The art is nice, but the pacing is kind of all over the place.
All the conflicts kind of peter out, including the main one the summary is based off, rather than being resolved in a satisfying manner. We don't really see real confrontation in any of the main issues and any misunderstandings or uncertainties are sort of waved away like they didn't exist or didn't have much weight, despite the fact that we're explicitly told the MC faced literal life-death trauma from one of them. Actually, the plot doesn't give most of the trauma or issues the proper exploration for any level of true credence readers should be able to find in them, so it all seems very shallow.
The MC gets forcibly outed 3 times by his ex, with the 1st time sending him into a sucdal state, where he almost jumps off a roof and the 2nd time causes him to lose his job. But both he and the plot treats the 1st incident like some sort of reckless emotional state deriving from being young, and the 2nd incident gave off a "well, what can you do" sort of feeling instead of actually causing any sort of turmoil with the MC. The 3rd time doesn't amount to anything bc it (it, being the outing by the ex spreading pg-rated intimate pics to MC's workplace) was sent to the ML (aka MC's boss) and he wasn't going to do anything with it (instead, he apparently got his own pics for blackmail on the ex but we never see where that plot ends).
While the MC does confront the ex, the ex is still extremely clingy and won't leave the MC alone, but then nothing really comes from it? The ML tricks the ex into a bad job idea and somehow the ex disappears after that? There's no explanation why the ex suddenly completely stops trying to contact the MC even tho the MC has nothing to do with the ex's bad dealing, so this leads to a disconnect in how this particular issue was resolved.
Speaking of, the MC, without ever confronting the ML, figures out (or had always known?) the ex was the one to spread the rumors, but he had blamed the ML for a long time. And the ML also figures out that he was wrongly accused but never explains himself. But then them having an issue with each other doesn't make sense because the misunderstanding didn't lead to anything much except for them bickering a bit when they meet again. It didn't really lead to any aftermath bc the MC left quickly afterwards to enter mandatory service, while the ML was busy dealing with his own stuff (that is, so far, unexplained).
These are my biggest gripes, but also the reasons the MC doesn't agree to date the ML is because of his parents and him not wanting to face heartbreak from dating a straight guy. However, the MC and his issue with his parents also ended up being nothing bc the parents end up being supportive the whole time, and he just shrugs off his concerns about dating a straight man as if it wasn't a real issue.
And then there's the ML's interest in the MC. It's not really explained how he first developed an interest in the beginning, but it's explained that he realized he fell for the MC all of the sudden. To be completely honest, because of how sudden the feelings were, they also seem rather shallow (which the story kind of points out, to its credit, by noting how little the ML really knows about the MC). And that'd be fine for a slow burn if we could learn more about the ML along with the MC, but he's kind of an enigma for mostly all of the story.
MC's feelings seem just as shallow, as he doesn't try to seek out more information about the ML (be it with his family situation, which is mostly hinted at as being kind of turbulent, or his past relationship with the woman the ML almost married, which is smt that gave the ML a bad impression of the MC bc of an incident where he tactlessly brought it up to the ML, but that's also never explored). We never even see the MC go out of his way to try to find out any small things to give the ML some real characterization beyond him being this "perfect" guy who can also be kind of a jerk (bc he's kind of boring as is -to me, I mean- esp as him being a jerk could have been interesting, but he never really suffers any consequences from his meaner/petty actions, making this aspect just frustrating, lbh). And a lot of the things he does for the MC is never given much explanation or exploration for readers to digest and fully gauge his emotions/feelings in the moment, so a lot of these moments where we should be feeling a progression in their relationship, feels rather hollow, like smt is missing.
There were other things too but they were small (for me) compared the stuff I already wrote.
Since we have a 27 chapter epilogue, I'm hoping that it can give the story a better resolution for a lot of the interesting points that it doesn't explore in the main storyline.
(-6)
(+29)
