Despite rumors of his sexual exploits with the various women in the office, Sudou is rough, grumpy, and unsociable at work. But when Hirokawa happens to see him playing in a street corner jazz band, he begins to take an interest in who his standoffish coworker really is. When Sudou opens slightly to him and the two end up sleeping together, they must then begin to figure out what the other means to them and how they will let the relationship progress.

Basically, we've got a lot of usual stuff (the guy with two faces, the guy with horrible rumors about him that couldn't be farther from the truth which the future lover will see through, the guy dealing with keeping his masculine identity while being the 'girl' in the relationship. ...All that's the uke, of course. The seme is just your usual unrealistically strong, calm, caring, supportive, mature type), but they don't really get in the way here. Mostly, this is just the story of two grown men finding their footing in a relationship with one another, and growing a little. The mature sort of romance that doesn't need the excessive melodrama and twists, yes?

But...I didn't really like this much. The unfortunate thing about romances that include a lot of soul searching is that so few writers can actually write it convincingly. Most others come off dull, self-important, and as if they're trying to be much deeper and smarter than they really are. Sometimes, though, it's hard to tell just how much of this is the mangaka's fault, when the translation is this bad. Consider some lines:

Sudou: It's the parents' fault if their kid's late in understanding the real world.
Hiro: As long as they figure it out, it's fine. (No harm done.)
Sudou: I don't understand it when you say it though.
Sudou: Like right now...
Sudou: I don't understand your choice of words.
Sudou: Like how can you say things and then regret them later.

Sorry...what? Don't understand what when he says what? What choice of words? What is there to not understand about this choice of words? And when did 'say[ing] things and then regret[ing] them later' come into this? Looking back earlier in the conversation, nothing seemed to shed light on this. I get the feeling this could have been clearer in Japanese. All the same, though, it still carries the air of someone trying to write an intense, deep conversation without giving it actual substance or making it realistic. “How can you say things and then regret them later?” What are you, seven? Because I'm fairly sure anyone over that age has already realized that everyone says things and regrets them later, all the time.

This manga is considerably less ridiculous than some BL I've read, but I had difficulty enjoying it when the 'deep' exploration of the characters and relationship are done in sometimes empty, sometimes badly translated monologues and conversations that sometimes barely make sense. The art's very nice (perhaps something like if Yamada Yugi drew with more detail...*cough*andbetter*cough), but other than that I was barely engaged. ( )