I've spent my 30s dating my boyfriend for ten years without a forseeable future and giving up my dreams. Triggered by a certain reunion, I'm trying to step out of my old self...
4 Chapters (Complete)






This story follows the same narrative beats as any cheesy made-for-TV romance (think: the type that get made for a channel that starts with H and get aired around the holidays) except it's a manga. All the key elements are here: uninterested, inattentive business suit boyfriend who puts his job before his girlfriend even when it's an emergency + underappreciated, kind-hearted, and long-suffering girlfriend with big dreams who feels stifled + fairy tale prince of a Marty Stu ML, an old high school friend who shared her love of music.
The two things that really could put this in the dislike pile are the cheating (it came out of nowhere at the end) and the ending itself being so rushed/canned. Granted, FL's ex calls the FL his friend in front of his coworkers and openly states he has no intention of marrying her in front of another group of friends. She also had resolved to break up with him, but they're still together and despite FL's ex being kind of a jerk...the manga shows he does care about her. He's a bad boyfriend who's a bad match for FL, but he's not a bad guy. It's just an all-around icky situation that makes you less sympathetic to the FL -- she goes from being someone stuck in a relationship that's good for her to "okay, you doormat, if you're bold enough to cheat, you could have at least texted you're breaking up with him before boning this new guy."
Things moved quick in this without feeling rushed, but the romance between the FL and ML felt fast and relied a lot on two flashbacks that don't really explain much. We spend more time with the FL and her ex than we do with the ML and the FL! Heck, her friend gets as much page space with the FL as the ML. It was weird. Beyond that, don't get to see if she fulfills her dream and we don't see the conversation with her ex where she outlines why she needs to leave the relationship & what she's learned. Any impact from this manga really went away with the ending...a shallow end to what could have been a very relatable experience.
I'm giving it a 6 because after reading so many meandering stories lately, I do applaud this one for being brisk and to-the-point. Had the author focused on the ex and FL and their relationship/improving their relationship, this could have been a much better story.
I mean it was really interesting, how come a 30 years old woman could make her dream reality ? But she hangs out with a dumbas* and seems brainless. finally she reunites with an old love and everything becomes possible ? weird !