Office employee Hashimoto and his manager, Shirase, have been secretly dating and residing together for several months now. Although they’ve faced a few challenges, their communication is improving, and they’re evolving as a couple. However, when Hashimoto realizes that Shirase is always the one to initiate dates and emotional closeness, he becomes anxious and resolves to be more assertive. Can he overcome his hesitation and demonstrate his genuine care for Shirase?

This geeky Boys’ Love series hits Volume 3, which is notably the shortest one yet, offering less content and minimal storyline progress. Nevertheless, the developments we witness are quite distinct from previous installments. The initial two volumes heavily relied on the ‘miscommunication’ trope, particularly among Hashimoto, Shirase, and the third-wheel Kumataro, as well as his elder brother Atsushi, who inaccurately believes his brother is dating Shirase (while Shirase mistakenly thinks Atsushi harbors feelings for Hashimoto—such drama!). This volume, however, shifts focus more towards Hashimoto and Shirase’s relationship, highlighting their growth despite not being very physically intimate yet.

In this volume, Hashimoto exhibits greater emotional awareness and bravely proposes a trip to Hokkaido for a few days with Shirase. Although his grand romantic plans and intentions to be more physically affectionate don’t unfold as expected, it’s heartening to witness Hashimoto’s personal development—not only in self-confidence but also in emotional acumen. Shirase doesn’t take center stage here as much, but towards the book’s conclusion, there’s a particularly touching moment when he gives Hashimoto a thoughtful birthday gift. It’s an exceptionally sweet scene, beautifully illustrated, capturing a moment of vulnerability and adorableness between them.

Moving away from the lovers, Atsushi ends up at Hokkaido too, and bumps into Shirase, trying to dig up on dirt on (what he thinks) is Shirase’s relationship with his brother, only to get nothing out of the stoic man. It’s funny to see Atsushi be completely oblivious, even if poor Kumataro ends up suffering more as a result. Speaking of, Kumataro does get a little bit of page-time here, giving Hashimoto a birthday present and ending with a moment where he realises that he will need to let go of Hashimoto eventually. I couldn’t help but feel my heart break for him, probably because he’s (so far) the most developed character in this manga, but I really hope he finds a boyfriend – the poor boy deserves it!

Outside of the Hokkaido trip, a good chunk of this book takes a detour into the past, where Kumataro recalls a memory of a time when he lent his umbrella to a child that he never saw again. The child is revealed to the audience to be Hashimoto, so the pair connected once before officially meeting in the manga. We also get a brief moment where a young Hashimoto briefly met Shirase outside school, recalling his first ‘crush’ as it were. I’m personally not a big fan of this sort of trope, the whole ‘actually met in the past but can’t remember each other’. It can be done well in the right context, but I don’t think every romance is made better for having it in. If anything, I think the main characters having met previously takes away from this particular romance, only serving to dampen the impact of their first encounter. The whole premise is that Hashimoto and Shirase were anonymous friends in an online game first, and the wacky twist was realising it was actually a work colleague all along, against all odds. So having them already met previously as kids, only takes away from that, in my opinion.

nmura’s art continues to be good. We’re not in the online game much in this volume, so we see less of the chibi character designs this time, but the cute close-ups of the boys being intimate and sweet with each other are well presented. Jacqueline Fung continues the translation of this book too; it’s an easy read, but with no translation notes this time.

This geeky boy’s love is still a fun, easy read, despite not a lot happening in this volume. The pair’s relationship continues to grow, but I look forward to the misunderstandings eventually blowing up and seeing how the characters react in future volumes.

Our review copy from Kodansha was provided by Diamond Book Distributors.