*Review contains spoilers*

Story 9/10
I was pleasantly surprised at how nice and cute this manga was. The story does have some cliche, common plots in Shoujo, such as an age gap between main leads (which thank God wasn't made an issue at all!), highschoolers' love life, people being extremely shy about their emotions and making advancements towards the person they are interested in, main female lead being a crybaby and naive, attempted love triangles (which fortunately didn't take off)...However, the manga deals with very real and complex emotions, which is in what most of the time and focus is invested on, making you forget about the cliches and being able to be invested in the story.

I think Hiro and Mao's pairing was realistic and believable because they were friends since kids, but most importantly, they were a constant source of support for each other. I also think they were able to understand each other at a deeper level than other people could because they were each going through similar things, although their circumstances were different. I want to point out that I HATE love triangles, specially when they happen between people that are supposed to be very closed with each other (siblings, BFF's, etc)...but in this manga's case, it wasn't a pain because 1) the love triangles didn't end up happening...Mao and Hiro were very clear and stern in wanting each other, and 2) it would be understandable that both Daiki and Hiro liked Mao (Hiro because he always looked after her, taking care of her and Mao always being a support for him...they also remained together through it all since kids. And Daiki because him and Mao were the same age and spent a lot of time together both at home and a school). They both had legitimate reasons to be interested in her, but I was glad to see Daiki quickly realized the bond between Hiro and Mao and graciously stepped back.

I would have liked to see Mao's and her dad's relationship being more developed than it was. I know he resented her when she left because he was projecting the feelings for her mother onto Mao, but I am not sure why he was negligent towards her before she left. In the same manner, I feel the resolution of their conflict, which was such a big piece of the manga, was reached too quickly when there was even more things that should have been discussed/said.

Art 7/10
Well...at first the drawings looked a bit chibi/childish to me. Most of the characters looked a lot younger than they were because of the drawings. By the end of the story the drawings didn't bother me as much as it did at the beginning though.

Characters 8/10
None of them are too memorable, but I liked all characters and enjoyed each for different reasons.
Hiro: I don't understand how he was able to withstand staying at that home, by himself, being so young, when his parents died. I respect him for it and for working so hard on making his family as whole as it could be again. To be completely honest, even if his reasons were admirable, I got a bit exasperated with him making Mao wait before he told her his feelings. However, it wasn't too annoying because he did make moves towards her, though small at times. I also really liked how he always thought about what would be better for Mao, regardless of his own wishes. Another thing I really liked was how he was willing to stand Mao's cooking and messy "cleaning" just to make her feel useful and part of something.
Mao: I liked that although she was a crybaby and shy and naive, she managed to get her feelings across, ask questions when she wasn't clear and get things done. I also liked that she was honest about her feelings and didn't even try to get herself with Oda or Daiki to try to forget Hiro...she was consistent and and true to her feelings throughout the whole manga.
Daiki: I found Daiki very funny and mature for his age. There was a point where I was kind of rooting for him, or at least wouldn't have been that annoyed if Mao ended up giving him a try (because Hiro was honestly stalling for no reason when even Mao's dad gave him his blessing for a relationship with her). However, I did feel he was a bit pushy at times, which made him also somewhat creepy. I want to point out I liked him even more when he had his job warrior uniform. I think he looked really cool in it and different from his usual self and that the warrior outfit/style suited his personality better.
I thought Chihiro was really funny too, always thinking about getting physical with the boys, but specially her reaction to Mao telling her Daiki liked her.

Enjoyment 8/10
I read the whole thing in about 2 days. I am not going to say it was addictive, but I did prefer to continue reading than doing anything else. And now I will miss this story.There were no cringe worthy moments and I was sure glad that we got to see Mao and Hiro bonding and being affectionate towards each other.

Overall 7/10
I feel kind of bad because in each category I rated this manga higher than 7 (the overall for me). This is definitely a manga I would recommend reading and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The story was very straightforward and I did enjoy reading it. But I guess the reason I am giving it a 7 is because there wasn't that excitement of something major happening or the element of surprise in the developments. I felt the story remained a flat line (which isn't bad because there were no low/dull/boring moments...but likewise there was no moment were my adrenaline was high because of desperately wanting to know what would happen next). I want to note that I found this manga through MAL's list of "top 10 shoujo manga that haven't been made anime". It was number 5 I believe, but I actually think it should be higher on that list.