This series really made me cry. It's the only yaoi series that made me tear up and cry a lot in each chapter in front of my computer. It might sound pathetic, but there was something about the dialog and the fluctuating emotions of Kyouichi and Imagase that just hits me hard and makes me cry over them. They're flawed. Who isn't? But it's because that they're flawed they're good characters to love, good characters to pity and sympathize. These two men go through so much in their short lives, especially Imagase and his one-sided love and Kyouichi with his inability to understand whether or not he loves Imagase. Perhaps that one factor just baffled me throughout the story. He'd claim "I love him" but then the next it was "but I want to end this" or "you said we can't be together, so we won't." Perhaps it's because of his other relationships that he became to think that way. But these vulnerable characters who really have never felt true love until they saw each other just make me...they just make me so sad. The development and the crashes throughout the story make me wish that they could just simply love each other.

But they don't think that way, and neither does Setona Mizushiro. And it just makes it so much more rich. I know that there are people saying "These people are like real gay people". To tell the truth, the label "gay people" is much too specific. These people are like real people, in general, period. Because everyone will doubt and everyone will feel selfish and unloved and everyone will regret but push on.

Tamaki seemed like a nuisance in the beginning, but it seemed that she seemed to develop the love that Kyouichi had for his "ex-girlfriend" by the end of the series. Perhaps if she had not been there, the two would have broken in a more devastating way.

But I think I'll just write the rest of my review about chapter 3. Oh, chapter 3...words cannot describe the absolute sorrow I felt when reading the chapter. Imagase made me cry. It's really funny how he can manage to hold a conversation with Kyouichi and then afterward ask him to have sex with him [and then Kyouichi goes with it] but then throw a fit and cry more. I cry with him when he's like that. Chapter 3, in my opinion, was the best chapter in the series. Sure, the ending was lovely with the snow and all, but chapter 3 was just tear jerking and heart wrenching and everything good and bad.

So if you've made it this far in my review and you find lovely stories of the utmost sorrow but at the same time happiness to be great, you should just go back to The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese, reread it [or read it for the first time], come back and then pick this up. I'm not gonna lie though. If you can't see through the fights and words that they see and simply think "Wow ___ is a jerk and should ____" or "They're fighting over something stupid/He's so ____", I wouldn't bother reading this series. I hope to see more of Setona Mizushiro's amazing works.

I don't see this manga as riddled with angst and drama... I really see a very realistic couple. One that is madly in love... so in love that they are so insecure... that would be Imagase... And the "angst"/"melodramatic" scenes are the ones with Imagase vainly trying to hold onto his love... a love that is so one sided it's unbelievable. There are relationships out there (in fact, many) that are so unbalanced... one loves the other so much more... I think Mizushiro did a good job of representing this in a very realistic manner... But maybe I just view that because I was once in a "relationship" with a playboy... I was constantly fighting... stupidly hoping.. that I would be the one to change him.

I think Imagase is something along those lines... somebody just grasping and grasping... vainly holding onto something that isn't really there...

I have a feeling that the manga is going to end with a happy ending... which makes the series less realistic... what would be realistic is Imagase to finally rid himself of Kyouichi...

Now. Let's analyze Kyouichi... I wouldn't say he's airheaded... or flighty... I think he is a character that's has always had it easy. There was always somebody that loved him... he went from one relationship to the next... and he felt that people should love... give... unconditionally to him... and that he didn't have to give anything back. I think this flaw is due to the fact that things come too easy to him. And there are people out there that are like that. I think the issue of becoming "gay" is really a major undertone (not sure if that's the right word to use) for his actions... he cannot wrestle with the fact of admitting that he truly love a man... and what if the gay relationship ends badly? Then he went to the dark side for no reason... I would have the same thoughts as him... if I were him. It's a very understandable conflict.

So what I am trying to say is that I find the two characters to be very rich. What is amazing is that the story is not riddled with major plot driving events... the plot doesn't drive the characters actions.. if that makes any sense. Instead... it really is a story full of the character's thoughts and interactions with each other... which just makes the character development even stronger... ugh... I cannot explain what I am getting at.

Just read the story. It will make your heart wrench. Knot up. And you will be so sad for Imagase at the end of chapter 3.