They were there, but then I left.

So i was reading along, thinking this would be your average slice of life shojo manga. I generally like that genre, and even though the guy love interest was a little needy and annoying and there was some slut shaming of his dead girlfriend i was managing to enjoy it enough to continue.

Then the big gap happened. If you've read it you know that there's a five year period where boyfriend just drops off the map, doesn't tell anyone where he is, if he's alive, anything. Just gone. Now if it were me, that would be the point where I say "forget that loser, I'm better then this" and move on, but noooo. Apparently boyfriend is so special and damaged that she cannot forget him and chastely waits until he will some day come back. And I use the word chaste on purpose here, because despite the fact that they dated for over a year they do not have sex. They almost do, twice, but never actually get there. And then since she's waiting for him she still doesn't have sex, even after she starts dating his best friend and pretty much living with him. With the fact that the first (now dead) girlfriend is painted as a whore (the word is actually used by boyfriend in regards to her) it makes for some creepy parallels.

Oh and the reason boyfriend ran away? It seems to be a mix of needing to be needed/help the emotionally weak and also a fear of being actually loved. How's that for baggage? Yeah, I think teens would like this series, but it was too melodramatic and had way to many broken relationships/people for me. Real adult relationships are so far away from what's shown in this book that they look like completely different species.

I guess I did find it entertaining enough to finish it though...