there is nothing particularly new about this high school romance, which just proves that it's not WHAT, but HOW something is written that makes it interesting. i love this pairing; they're both real characters with distinctive personalities, not just cardboard cutouts slotted into the seme and uke roles. and not everything gets resolved with a mutual confession, but insecurities (not artificially created dumb misunderstandings) are still throwing up obstacles, and will continue to do so, plus their personalities provide some natural clashing. its very well paced, and wow, that kissing scene is out of this world hot. heck, public toilet sex doesn't usually turn my crank, because, well, i remember exactly how non-hot the reality of it is, but here it's very well done. goes to show that one needn't draw every vein on the dangy bits to make a sex scene steamy.
the part i can't ever really understand, and which is (distressingly) common in manga, at least shounen and shoujo, is the concept of bullying the person one loves. mashita IS mean at the start, and if i put myself in matsushima's shoes, that must have been very painful. teenage hormones and angst are bad enough on their own; i think it's some rather twisted psychology that wants to see a loved one suffer, and it always turns me off to some degree. but i can't really blame one mangaka for what's a common trope.
overall this was very satisfying and will stay with me for a while.