The protagonist. Oh the protagonist. Erika, can she recognize a hopeless jerk when she sees one? Can she recognize when a person cannot return love and is only going to hurt her? Especially a person as cold as him with sadistic inclinations?

Nope. Or maybe she does, but she relentlessly stays with him anyway. Even when she really does know better.

Basically the whole manga up until chapter 13, which is the point I've stopped reading at, is just him treating her like dirt, and a dog(literally) and her continuing to run back to him, putting up with all his abuse, holding onto a hope that he will love her back some day.

And throughout the manga the side characters are just encouraging this relationship. Her friend San repeatedly telling her she's a masochist, Kyouya's friend trying so hard to get them together, the potential good boyfriend with a passive personality giving his blessing, and they all know how he treats her!

Good grapes this manga is messed up. It's that same mentality as that darned 50 shades trilogy. 'Oh, if I'm kind enough, If I'm patient enough, if I'm submissive enough, he'll love me!'

Love doesn't work that way, and neither does that type of relationship. For one thing, if Kyouya is so interested in the D/s lifestyle and treating his partner like a dog, he should find an informed and consenting partner that is actually into that stuff! Erika is only going along with it in her desperation to be loved.

and when they finally got back together, the manga wasn't convincing at all that he actually liked her back. Considering that he puts a charming face on around everyone else, is manipulative, and shows his true colors towards her, he honestly feels like a sociopath, but Oh, this is a shoujo manga! After everything hes done to her, he is surely going to change in the end! Right? Because people never break up for long in shoujo manga. They never get their senses together and move onto another, healthier life. They just stay, and keep working at it, like this girl here, until the guy magically turns around by the power of faith, hope, and pixie dust, and sometimes he doesn't even do that.

Don't read this manga, unless you want source material on how to write an abusive relationship. It certainly isn't a good for anything else.