
The only thing that's putting me off aside from the difference of Koito is her friend and the teacher. SIS WAS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WHAT A FUCKING PEDOPHILIA TEACHER. The age gap is too large and I found it really hard to even read the parts and the characters not get alarmed because even a MIDDLE SCHOOL x teacher relationship is off-putting. I personally like reading age gap romance stories, but the lowest I'm comfortable with is first year of high school. Aside from that, this is pretty okay so far.
Horimiya
GOD I LOVE SHOTA, I WISH MY BROTHERS WERE LIKE SHOTA Not focused on romance, just more of a nice and gentle read, nothing dark or really dramatic like other shoji mangas
Ao Haru Ride
Masterpiece. Just hate that girl who pulled Kou back into this dark place and was like “i’M tHe OnLy OnE wHo CaN uNdErStAnD yOu BeCaUsE wE bOtH wEnT tHrOuGh ThE sAmE tHiNg” like futaba worked so hard to pull him out of that and even tho he didn’t totally go back into that dark place, things were going downhill :/ really hated how she tried to “make him see and realize” that futaba had a bf already, acting all innocent as if she totally hadn’t tried to monopolize kou (in a way). Anyway, all characters are amazing and character development is amazing. I just cannot ever come to like that girl. I get what she’s going though must take a huge toll on her, but that’s no excuse to cause other people trouble
Tonari No Kaibutsu-kun
As far as I remember, the childhood friend didn't get with her and instead she went with the second male lead. Like day time shooting
Strobe Edge