Yuichi seems like the most perfect guy at Wataru's high school. He gets good grades, has good looks, is good at basketball, and gets along well with everyone. However, a chance encounter at a water fountain shows Wataru another side of Yuichi, one that's cold and sarcastic. Wataru can't remember ever even talking to Yuichi, so why does the guy hate him so much?

The situation only becomes more awkward and upsetting when Wataru and Yuichi discover they've accidentally swapped rings. At their school, wearing matching rings and/or wearing a ring on your ring finger signifies that you're dating someone and, shockingly, Wataru and Yuichi's rings not only look exactly alike, but they also fit on each other's ring fingers. The matching rings are, of course, an indication that there is romance in Wataru and Yuichi's future.

Anyway, my first exposure to this series was via the manga adaptation of it. I remembered it being fairly sweet, if lacking in substance, so when I learned it was based on a 5-volume series of novels I decided to give them a try. Now that I've finished the first volume, I can say that 1) I prefer the manga and 2) the manga only adapted the first hundred pages.

This book had a couple big problems. One was the writing/translation, which was terrible. The other was how frustrating the characters were – they seemed to be determined to sabotage themselves.

I'll start with the writing. While I thought that Wataru's gradual realization that he was gay (not that the word was ever used) was pretty good, most of the rest of the book needed work. There were weird word choices, awkward phrasing, and one very noticeable lack of transition from one scene to the next. It was bad enough that I sometimes had trouble figuring out what the author was trying to say. This was particularly a problem during the last scene at Yuichi's cousin's shop, when confusing and contradictory emotions were added to the mix.

My favorite weird word choice example happened during Wataru's first encounter with Miho, a cool and pretty first-year student:

“She had a surprisingly small face, and her skin was so smooth it reminded him of raw cake batter.” (138)

This part was so unexpected and bad that I actually laughed until I cried. Who compares a person's skin to raw cake batter like it's a good thing? I suppose this was more original than saying her skin was smooth as silk, but sometimes originality isn't a good thing.

Now on to the characters' self-sabotaging behavior. At one point Kawamura, Wataru's best friend, said “Well, whatever, you guys sure are a stupid couple.” (134) I couldn't agree more. It was amazing they were still together by the end of the book.

Yuichi spent almost the entire first half of the book treating Wataru like garbage, even though that wasn't even close to how he felt. I wish Kannagi had toned that down, because it made it more difficult to believe that Wataru could fall for him. I could sort of go along with it, because Yuichi's mask occasionally slipped in ways that even Wataru was able to notice, but it was still a bit aggravating.

In the second half of the book, Yuichi and Wataru began to think about sex. Wataru was worried that things were going faster than he was comfortable with, so by the end of the conversation he and Yuichi had come to an agreement in which they would have sex if Yuichi ranked in the top thirty (in all of Japan!) on the exam he was studying for. Like Kawamura later said, this guaranteed that they'd see each other even less than they already were, because Yuichi would be too busy studying, which would probably only make things more awkward for them later on. While they were separated, Wataru got caught up in a jealous classmate's schemes and, instead of telling Yuichi about it at the first opportunity, he made things worse by lying about it.

Amazingly, Wataru and Yuichi's relationship survived their efforts to sabotage it, and now I have four more volumes to go. Here's hoping that, at the very least, the writing/translation gets smoother.

Extras:

Several black-and-white illustrations and two color illustrations.

Rating Note:

I never know how to rate stuff like this. On the one hand, the story was almost 100% non-rapey (there was one iffy moment that kept it from being 100%), which is something I always want to applaud in these books. So very many of them are rapey. On the other hand, the writing/translation was noticeably and memorably bad. Instead of being able to treat this book like fluffy brain candy, I occasionally had to struggle to follow along with the text.

If I could rate this book for multiple things, I'd give the writing/translation 1/2 star, the romance maybe 2 stars on a good day (don't be such a jerk to the guy you like, Yuichi), and the entertainment value 4 stars. I mean, how many books out there would dare to compare a pretty girl's skin to raw cake batter? Or have a main character try to hide the fact that he lost his ring by bandaging his ring finger? Ha!

But seriously, I hope the next book isn't as much work to read.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Finished! I'm going to guess that there was a combination of bad writing and bad translation at play here. Some of the word choices were just plain weird, and near the end I just gave up and skimmed the text for the general meaning. And even that was occasionally hard. That last scene in Toko's jewelry shop was kind of confusing.

The "raw cake batter" bit was my favorite horrible word choice, but here are a few others, just for fun:

"'Wataru, your brain must be really puny. How many times do I have to tell you? It had nothing to do with you,' Yuichi said in a cold voice as he grabbed Wataru's small head with his long fingers." (79)

The author apparently has a thing for guys with small heads, because both Wataru and Yuichi were described that way.

"Feebly, Wataru let out a bitter smile, turning his thoughts to the departed Yuichi." (155)

I can't recall ever reading anything where a character "let out a bitter smile." "Let out a bitter laugh," yes, but not smile.

"His eyes were engorged with passion, but with that single utterance Yuichi stopped everything that he was doing." (167)

I can't help it, this makes me think of those toys with the eyeballs that pop out when you squeeze them.

"Yuichi seemed so shocked, his voice almost flipped with panic." (188)

What does that even mean?

Kawamura, Wataru's best friend: "Well, whatever, you guys sure are a stupid couple." (134)

Kawamura is so right. First Wataru and Yuichi make a stupid bet that's guaranteed to keep them apart more, and then Wataru makes the situation he's currently in worse by lying to Yuichi about it.

There are four more books after this, and I have them all. I'm hoping these two will learn from their past mistakes, but I have a feeling they will continue to frustrate me.

"She had a surprisingly small face, and her skin was so smooth it reminded him of raw cake batter."

I laughed so hard I cried. The writing/translation is horrible.

While this book is under the "yaoi novel" label, it's not a yaoi novel and will disappoint people looking for one. It's a true 'shounen ai' novel, complete with fluffiness and only in the very end of the book do they have sex, and you don't even get descriptive sex.

Overall this was a good book, the MC, Wataru wasn't a doormat and actually talked back to Yuichi. The story itself was fluffy, where Yuichi has a crush on Wataru and gets a copy of Wataru's ring (stalker?) and then Wataru finds out by accident and from there they discover the love for each other.

There were parts that seemed to be disjointed, like when they are apart because of Yuichi's studying, but overall a good book.

Parts I didn't like was Miho, she didn't seem to provide any further plot and was a rather bad stereotype of the 'jealous woman!' who gets jilted in BL novels.