Junpei is struggling with his grief when he comes to stay with Ei and he's straight. Ei is struggling with heartbreak over his male lover leaving him to marry his fiancee. Taking in Junpei helps distract him until his ex comes back into the picture. The cat brings them together too. Yakinori's not drawn too realistically but he's the cutest thing. 😻
Then there's Kitaka and Sagan which doesn't seem to be going well, Sagan rejects Kitaka's expensive but useless trinkets. Kitaka then meets Junpei, meanwhile Sagan already met Junpei at his workplace. Sagan and Junpei share the trauma of losing their lovers.
I really appreciate stories that run me through a whole range of emotions. The hurt/comfort, tenderness and intimacy, even when there were no words, was beautiful. The characters felt so tangible to me.
There's no explicit sex until the last chapter which was so them and lovely. <3
I do wish we'd gotten to see a bit more about how Kitaka and Sagan are at the end. There IS a manga for them called Koi to wa Ienai but it's not even listed on MangaUpdates (you can see it on Chill Chill). :(
I wish I had psychical copies of this work. I'll definitely reread it someday!
CWs:
-Grief (Junpei lost his partner to terminal illness, Sagan lost his to a car accident, this isn't helped by Kitaka getting to an accident later although he's okay)
-Cheating (Ei was willingly with a man who cheated on his fiancee with him, broke up with him to marry her, then they got back together, there's the ideology that if you're in love with someone you just can't help it)
-Kitaka maybe kissed Ei when he was sleeping, and he undressed him down to his boxers (because he puked on his clothes after binge drinking)