Sleeps In Sunbeams's manga / #First Love(16)

So many laugh out loud moments! I loved when Fujima went to the pharmacy in disguise only to have chosen the store OkachiMachi worked in That dash to catch up was hilarious! Besides the humour, this was wonderfully sweet and one to re read.

A really sweet shounen-ai story with an adorably loving friend openly expressing his feelings for the boy who once protected him.

Some cute stories with the last one being my favourite. The first one was different. I am not sure if I liked the uke much but his approach to wanting to be the “pitcher” in a relationship was a new one for me.

Good reads, though I am glad the prez stopped being so cruel and ended up totally ensnared by his uke.

I loved the story and the way these 2 childhood friends kept loving each other, even when apart for those years. There were sweet moments of yearning before they became lovers where one would reach for the other but not quite follow through, or tremble in restraint from kissing a scar while the other slept that tugged at my heart. Then after they became lovers they could finally wake together and gently stroke the others face. Those gentle love connections were beautiful and elevated this story for me.

This was so cute. Koshiro and Kirihara are 2 very different guys attending the same college. Koshiro is flashy, energetic and cheerfully in pursuit of his first girlfriend. Kirihara is tall, good looking, popular and amused by Koshiro’s many fails at picking up girls. The manga follows these 2 clueless guys as they become increasingly confused and aware of each other in unexpected ways. Koshiro slowly realises that far from hating the teasing Kirihara, these conflicting feelings might actually be love.

Two fantastic stories with flawed, imperfect characters. The first pair, Hiro and Natsuo, were once classmates in high school. Hiro was painfully introverted and insecure about himself while Natsuo was a flashy delinquent with terrible fashion sense. Hiro felt intimidated by the puppy like delinquent and blamed him for ruining his school life. Years later they meet at the workplace of the totally madeover Hiro and he plans for some long dreamt of revenge. This pair were adorable but it was hard to watch Natsuo get hurt by Hiro’s plot. My heart hurt in empathy. The second couple, almond eyed and intimidating Hayashida and flashy and popular Shuuna were sex friends. Hayashida was closed off to forming a close, emotional bond because of his history of violence in his younger years. But Shuuna wanted to make the man he was falling for feel free to laugh again in his presence. This story was so good because the MC was a flawed character and basically hated himself for his previous actions. It was good to see that the full seriousness of his actions were something he acknowledged and condemned, but I was still happy he found someone to love.

Three great stories of couples with some personality problems to deal with. These included the insecurities that come with a relationship with a large age gap, social awkwardness and bullying as well as lying. I probably enjoyed the crybaby delinquent the most, he was endearingly obnoxious and cute to boot!

Two couples who are friends have their own stories in this volume. The couples are very different with only obsession and intensity their similarities. The first has childhood friends now in a committed relationship but there is no peace between these two. The seme is negative in his outlook. He doesn’t like people, tends to flare up when teased by his lover. And he is totally, irrevocably obsessed and in love with the man who took his hand when they were boys. It’s not an easy story to read, and not because the seme seems so abrasive. I was bothered more that the uke kept him in the palm of his hand and wouldn’t even say that he loved him. The second story I liked more. Again, these 2 knew each other when young and had a master/ slave step brother like relationship. The seme seems like a total jerk but he is actually quite complex and very much in need of his slave on a deep, emotional level. These two had more honestly in their relationship and I really loved the obsessively intense passion between them both.

T. Jackson Winchester II was her older brothers best friend and her first True Love. Kelly fell for the kind 22yo when she was just 12. Over the years he would spend summers with her family in their little cottage and when she was 16 he stepped in to take her to prom. That was the night Kelly got the courage to confess her feelings and she received a solemn promise from T. to propose on her 18th birthday. Of course, this story would be too short if it all ended happily on her 18th. Instead, broken hearted Kelly comes face to face with T years later at University after her divorce to another man. When T hands over a letter to Kelly her world is turned upside down. The rest of the story follows this pair as old wounds are opened and the truth of the past is finally revealed. It’s a sweet story, T is a really genuine kind of guy and Kelly’s feelings are mostly relatable. Nice in that Harlequin kind of style with the focus on romance and relationships more than smexy intensity.