I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Ougi Yuzuha(3)

Rio, gay and a loner, watches all the excitement stirred up by the glamourous, Tomo-chan, a recent transfer from the Big City high school, with detached fascination, unable to believe that Tomo would ever notice a "dull" kid like himself. Tomo-chan is not such a snob, it turns out.

Radar lovers. Shibata Mitsuru once nursed a secret crush on fellow classmate, Iwaki Jouji, never believing he would attract his attention, although he, himself, has always had a sort of radar for him. Now that Iwaki has become a successful real estate developer, fate seems to play a hand when they run into each other on the viewing platform of a Ropponghi Hills tower.

Yuka Ogura, a 15-year-old student, has a pretty damned hard life, although it doesn't show on the surface, and he does the best he can, which is actually amazingly well, considering. Abandoned by his single mother, he was raised by his grandmother, the property manager at the small apartment complex where they live, except she now lies in a coma at the hospital. As an even younger student, he was singled out by a seriously creepy teacher and, instead of receiving compassion from others at his school, he is blamed for the incident and bullied. And if anyone thinks this means he is, at least, receiving support and guidance from the staff, forget it. Instead, another seriously suspicious teacher is on his case, Nishio-san, a woman whose true agenda appears to hide under an unctuous cloak of concern. All this in the first chapter. Meanwhile, Yuka espies his new and gorgeous next-door neighbour kissing another man, and it turns out to be the student teacher, Hikaru Gotou, who is his teacher for the year. Love at first sight for poor Yuka! Unfortunately for him, Gotou is a bit of a feckless man, who uses sarcasm to blow him off, and is completely unequal to the emotional tsunami that comes barreling in with Yuka. Blackmail works to the extent that Gotou is more set than ever against getting involved with kids, especially this kid, except Nishio steps in with a horrifyingly detailed account of Yuka's tragic backstory, and instead of scaring him off, it backfires: Gotou is every bit as hooked as the reader. One of Ougi Yuzuha's best stories, this starts off as a modern horror tale about a boy's coming of age, with suspense and drama to keep readers clicking each page, and transforms into a gentler romance. It may feel strange to cheer on a teacher x student relationship, but thank goodness Yuka has Gotou. Read this! One of my faves.