Finally in Love Again: Kikuchi Sosuke

I’ve Been Loving You My Whole Life

Sosuke has been in love with our MC since he was six years old. But he never said anything. Which was, obviously, the correct decision at age six, but now it’s been twenty years and he’s still… lurking. Hm.

He is a friend of the MC’s younger twin brothers, and, accordingly, their age. Since the premise of the whole game is the “older” woman/younger man combination (the MC has reached the ripe old age of 34, which, as we all know, puts her firmly on the shelf for romance – kidding), this will be an element of contention, but it doesn’t set him apart from almost everyone else in the game.

Synopsis

It all starts at this Singles Event. The MC receives a ticket from her mother (thanks, mom) for her birthday, because the latter is worried that her oldest daughter might never marry. And she ain’t getting any younger, as she turns 34 on the day of the event. When a whole bunch of men want to go out with her, she chooses Sosuke, basically because she knows him as her delivery guy. Once outside, however, he practically abandons her on the spot. She ends up spending her birthday with her younger brothers, who promise to send her a gift to her home.

Said gift is, of course, delivered to the MC by none other than Sosuke, the delivery guy. Seeing as it’s a huge cake that she receives, she invites him to have a slice and some coffee with her. While he accepts, he is, let’s say, a little awkward, and leaves as soon as it’s humanly possible, and not without being a tiny bit rude.

Over the course of the next weeks, they keep running into each other, as Sosuke also takes over the delivery area where Larme, the MC’s place of employment is located. When she is asked to create her first original cake for Larme, it is him who comes up with the idea of a chocolate cake – like the one he remembers from his childhood. A cake the MC made, of course, but she doesn’t know that.

The cake is a great success, and in order to thank Sosuke for the idea, the MC agrees to go out with him. He finally confesses that he’s in love with her. The MC herself is falling for him, but she decides to focus on her career at this point. Also, on the day after her date with Sosuke, her brothers decide to tell her that he is not a suitable option for somebody like her, so she distances herself from him again.

He accepts her decision and disappears from her life. Only then does she realise that she does, in fact, love him. But isn’t it too late now?

The Chemistry

Sosuke has been in love with the MC for 20 years. And he’s eight years younger than she is, which causes the MC no end of consternation. Her family keeps meddling in her love life, since her mother and all of her siblings feel they have a say in what she does with it. Our MC is heavily weighed down by societal pressure, to the point where she denies her budding feelings for Sosuke because she feels too old, and because her brothers tell her they don’t find him a suitable match. Through all this, Sosuke is remarkably calm and determined, without being pushy or overbearing.

He reads the MC very well, detecting every deviation in her mood or behaviour with accuracy. She is torn between curious, genuinely interested, and really scared. Curious and interested because he is nice, and she likes being in his presence. Scared, mostly because falling in love is a scary thing, and also because society has instilled in her that she has no right to expect anything good at her “ripe old age” of 34.

The story between the two is unhurried and, for all the passion on Sosuke’s side, very restrained, which all in all makes it feel genuine.

Bottom Line

I have to admit, from the premise of the story, I feared some measure of creep behaviour from Sosuke, and I’m relieved to see that I was wrong. He’s certainly never given up on dating the MC, but he has his own life and his own goals. I got impatient with the MC about halfway in. All the hemming and hawing tends to get on my nerves really quickly. Also, and that’s just me personally, I couldn’t care less about what society thinks about how a woman is supposed to act at any given age, so her giving in so easily to those expectations was galling to me.

While there is an emotionally extreme scene at the end of the story, the MC’s realisation of her feelings – and mini-defiance of her brothers – luckily comes before that. As such, maybe such drastic measures wouldn’t really have been necessary. All in all, I just feel this shouldn’t have been so difficult.

Overall, I like Sosuke. About the MC, I’m not so sure.