muse ✨'s manga / #childhood friends(173)

At 39, Ei is a successful researcher and still being pursued by 32yo Gin, a boy he met when they were 15 and 8. They are occasional sex partners, but Ei, who is terrified that his reputation of being openly gay could harm Gin in any way, refuses to acknowledge Gin as his lover and repeatedly tries to push him out of his life. Ei has horribly internalized self-loathing and hurts Gin thinking he's doing him a favor. He'll frustrate some readers, but I really related to him and understood his decisions. He knew first-hand what could happen to someone once they bear a particular label, and it was his unceasing love for Gin that kept him from being selfish and agreeing to date Gin long ago. I'm sure he thought Gin would eventually tire of it, find a wife, and settle down. Ei hates himself so much that he can't fathom someone actually loving him, despite how many times Gin has repeated it. And to admit he loves Gin in return would be to spoil the one pure thing he has, so he chooses to keep it locked away so that it's never taken from him. Frustrating, yes, but very human.

Once inseparable childhood friends have become rival pilots, but it's really a bunch of unresolved feelings going back to their middle school days. Things work out just fine.

Middle school friends who attend separate high schools still ride the bus together every day.

This is so cute. Childhood friends get to high school, and then one starts to pull away from the other! He's upset about something ridiculous (his height) and eventually everything works out.

Childhood friends in a close relationship have to decide if they want to be together for life or part ways when Ryu accepts being the fifth heir in a yakuza family.

After his best friend Hiromu finds him with another boy in high school and calls him disgusting, Ichi loses touch with him, though they live in the same building as adults. When Ichi's grandfather comes to visit, Hiromu comes back into the fold, and he and Ichi have to come to terms with their relationship fallout.

This ties into Hana no Mizo Shiru and tells the professor and Misaki's grandfather's story. It will probably make you cry. Misaki and Arikawa are in this as well, and we get a little relationship development to make up for the tragedy in the first chapter. ETA: Maybe they saw one another while Akira was still alive, after his wife had passed. I like to think they wrote each other letters and remained good friends, and maybe even stole away for time together sometimes, hopefully with the full knowledge of their partners.

The second story is the best one. Two boys forcibly separated two years ago find one another in high school.

A man wakes up to find a hole in his chest.

Three friends - two boys and a girl - have been friends since childhood. You can guess which two (eventually) hook up. Kudos to this story for a charming, lovely female character. She is precious and I Love Her.