This new series is from the mangaka of Love In Focus Yoko Nogiri, which I have previously read and reviewed
Midori Nanami thought that she was starting an ordinary high school life until she lost her wallet and a classmate named Rei Ichijo recovered it from would-be thieves. She doesn’t get the chance to thank him, and she laments when he and his two friends are missing from school for two weeks. Midori works to support her family, who are severely in debt, thanks to her father, who left the family in the lurch.
One night, she’s on her way back home from her part-time job when her school chairman, unfortunately, spots her. As it turns out, students are not allowed to have jobs. Now things start to get interesting. The chairman offers her a deal. He tells her that if she can get Rei and his friends back to school, she can keep her scholarship and avoid suspension. Midori readily agrees partly because it also allows her to thank Rei for returning her wallet.
Midori goes to Rei’s apartment in the hopes of convincing him and his best friends, Chihiro and Yukinojo, to return to school. Here is where we see a bit of Midori’s personality shine through. When she arrives, the boys, Rei especially, are very dismissive of her. Rei even tries to give her the equivalent of $700, never to come back. She surprises Rei when she throws it back in his face explaining just how hard the average student must work to make that kind of money and that he has no right to throw it around.
With her little brother Kon’s encouragement, Midori decides not to give up. With a determination that would make Tohru Honda proud, she begins sending study notes and a gift for Rei’s dog, Kota, every day. Yukinojo and Chihiro find it amusing and acknowledge Midori’s efforts. Rei initially ignores it, but it gets to him after some time. Rei promises he and the boys will return to school for their midterms. He asks Midori why she is attending school, and she admits that it was with her mother’s encouragement that she is still attending school instead of working full time. Her mother explained that there are things that she can only experience at this time in her life, and she wants Midori to have those things. Midori finally gets to remind and thank Rei for helping her.
By the end of the first chapter, Midori is declared the boys “babysitter until they graduate. Chapter two has Midori trying to clear up all the rumors surrounding the boys. When she finally convinces all three to stop skipping group activities and make the class sports festival banner, the other classmates begin to see them in a new light. Rei and Midori have a doki-doki moment leading me to believe they will be the OTP in the future.
In chapter three, we have the almost obligatory male lead has a cold chapter. Rei gets a cold, and Midori goes over to help. Thanks to the school chairman Midori gets a new job at a restaurant where the owners are a very loving couple and old friends of Rei’s family. Specifically Rei’s deceased mother.
In chapter four, We see Rei and Chihiro have taken a liking to Midori, especially since she helped clear Chihiro’s name in the suspension scandal in chapter one. Yukinojo, on the other hand, seems to be the quiet observer of the group. At the end of the chapter, he unexpectedly confronts Midori asking if she likes Rei, and when Midori says she wants to be a supportive friend, he tells her Rei doesn’t need her, which leads to a bit of a cliffhanger ending.
Overall impression? 9/10 As usual, I love the art style of the mangaka. What surprised me was the amount of chapter plot cliches in volume one. Rei has a cold on sports day etc. Perhaps it may be good to get those types of chapters out of the way early. Also, whenever the boys are kind of cool, Midori references her heart skipping a beat.
