“You can picture my brother when you look at me, it’s okay. All I ask of you is that you do your best to try and fall in love with me too.” -Maddie translation.
Before we start the review…
What’s the Japanese level?
I rate this as an advanced series. To see my reasonings for my rankings, please click here!
Who wrote this manga?
This manga was written by Hoshikubo Akane.
Info about the series
- There are currently three volumes published in Japanese.
- There is currently no English version.
You can check out this series for yourself below.
What’s this series about?
This series follows our protagonist Nora, and her secretive relationship with the young master of her workplace. After picking her up off the street and giving her a job, Nora and the young master Makoto quickly developed a romantic relationship. Though they didn’t tell anyone about their relationship, they were very serious about each other. When their relationship developed to the point where they should take the next step, Makoto proposed to Nora. She accepted, and he went off to tell him parents about their relationship.
While this should have been the start of Nora’s new life, it ended up being the end of her life as she knew it. Makoto was in a carriage accident on his way to see his parents, and passed away before he should share the news with anyone. Leaving Nora in a rather precarious position.
At his funeral, the only person who seems to care at all about losing Makoto, is Nora. When she goes to find a quiet place to cry, she is met with a man sharing the same face as him—his secret younger twin brother, Nozomu. Nora instantly dislikes Nozomu for sharing her ex-fiance’s face, but Nozomu is instantly drawn to Nora.
Nozomu is quickly brought in to replace Makoto as the young master of the house, and he requests that Nora be his personal maid. Once they’re alone, he seeks to find out more about her relationship with his older brother, and makes her a proposition: he will allow her to live out the fantasy that Makoto is still alive through him, if she can try and actually fall in love with him.
My thoughts on this volume
I am absolutely kicking myself for not picking up this volume sooner. I felt so bad for Nora all throughout the volume, as it’s clear that though she was struggling with losing her fiance so suddenly, she’s struggling even more now that she has to deal with his identical twin brother.
I do like how the brothers are shown to be almost identical in some ways, and exact opposites in others. It leads me to believe that the similarities are what make Nora let her guard down around Nozomu at times, and tell him she despises him at others. She’s incredibly hot and cold with him, and he seems to really like it.
This is one of the more dark romance series in my collection, with all of the relationships having their own problems. Even when Makoto was alive, was there really such a need to keep their relationship a secret from everyone? Now with Nozomu, there are more problems than I could possibly count.
While at first I thought that Nozomu would be a way for Nora to move through her grief, as the story went on, it became clear that it was the exact opposite. She gets upset with Nozomu when he seemingly tries to replicate an afternoon that she’d spent with Makoto in the past, stating that she doesn’t want to fantasize about the past, she wants to live with Makoto in the future. But as Makoto is dead, there can be no future for the two of them.
Rather than finding a healthy way to move through these feelings though, she instead starts calling Nozomu Makoto, and they do indeed begin doing things that would have been “the next step” in her and Makoto’s relationship. But, how long can she really go on pretending this man is actually her ex-fiance?
What I liked most about this volume
❤️ Nora and Nozomu’s first meeting—she’s stunned at the sight of him, and when he asks her nonchalantly if they really look that similar, she yells no and runs away. It’s clear this is the first thing that drew him to her! Clearly he likes girls with big personalities that aren’t people pleasers.
🧡 Nozomu straight up telling Nora that he’s interested in her, in front of the other maids at that! And playing footsies with her under the table during it all!
💛 The story constantly flipping to scenes of Nora happy with Makoto, and then sad, doing the same things with Nozomu. It added a level of drama, and showed just how happy she was with him.
💚 Nozomu not knowing how to tie a kimono despite having roughly the same upbringing as Makoto…and making Nora dress him. And then offering to become Makoto for her as she’s reminiscing about Makoto while she’s dressing him!
💛 Nora slapping Nozomu after his offer to become Makoto, because although they look the same, they’re two very different people. It’s an offensive offer!
🧡 Nozomu smirking after being slapped by Nora…does he like being slapped???
❤️ Nozomu standing up to the head maid for Nora! Honestly I hope she gets fired.
Maddies Manga 
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