In my opinion, the romance is quite necessary for aoi’s character development. He is a boy who came to Tokyo alone, fighting every single unfamiliar thing. Hana’s character helps him go through many things and make him more likable for me, not just a football-pro-want-to-be character. He has bad part and good part as teenagers should have. (And Hana, herelf, is a very good character, we knew so much about her, she is not just a crush in Aoi’s life.)
I think, this a sport manga, a romance was very unnecessary. Aoi can have his character development everytime he play and lose. A player biggest character development when he learned every time he lose on a play.
Its interesting but the random romance is so off putting like author just shove it there as a requirement like it was so unnecessary and prob waste of chap honestly.......