muse ✨'s manga / #unrequited love(80)

Natsuno is dismayed that Ui, his best friend from childhood, has lost all memory of him after an accident. In a ploy for a place to crash, he tells Ui they used to be lovers. But was Ui telling the truth about not remembering him?

A boy with a love for flying squirrels hits the jackpot when his crush and his pet squirrel are merged into one being thanks to a clumsy shrine worker.

A boy sees his mother cry for the second time when she catches him about to kiss his sleeping cousin, who often crawls through his window to borrow his air conditioning. This is a gentle story about mutual love, and there is the thread of a story about parental acceptance. In the end, the mother reminds them to use a blanket in the cooling weather, indicating she knows they're going to sleep together - and while this doesn't indicate approval, per se, it shows her acceptance. While it was sweet of the scanlation team to take the effort, they duplicated many pages in this with colorized versions, which are distracting to some readers. Head's up if that bugs you.

When his best friend and one-sided love of twenty-five years gets a divorce, Tokizou reluctantly takes him in. But what he doesn't know is that Ryuuji has been aware of his feelings for twenty-three of those years and has finally decided he can reciprocate.

Ten years after leaving his hometown for Tokyo, Mitsuki reconnects with Kiyozi, his best friend from childhood. They fall into a physical relationship, but Kiyozi is keeping something from Mitsuki, who feels used until he speaks with Kiyozi's ex-wife. Other commenters seemed to hate this story, but I truly enjoyed it. It's slow and subtle, but it's about second chances and the stupid things we do to protect ourselves from getting hurt.

After Rin finds his girlfriend in bed with another man, he gets drunk at his favorite restaurant and wakes up naked next to Haru, the owner's 18yo nephew. Their names weren't actually Haru and Rin, but their faces sure were.

A drug rep nursing a broken heart is pursued by a veterinarian who won't buy his company's products.

After his childhood friend (and unrequited love of his life) is left by his wife, Toki moves in to care for him and his young son, Akira. We come into the story three years later, when they have settled into a comfortable life that neither man wants to give up despite family pressure.

Super short but enjoyable oneshots. - Kid with major crush keeps meeting his crush's milestones and they finally get together - Two guys meet up at a reunion and become roommates; later, the teenage son of one assaults the other, but it's what they need to realize their feelings. I actually liked their story the best. - Newbie at work has to track down the old manager, who'd been in a relationship with the president's son and had to resign. - Strong friendship story about a part-timer who works around the clock to make ends meet and is picked up every morning by his manager, whom he originally knew only by his shoes - Two men in a long-term affair suspect they're being followed by a detective hired by one of their wives (they are divorcing)