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

When his mother guilts him into returning home, Jiro is reunited with his first love: the friend he'd stolen a kiss from years ago.

A gently told, beautiful collection of three love stories: 1) An established relationship between a secretary and his adoring boss. (Temp MCD; dream sequence) 2) Childhood friends reunite, and through photography, realize their feelings are mutual. 3) In the aftermath of a major error, a boss and subordinate find common ground in their shared loneliness and begin a relationship that is supportive and tender; their love was so immediate and sincere, it gave me butterflies.

Three love stories revolving around a bakery.

Multiple stories looking at the concept of family and love: Two brothers who live on their own after surviving an abusive father. One day, the older brother introduces his boyfriend, who comes to live with them. A young man finds himself drawn to a customer only to find out the man is his brother's lover's older brother. But he is also coming to terms with feelings for a coworker who is actually a childhood friend he's forgotten. A heartbroken teacher finds new love.

Well-crafted, well-paced writing and interesting characters, and the art is beautiful. Both works I've read of Ogeretsu Tanaka's have been excellent. This contains two stories which are set in the same universe: 1) A man who had been unattractive growing up has reinvented himself as a stylist and is asked out by the guy who had tormented him in high school. Still hung up on past anger, he grasps his chance for revenge. 2) The second story I almost bypassed. It focuses on a man several years out from an abusive relationship where he had been the abuser. Rather than forgive his past or excuse it, the story shows that he lives with his guilt and shame. However, he has taken steps to change, and he's honest with his new lover about his past. ETA: Having now read the story where he abused his former partner Yumi, it's no wonder he continues to feel guilty. No amount of abuse is okay, but this was constant and violent - even sadistic. He needs long-term therapy.

A young man who blames himself for his brother's apparent suicide is reunited with a boy he'd known one summer when they were small.

For a decade, Rikuro has harbored feelings for Yasutaka, but has given up on the possibility of a relationship - that is until Yasutaka admits he slept with a male coworker, which makes Rikuro both hopeful and angry. Unlike Kou's "Soredemo" (which you should read if you have not; it's my favorite!) where Onoda seriously considers a relationship out of respect for Deguchi's feelings, this is frustrating since Yasutaka is indecisive. An ultimately happy ending, but it will not be everyone's cup of tea.

Six years after his best friend disappeared, Sei meets an older man in the hospital who wants to give him his inheritance. And the older man's grandson, who has refused his money, is a very changed version of Sei's friend from six years earlier. There is a dubcon scene (I think it's fair to say it's noncon) between the two main characters, although it works within the context of the story, since the goal was to frighten Sei into leaving him alone. He was trying to be cruel.

The day he arrives in Tokyo, Akira finds himself without a job or dorm, and is saved by his childhood penpal Chihiro: a beautiful, wealthy man who who takes him in without question. One afternoon, Akira, who spent his childhood in the mountains, single-handedly saves Chihiro from abduction and accepts the role as his personal bodyguard. But Chihiro, who has loved him since they were children, wants more than that.