muse ✨'s manga / #Office Romance(3)

To escape a confession from a clingy coworker, a man asks out his older boss - a charming guy known for turning everyone down - and is shocked when he accepts.

Another commenter mentioned that this has a lot of cliches but was a great read, and I agree - it's absolutely charming and the feelings between the characters seem to jump off of the page. There's wonderful emotional buildup, as well as some heartache, even in the final chapter, which is a one-shot and unrelated to the rest. A young man, Hanamura, is conned into designing for the company where he works by the boss he adores, who takes credit for his work under the veil of kindness - in order to leave Hanamura out of the spotlight. When it's announced his boss is engaged to a woman, Hanamura cries in the break room and is discovered by Takase, a well-known designer from another company, who recognizes Hanamura's talent and sleeps with him. Hanamura, realizing he's been taken advantage of by his current boss, quits his job and comes to work at Takase's company. But he's left wondering if what they had was a one-night stand and if he'll suffer another one-sided love. TEN POINTS for Hanamura's ABSOLUTE LOVE of having sex. It says a lot for this genre that that detail stood out to me, but so often it's "no, don't, stop" - as though an unwilling or hesitant partner is romantic. Hanamura begs for sex, says what he wants, and is not ashamed that he's gay. In fact, none of the characters in this story were dealing with internalized homophobia. What a fun read! The final story is about childhood friends who begin to live together.