- #1
This was an okay story. It focuses mostly on the MC fixing his regrets, the romance is not a big part of the story. Many characters and plots get brushed aside or forgotten.MC is okay, his character was kind of bland at times, almost like he had no real emotions. He is a Gary Stu type, handsome, great at everything, most love him etc. I'm okay with that type of MC but I know others aren't. ML has a "communication disorder" Spoiler
it's autism, he has autism, but the author likes to just call it a communication disorder. It's hinted that it's something more when ML mom's mentions him being diagnosed, but quickly stops.
[collapse] ML is probably my favorite character.MC's family is okay, I'm not Chinese so can't really comment, but who let's an 11 year live alone?! The mom's brothers tried some at least monetarily. The dad's brothers family and story line was meh and the cousin was forgotten about later on. The ML's family is sweet, they aren't a huge part of the story, but I love how accepting and caring they are. Spoilerlove how the dad is the first one to figure out that the 2 are together while the mom and brother are worrying about it 🤣
[collapse]The friend side characters are brought in and forgotten about quickly. He goes through a few friends from Jr high to college and none of them are kept for the long haul.The pacing of the story to me was fine. I'm glad the author utilized time skips and we didn't have to read detail version of MC's life from 11 - 18. The last time skip in college was kind of abrupt though. The nationalism is exaggerated in this novel, you know the typical; all western food is gross and Chinese food is the best, China has kungfu which captivates Westerners, China has deep history/culture that other countries can't compare to, etc..Up until the international competition, it was slightly annoying, but tolerable, nothing more than excessive pride. Then, Spoilerchapter 51 the author really starts to dig into South Korea, which was distasteful. I know the 2 countries have their issues, but this is just perpetuating the hate.
[collapse]The whole international competition arc was weird, boring, and out of place. It almost made me drop the novel, but the ML is so awkward and cute, I wanted to see how he gets MC to fall for him.There isn't fluff and the romance is bland, it all happens in the last 15 chapters or so and only sporadically.All in all if the international competition arc didn't happen I would have rated this 3.5-4 but it brought down the story too much for me.The translation is great, the notes are well done and not many typo errors. I read MTL from chapter 26 on and it's easy to MTL for the most part.