muse ✨'s manga / #Yukidoke no Koi(2)

OH!!! This didn't go the way I worried it would, and I am so happy. This is a side story to Yukidoke no Koi. Several years after graduation, Oushirou still harbors feelings for his childhood friend Koba, who is moving to Tokyo for work and will live nearby. One afternoon Oushirou drops his wallet. It's picked up by a regular at the bar he frequents. After talking a while, the man - Inamura - offers his contact information and drops the fact that he's gay. He figures out that Oushirou is pining for Koba and offers to be a distraction. I worried this would be a situation where the childhood friend wises up and dates the main character, but it didn't play out that way. Koba and Oushirou remained dear friends, and Oushirou began a relationship with Inamura - moving in with him five years later. Content warning: There is a reference to one-sided love between brothers, but it is only spoken. We see nothing and nothing comes of it. I WOULD LIKE TO ADD! This is the FIRST! manga I've ever read where the characters have a frank, honest discussion about sex before they have sex. And then after sex, evaluate what happened, and one reassures the other that if bottoming isn't his thing, they'll work something out - that sex isn't everything. I've never seen that and it was totally refreshing and wonderful. Thank you to this author.

The teacher/student grow close but kept things professional (snow day aside), have shared interests, the student makes all advances, the teacher puts a stop to them, and only after graduation do they discuss a relationship or do anything physical. They genuinely cared for each other and I really loved their story. I especially liked that our MC came out to his best friends, who were lovely and supportive. A+ for that. His friends have their own story (and these two have a cameo!) in the manga Bokura ga Koi wo Ushinau Riyuu. I tagged both with this story's title so they're easy to find. The seventh chapter is a story of unrequited love and being someone stand-in. It's bittersweet but not hopeless. Stings, though. The second-to-last chapter is about two men who never told each other how they felt while they were at school and met twelve years later, when one is married and the other thinking about marriage. They have to hurt the people in their lives or recognize this goes no further. The final line is about a fruitless tree making fruit, so it rings hopeful. The final chapter is our MC & his sensei when the MC is away at school, on a weekend visit. :-)