Koisuru Tetsumenpi

I sincerely wasn’t expecting this one to be this good. Thought it was going to be your typical coworkers become lovers story, with the usual clichés and tropes but it was not.

All the characters are mature and thoughtful, the conflicts aren’t based on stupid misunderstandings, lack of communication and childish behaviors. They think before they do anything stupid, they talk, communicate and voice their thoughts at some point. It's like the mangaka tried her best to dodge all the BL clichés possible and in result it made her characters feel more human, natural and complex. Vol 4 really showed that with the Saito / Tomita / Tahara situation. Also excellent point, the ukes aren’t feminine or twink but masculine (like you can't tell with one glance who's top and bottom).

I like the 4 characters but I especially love the two bottom Natsume and Tomita. As for the couple, I prefer the side couple Saito & Tomita because their storyline was more interesting and their couple had more development in just 1 vol. Whereas the main couple story barely moved in vol 1 & 2. But reading vol 3 I know now that the mangaka intended it to be like that

when Kitagawa said to Natsume "Together we can just take half step each to approach the other. It may be slower ... But we are definitely doing our best".They're going at their pace but there is still this huge difference of development between the two couples even tho they have the same amount of screen time.

If only the majority of yaoi manga were this good... I'm honestly in love with Sensei's works. Most of the time there's enjoyable plot, nice, interesting characters, that grow, meaningful dialogues, slow building relationships and consent in sex. Plus her art is amazing.

I really enjoyed this title as well. It's not perfect, but very good. I liked both volumes, but the 2nd one was a tad bit better, because it felt more whole and finished, than the 1st. I'd like to read more about the first couple,

it just bugged me, that even in the end they didn't really resolve the dating issue, which still seemed to disturb Kitagawa, and I did not like that, I want him to be fully happy and content.

Oh boy was I looking forward to volume 2 ever since I first got to know the character of Tomita.... Him being an insanely cute curly boy with a wicked smirk... Instant love!
I felt like the first story was kinda boring and it was too bad that Tomita was introduced as the straight best friend. When bartender san was introduced later I was hooked for real. Leaning that vol 2 was about those two was like a Christmas present. And as expected, it was way better and engaging! One of my new fave yaoi couples!