in the beginning yes, but with time, the story gets better and better and BETTER, take my word i am not the kind to praise a yaoi manga if it's not a top super good
I've actually read a few manga that were like that, but ended up stopping and coming back to it and fall in love with it like everyone else. :)
When I tried reading this a few years back, I thought so as well. I couldn't get into it and I didn't get what was going on. I think it was because I was still pretty new to BL and I hadn't read such an old one before. Now that I have more experience with both older and newer manga, I got into it and could understand it. Believe me tho, it gets much better in later volumes.
*Contains Spoilers*
I felt the same too, I was really confused with the first few vols because of the continuous flashbacks, I liked the ending better than most yaoi manga I have read, but I hate the fact that Masa slept with that guy from vol 2, especially after reading the nice scenes from vol 1 , its like why did he bother to go to kei and rans house to get kai and bring him home only to sleep with other people and end up getting kai raped, it really annoys me, as I don't know why but I am a Masa/Kai fan more than a ran/kei fan, when they get together they are just the ultimate power couple
the story is pretty hard to get into. gave up, because it didn't make any sense. but i will finish it one day because every one keeps raving on how good it is.