Sleeps In Sunbeams's manga / #businessmen(4)

I enjoyed the first two stories, especially the first with the surprisingly possessive seme who was not above staking his claim before others.

This was a well written story, executed very cleverly by the mangaka. Watanabe and Hazuki’s story did not go in a direction I anticipated, given that I didn’t read the reader reviews. Warning: my review will have spoilers. Hazuki: At the start he was difficult to like as he was a bit of an Ebenezer Scrooge; not in denying Christmas but his surly attitude towards lovers and happy people. But his character slowly gets defined as we see snippets of him being helpful and hard working and honest. And lonely. His ‘bah humbag’ ways become relatable as he becomes close to Watanabe and the reader finds out he has always been gay but believed he would never find happiness or a loving partner. Watanabe is the opposite of Hazuki. Tall, good looking, seemingly popular, he started working at the same time as Hazuki and has now been transferred to the same department. This beautiful man slowly romances Hazuki and they enter into a committed relationship that lasts over a year. He is the seme who has an apparent glasses fetish, preferring his partner wear them even in bed. In their year as a couple, the MCs seem increasingly close . Until we see a hint of Watanabe’s secret. At that time I flipped back pages wondering if I missed something. Surely Watanabe wasn’t having sex with other men?! Wth did I skip? Alas, it isn’t too long until Hazuki overhears a conversation that makes him realise he has been horribly manipulated and used by Watanabe as a substitute for a lost (glasses wearing) love. Hearing the extent of the lies, realising Watanabe was sleeping with others absolutely crushed Hazuki. There was a confrontation where Hazuki let Watanabe know (in no uncertain terms) that he was absolute scum for treating him (who did nothing wrong) so cruelly. My respect for Hazuki was 100/10, I loved how he handled himself through the breakup as his heart shattered. My loathing for Watanabe was also 100/10. I loved that the mangaka wrote Hazuki so strong, even to the point he wasn’t spiteful at work but professional (and a little broken..so sad). I loved that over a year passed as Watanabe hit rock bottom and realised what he lost and had to face his loathesome self for some hard truths. To be honest, I would have been fine leaving the story with Watanabe trying to get Hazuki back and confessing while Hazuki said thanks...and then went soaring off with a new seme who treated him with value, love and respect. It took time, but these two do end up together. I can sort of be ok with that because of how long it took for that to happen, but personally I would have kept the relationship professional. So, final thoughts, this was well written, it tugged at my emotions but I would prefer no getting back together. Hazuki was a good guy, Watanabe was (and remains IMO) a douchebag ヾ(`ヘ´)ﾉﾞ

A reunion/ reencounter story about Myungook and Hyun who had a bad breakup of their friendship in high school and a turbulent reunion at Hyun’s new job in marketing. I was slow to warm up to the characters but once you got their backstory their personalities garnered a lot more empathy. As they fell for each other the story became very sweet and I really liked how they thought of the other and tried to put them first.

A very gentle and heartwarming story about 2 overworked men who strike up a friendship after missing the last train. Friendship becomes love between the vibrant and confident sales man Miki Yutake, and the socially introverted system engineer, Natsume Tooru.