1 - before the split - Hako - very questionable, This one - OK.
2 - the split - Hako - Incredible, wonderful, the FEELZ, This one - meh.
3 - after the split to the death - Hako - Incredible, wonderful, the FEELZ, This one - meh
4 - after death - Hako - Incredible, wonderful, the FEELZ, This one - meh

I've never been able to contain myself at the death of a character, so..

At first, I was peeved on how the story was rushed, but bc of this, the way they separated was really painful for me. I swear, I ALMOST cried. Eugh.

OKOK NOW I KNOW WHY I THINK THE MANGAKA "rushed" THIS. FOR ME, THIS HAS THE ALMOST-PERFECT PACE. BECAUSE OF THE PACE, WE GET TO SEE THE CHANGES OF THE CHARACTER'S ATTITUDE AND HOW THEY TREAT EACH OTHER. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, IT STILL HAS A SIMILARY THAT WAS CLINGING UNTO THEM EVERYTIME A TIMESKIP HAPPEN. SO EXAMPLE: 17 WAS YOUNG, CAREFREE ETC, 19 WAS CAREFREE, BUT HAS A MATURE TASTE TO IT BC THEY HAD SEX FOR THE FIRST TIME. 21 WAS MORE MATURE BUT WE WEREN'T REALLY SURPRISED, BC IT SHOWED US PROPER PROGRESSION THAT HAPPENED WHEN THEY WERE 19. It's a little hard to explain, but long story short, her way of creating the timeskip has its flaws (it's too short, tbh) but it's also a good way to put us in a feels trip for the 3rd chapter lol

update: I JUST READ THE LAST CHAPTER IN RAW, AND I THINK THAT THIS IS THE MOST REALISTICALLY BEAUTIFUL YAOI MANGA I'VE READ SO FAR. OH GAWD I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START.

//update: I've read chap 5. I'm just going to lay down here and let it destroy me in the most beautiful way imaginable

HOW SHOULD I START. SERIOUSLY, HOW?? SHT THE FEELS IS JUST OVERFLOWING INSIDE ME I CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT. BUT THERE'S ONE THING I LOVED IN THIS MANGA: HOW THE IDEA OF SEX WAS PORTRAYED.

In the first few chapters, it makes us rethink if this is actually a yaoi manga, and not a shounen-ai. We can assume that they first did it in chapter 2 when they were both 19 years old. Ideally. We can only assume because the mangaka never really showed us that they did the deed. So when the mangaka presented their first sex scene in chapter 3, I was excited and devastated when I realized when their sex scene debut was Itou acting up like a cold-hearted scum and Yuuki was too desperate to give pleasure to the both of them. It was a half-assed sex scene, to my relief. When I was reading chapter 5, my heart felt warm for sex in reading yaoi for the first time. In here, Itou expressed how he loved Yuuki through sex, and I felt it (which is surprising because this is yaoi LOLOLOL). I loved how the author's real sex debut of Itou and Yuuki's was heart warming. I loved how the author was romanticizing sex. I loved how the author made me feel the importance of sex with true love. In all honesty, my idea of sex recently kind of went down the drain. Before reading yaoi/smut hetero mangas, my view for sex was an act of something dirty if both parties were nir married. And now, because of reading too much yaoi, I felt that sex can be done with anyone as long as you "love" him. Love as in a momentary feeling. Love that doesn't guarantee a future. But because of this manga and lowkey how sex was portrayed (lowkey bc it's not really their first time having sex), I see sex in a new light. And I never expected it to happen.