My Take

Take this as you will, but this is my opinion on the story:

1. Too much was left unaddressed. Lowell had chapters upon chapters filled with lies and manipulation, and River never brought it to light, nor did anyone who had even an inkling of what was going on. Bringing that up as a conflict would not only have filled those holes, but also add more to the story as something for them to get over.

2. Why did Nathan suddenly stop liking Scarlett? I get that he was spending time with Lowell a lot, but I find it a little hard to believe that if his sole purpose for being around Lowell in the first place was to get the girl, that his feelings would dissipate so easily. So either there should have been something revealing that Nathan's feelings for Scarlett were only surface level, or there should have been way more development with him and Lowell.

3. Were the side characters just there to mess with the readers or something? I thought this was going to be some kind of harem where all the characters in question pined for the MC until he chose someone, but if they already had someone they liked from the start, what even was the point in those halfway romance interactions with Nathan? I find this strange especially with Mr. Qiu - reason being, the others weren't really aware of their feelings for other people by that point, but Mr. Qiu always knew that he liked Gareth, so why was he teasing Nathan like that?

4. The endings for the side couples felt very rushed and sloppy. Sure, Nathan and Lowell as the end game couple would have the most screentime, but there was practically no content showing the side couples and what really happened with them. There was no sort of 'realisation of his feelings' scene with River, who has been friendzoning that guy literally the entire time he's been present. Suddenly pushing them together for conclusion convenience felt a little forced, even though it was expected from the setup of the two characters in the first place, and it's disappointing that more wasn't done with both couples.

5. Last but not least, having Scarlett be this knowing character at the very end who somehow just knows how all of the characters end up feels weird when she didn't really used to talk to any of them apart from the Mr. Qiu, since he was the art teacher. Especially considering that her entire existence was a key propellor in the story from the beginning, being the literal reason Nathan met all of the main characters.

This is a bit long, but if you read this you can agree with me or not. I know there was obviously an element of melodrama throughout this entire comic and the scrutinisation can be taken with a grain of salt, since it can just seem like I'm nitpicking. But even so, these are a couple of things that took away from the experience of the comic to me. I'm not going to comment about the characters' actions or personalities, since that it entirely up to the author, like how I think that Nathan is annoyingly so much of a pushover when it comes to Lowell who is constantly trying to mess with his head and ask him who is more important between him or his crush. No, saying things like that goes nowhere. What makes these stories disappointing sometimes is that these behaviours are never addressed, and makes the character ending up with the one who acted that way entirely frustrating.

This is hella long, so I'm done.

TL;DR:
1. Too many things left unaddressed.
2. Why did Nathan just suddenly not like Scarlett anymore?
3. The side characters messing with Nathan, then to reveal that they actually liked someone else from the start, is a confusing plot point, because why have them mess with him like that in the first place?
4. Side couple scenes felt rushed and sloppy.
5. Scarlett's 'I know how everyone ends up' ending was disappointing with how she was just deemed the supportive bystander.
Final paragraph: Don't critique things that should be within the boundaries of the author's creative vision, critique elements of the story and execution that you consider flawed, and point them out for adjustment and/or possible future improvement.