Maddies Manga

Mei has decided to take a moment and bask in the fact that both her childhood friends clearly like her. Who will she decide to pursue? Or… Will she just go with the flow until the universe chooses for her?

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Author

This series was written by Uri Amemiya.

Genre & Tropes

High school romance, love triangle, 10 year age gap.

Info about this series (ongoing)

This series is currently ongoing in Japanese with three volumes currently published.

TL;DR rating

I ended up enjoying this volume…but I need her to end up with the boy that’s her age. Please god let her end up with the age-appropriate one.

My thoughts on this volume (Mild spoilers!)

Oh Mei…In the previous volume, she was struggling with the emergence of two potential love interests appearing in her life. Both of them being men she grew up with…but both having an incredibly different impact on her life.

First, we have the one I hope she ends up with: Ren. He and Mei grew up together in the same neighbourhood, and he obviously cares about her. He’s clearly popular with the girls at his school, but he only has eyes for Mei! I liked him from the second he was introduced, as it seems like he really puts Mei’s interests before his own. Only now, he’s finally begun trying to do something for himself—catching Mei’s romantic interest.

Then we have Haru. Oh Haru. He has also known Mei since she was a child, as he is 10 years her senior. He ended up stepping up and helping Mei and her mom out quite a bit when she was younger, so he spent a lot of time with Mei when he was a high schooler and she was a child. Now that she’s a teenager and he’s a businessman, he clearly is wanting his relationship with Mei to change.

I really like Ren, and I really dislike Haru. I know Haru’s name is quite literally in the title of the series, but I can still hope for Ren to win in the end.

In volume one, Haru is introduced as a more sloppy character. Though he’s in his mid 20’s, he still relies on Mei to go as far as wake up him in the mornings. Then, when he sees Ren clearly developing feelings for her, he straight up tells Mei that he doesn’t want her dating anyone until she’s an adult. Like!? Are you acting as her father or as her potential boyfriend? I just really find him to be icky.

To add to the icky-ness, in volume two, Haru all but tells Mei’s mom that he confessed to Mei, and that’s why Mei is currently struggling. The mom just giggles at it! What’s going on with the adults in her life!? I’m hoping that the mom just understood his comments as him being an overprotective big brother character, because if not someone needs to call social services on them.

I say this because he never saying things explicitly. It’s rather frustrating! When he sees Mei on their date, he says things like “you’re so cute, and I didn’t do anything to prepare my heart, oh no…” and “oh no, I can’t be alone with you looking like that…let’s walk instead of drive.” LIKE, SIR. While he never explicitly comes out and says anything, that’s not something he should be saying to a girl he watched grow up.

Moving on from my complaints about Haru, in volume two we get to see Mei decide that she may as well bask in the wonderful feeling that is having two handsome men dote all over her. I liked watching her try to take some control in her life! She’s clearly very easily swayed by Haru and his desires, so I loved watching her do what she wanted to do.

While we watch as Mei goes on dates with both men in this volume, Ren’s date is clearly superior. And I’m not just saying that because I’m biased! While Haru takes her out to see a movie, Ren plans an entire excursion for her! I was actually really touched watching everything he went through to plan the perfect date for her. He’s absolutely boyfriend material, and I really hope that Mei can see that.

I was also very happy to see Ren fighting Haru for Mei. Him explicitly telling Haru that he’s taken on a part time job so that he can take Mei out on a date and pay for everything was just so juicy. The drama!

Check out a free sample below!

You can check out volume two of this series for yourself below!