Heeey this is actually good

This novel is split in 2 parts: the main story where both hero and heroine interact, and the side stories from the past where the hero interacts with heroine's group of friends. I even get the "countryside" vibe, which tbh is pretty astonishing because I never got that vibe from other novels

Speaking of the interactions, they're really down to earth. It's one of the most realistic interactions I've seen so far. A lot of novel protagonists spit out philosophical stuff about love and whatnot, not this... more>> one. This one is more slice of life than a helluva lot of other "slice of life" stuff around <<less

Dude is a grown ass man letting some JK lead him around by the nose just cuz she's pretty. And his inner thoughts are kinda pedo towards her when they aren't even in steamy situations.

Dude asks, "what's your name?"

"Hmm... guess it, and I'll let you do whatever you want~"

Like, the offer didn't come immediately, but why the hell was he even playing along? If that we me I'd be all, " Nah. Keep your damn name, imma call you Snot from now on. Oh, what, don't like it? NOW you... more>> wanna tell me, huh? Well f*ck you, shoulda told me when I cared. Now you're mad and have a silly ass nickname all cuz you wanted to be a teasing little brat."

... rant aside, yeah, what kinda nonsense is this? I'd be fine with it if he didn't just let her tease him like he was some highschool cherry boy. Man had not an ounce of an adult's dignity. <<less

If I had to sum it up, I’d say this is a decent slice of life WN struggling under the weight of its negatives.

In a sense, here we read not 1, but 2 alternating stories of the same cast of characters, set 10 years apart; The past (brat) and the present (adult) part. I’d even say you could read any of these two parts independently and it would barely impact your reading experience.

To the past (brat) part:

This part you can call a slice of life comedy. You follow the MC... more>> and the 3 FMCs over the events they experienced during their childhood days. This part allows for a casual read due to its very episodic structuring. In general, you can expect every chapter to be one closed story.
However, it does suffer under how predictable most of the comedic elements are. Usually ending with the MC being the bu*t of every joke.

To the present (adult) part:

This part is your usual Rom-Com telling the story of the MC and 3 FMCs reuniting after 10 years apart. We heavily focus on the perspectives of the FMCs and their feelings for the MC. The storytelling keeps episodic features, but starts adding some chapter overarching themes.

But to get to the cons, as here you’ll also encounter this WN’s main problem: The MC.

If I had to describe him using one word, it would be: Pathetic. His main problem being that he didn’t mature one bit in the 10 years that have supposedly passed between these two parts. So we are effectively looking at a man nearing his thirties behaving like a teenager without any integrity or redeeming features to speak of.
The only saving grace is that the story is only comparatively rarely told from the MC’s point of view. If it was mostly, or even solely told from the MC’s perspective, I dare say this part would be borderline unendurable to read.

Spoiler

Another saving grace being that the author started making the MC a little more endurable in the later half of the WN. But that’s after the MC finally remembered the first FMC’s name and the third FMC was introduced to the present part of the story. So quite a bit to go.

[collapse]

The “romance” in this WN also suffers the usual problems of the genre, worst of it likely being the utter lack of progression. And like it’s commonly the case in Japanese media, any situation that could possibly lead to progression will be blocked by the usual methods (interruptions, falling asleep/unconscious and the like). The author's habit of drawing out drama and problems forever and ever doesn’t help progression either.

So would I recommend reading this WN?

It depends.

It’s neither great nor horrible, but especially people who already read/watched their fair share of Japanese media might be easily bored of it.
But if you like casual slice of life stories, you can at least give it a try. <<less

This novel is very good, with a relaxed romcom story.
the storyline is interesting, how is the story about them then and them now..
really good Romcom and the sugar is also not excessive