He’s her new next door neighbour, their rooms are right beside each other and they’re desk mates!? There’s no way that’s not fate. The only thing standing in their way is his salty personality.
You can check out chapter one of this series for yourself below!
Author
Genre & Tropes
Info about this series
Tags
What’s the series about? (chapter one spoilers!)
Niko is a first year high school student who really wants a boyfriend. She finds the idea of having that one special person to be so romantic, she can’t help but obsess over the idea of getting one. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been able to find a boy who wants to hang out with her alone, let alone go on a date with her.
Right before the new semester starts, she notices an incredibly handsome boy named Aoi moving into the house right beside hers. Not about to let the opportunity pass by she tries to strike up a conversation with him, but he could not be any less interested in her!? Will Niko be able to break down his walls and form a genuine relationship with him?
My thoughts on this chapter (spoilers for chapter one)
I’m not sure if I’m going to be continuing this series. Personally, I really struggle with romance series where I don’t both understand and respect character motivations. Niko’s sole motivation seems to be “I want a boyfriend”. Every single action she takes speaks to it, and I just couldn’t get behind it. While it would be understandable if she were the type of character to fall in love easily, but she’s not! It feels like she’s just in love with the idea of having a boyfriend.
We start the chapter with her asking one of her classmates to hang out with her, just the two of them, at their middle school graduation. It seems like the two really don’t have a relationship beyond classmates, so he promptly turns her down saying that he feels awkward hanging out with her in a non-group setting. When her friends question why she asked him out in the first place, she says it’s because he told her he would miss her at his new high school! That’s the sole reason! It wasn’t as though she secretly had feelings for him the entire school year and only gathered up the courage to confess on the final day—she asked him out because she thought he would say yes.
While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a girl wanting to go out on a nice date and get a cute boyfriend, I really hate watching her go around with no standards! I wish she would rely more on her friend’s help when it comes to discerning boys. She seems to be the only one who doesn’t understand that she’s moving way too quickly.
When the male lead Ao makes his entrance, Niko wastes no time trying to get on his good side. He’s in the process of moving in—like literally, he’s holding moving boxes—when she comes up to him smiling up a storm and introducing herself. Even if he wasn’t a “salty” character, I wouldn’t blame him for not being all that friendly with her. When he later calls her out for letting her ulterior motives show, I was actually a bit surprised she didn’t at least somewhat take his words to heart. She quite literally has nothing but ulterior motives..!
I ended this chapter liking Aoi a whole lot more than Niko, and I’m not sure if that will change anytime soon. While I do want her to have a happy ending, her clear lack of standards will no doubt leave her with some romantic scars.
Maddies Manga 
Leave a comment