Shusei Hayakawa is part of the Seasonelle team and MC’s co-worker/ new step-brother. At the workplace, he seems to be at the top of his game, popular with the female coworkers, and dependable. While at home, he’s a huge gamer, definitely not a cook, and cannot keep a tidy room. In fact, his room was so untidy that he got crushed under his own literature.
This route puts more focus on the work side, Minato and Shusei friendship, and living together with the popular guy rather than the whole step-sibling plot. That’s in Shusei’s sequel (his sequel story honestly annoyed me and was too melodramatic). To be fair, Our Two Bedroom Story wasn’t really promoted as a ‘step-sibling romance’ type of game. It’s more like an excuse to get MC living with a hot guy. If I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure it’s the same with the other routes. There’s a few mentions here and there of anything family related, but nothing to make this feel like MC and Shusei had a sibling-like relationship. Though, they do get along great at home and the workplace like as if they’re already good friends. Shusei would help out MC with anything work related, since MC is new in the team and work will be different from what she’s used to. While MC would help out with the cooking and sometimes cleaning, since Shusei is so hopeless with cooking.
Since Shusei and MC get along so well, the route decided that there needs to be a love rival. Though…while I can NOT stand love triangles, this one was not that bad. While who will be the rival isn’t hard to guess, I’ll still let them stay anon to avoid spoilers. I honestly like how it was handled because it wasn’t like this rival was in love with MC or anything deep like that, but more like developing a crush and just trying to get their crush’s attention by doing whatever for them. Such as getting MC juice or a present from a work trip. It was pretty cute and felt bad a little because it was painfully obvious that MC was interested in Shusei early on (╥_╥). It’s also relevant to Shusei and this rival’s relationship with each other. Like if Shusei will actually step up and say what he really wants. Well, the love triangle isn’t the focus (thank god), the focus is more on MC trying to prove herself in her new workplace, Shusei and Minato, and MC and Shusei’s relationship. I’ll say I also liked how MC in the workplace plot was handled. We see her struggling trying to keep up with the team and not seem overly depended on Shusei. I liked her growth and thought the topics she covered were interesting. There’s also the whole aftermath of their article being published but it gets resolved pretty fast.
Speaking of MC, I LOVED her in this route (just not Shusei’s sequel). Especially how she interacts with her co-workers. She actually has banter with them and has quite a sassy mouth on her from time to time. Shusei really is a nice guy as you’d expect, no real twisted side (that’s for another character), but I like how he has more to his character than just nice guy with sad past. It’s interesting to see how he’s so hard on himself due to what he did to Minato in the past because of his own insecurities. It’s made him incredibly guilty of all these years, which puts a strain on his relationship with Minato because it’s like Shusei can’t be comfortable with him despite being together for 15 years. To quote Minato in describing their friendship: “Yeah, fifteen years he’s been following me around like a bad smell.”. As mentioned, he’s not the Mr. Perfect as he appears to be at work, according to others that is. He’s got geek interests, surprisingly messy, hates bugs, and can’t even crack an egg. He’s got enough to make him stand out a bit as the ‘nice guy’ of the otome. For Shusei and MC… while I did enjoy their relationship and banter, their romance felt weirdly rushed. Around the time they confessed, they acted like they’ve always had these feelings for quite a long time. I mean… I can see why but at the same time, nothing in their relationship really changed. It was the same thing they’ve already been doing since the start. So, when they kissed, my reaction was more like: ‘Oh. Okay then…’. Didn’t really feel anything. The closest to change is when Shusei declared that he’s not going to hand MC over to anyone. But that’s more on the rival and Shusei rather than Shusei and MC. I saw more growth between Minato and Shusei friendship rather than MC and Shusei.
While the romance was the weakest part of the main story, it’s still a nice and relaxing main story to read. Shusei is a great love interest and got some funny moments. His Happy End CG is nice to look at( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). I remember why I liked this guy way back then before they even added more love interests in OTBS. Though, I don’t imagine him being at the top of many otome readers husband list. MC was great as well and had a lot of good moments herself than I remembered. If you’ve been curious about Shusei, then I recommend his route (･ω･)b.
Otome Reviews 