Do You Really Want Only a Meal?, Volume 1

満たすのは空腹だけですか？ #1

by Yasu Tadano

Masamune Hanzawa, a 27-year-old office worker with no time for love or cooking, reluctantly tries a housekeeping service at his section chief’s suggestion. Enter Natsuki, a charming college student and his boss’s son, who quickly captures Masamune’s heart. After their first meeting, Natsuki boldly confesses his feelings, leaving Masamune torn. Though undeniably attracted to Natsuki, Masamune hesitates due to their age difference and the potential complications of dating his superior’s son. As they navigate meals and growing emotions, Masamune must decide whether to embrace this unexpected chance at love—or let it slip away.

Genres: Manga, LGBT, Romance, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Boys Love, Yaoi

Kindle Edition

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable, low angst but very sweet romance. It is age gap but he isn't in high school but college which feels like thank god but also he could still be in his 20s. But why they like and appreciate each other does make sense. I liked it.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

These two are awkwardly adorable, but the story as a whole feels underdeveloped. I'm glad there will be another volume.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

super cute and wholesome

Love reading about an unproblematic relationship between two people. The food was an added bonus! I hope there will more.

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was cute. I like the BLs around food and office culture.

Masamune is a salaryman who doesn’t have time to cook for himself, so he hires chef/housekeeper and university student Natsuki to help him out. But surprise! Natsuki’s dad is Masamune’s boss and he’s younger and Masamune’s sworn off love. The story goes from there. It was very sweet and went by too fast. I’m glad we know from the start that part two is on the way.

I liked that one of Masamune’s many reasons for keeping Natsuki at bay dealt with his ex-boyfriend. I like how it was brought up. It made sense and would give someone coming out of their first love pause. Young people and sometimes old people are working through their sexuality in real time and feelings will probably get hurt.

My only knock against this one is that Natsuki’s confession happened super fast. I wish there was a little more time for that to happen and more interaction between the guys and Natsuki’s dad since it was brought up but didn’t really factor into this part of the story. Maybe it’ll come up in part two? Looking forward to it.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5*

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was probably a bit too easy, but I really enjoyed it. I'm hoping in the second volume, there are deeper dives into what their relationship will mean in the real world, particularly when it comes to Masamune's boss...who is Natsuki's dad.

I can't say the idea of a housekeeper makes a ton of sense to me from a financial perspective - is paying someone to cook and clean for you at home really less expensive than eating out at restaurants? I guess it's supposed to be healthier, but I wonder how true that is. Considering the price of groceries, plus the labor, plus having to deal with someone in your home when you're already exhausted from work...but maybe that's just me.

Anyway, Masamune takes a coworker's suggestion and looks up a local site, somehow getting paired with his boss's college-aged son, who'd just picked it up as a part time gig. Masamune, who is single, gay, and basically married to his work, is immediately attracted to Natsuki but shoves it down since there's the whole work dynamic and age gap to consider. Natsuki puts less thought into all of those difficulties and tells Masamune that for him, it was love at first sight.

The rest of the volume is Masamune struggling with whether to give into the very real attraction he feels for someone who is clearly very invested in dating him.

There were a number of things I really liked about how this was handled. One was how gentlemanly Natsuki was the entire time. There wasn't a single time where he tried to push Masamune into anything - in fact, at a fairly late point in the volume, Masamune tipped over into obvious interest in him, physically embracing him, and Natsuki...ran away.

I'd thought it might be something about him freaking out, or being too inexperienced or overwhelmed or something, but no. It was because Masamune had been out drinking with another coworker, and Natsuki didn't want to put him in a situation where he'd do something he regretted while he wasn't completely in control of his decisions.

When I say that this is...rare to find in stories...

Masamune is also pretty honest with Natsuki. He doesn't try to claim that he's not interested in him - he just clearly outlines the reasons that they shouldn't do anything. Natsuki doesn't fully agree, but he understands and respects it, and figures he'll just do what he can to gradually spend time getting to know each other better.

In that process, Masamune opens up to him about his own first love, which pretty much soured him on other relationships. He'd been in a fairly long-term relationship since he was in high school, but the guy broke up with him for a girlfriend - the strong implication he'd already been cheating - and it just made it hard for Masamune to ever trust anyone again. Plus, he doesn't want Natsuki to get hurt, either.

They just had a really nice dynamic. I like Natsuki's dad, too, so I expect and hope there will be more of him in the next volume, as he finds out why Masamune had been interested in hearing more about his son...

[AP · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Cute, rather low-stakes cozy age-gap story in vol. 1. It's not truly problematic and it is stated Japan changed their laws in 2022 regarding legal ages.
That said... why can't age gap stories ever be 25+ people who have lived a bit, gotten some experience and not barely legal teens and some 30/30+ adult chasing one another. Why can't we have adults with at least almost pretty fully developed prefrontal cortexes (around the age of 25 minimum) in these kind of stories? I don't mind age gaps. I'm not that cynical that I'll hate on them or rage about power dynamics after a certain age. At least not when you have actual adults. At a certain point/age you have to let people choose what's best for themselves, believe they are capable of thinking for themselves and not police them.
That said I liked this volume overall.

[Cassie Renais · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and fluffy. There's not a huge amount to this story, and the characters are a little one-note. But they're still sweet and heart-warming.

It's a little unbelievable that Natsuki would fall in love with Hanzawa just because he really enjoyed Natsuki's food, especially if he's been more or less oblivious to love his entire life. Still, once he's fallen in love, he's dogged and his unconditional love for Hanzawa is very soul-soothing.

In contrast, it's much more believable to me that Hanzawa would resist his new crush on Natsuki once he realises that he's his boss's son. That's a level of awkward and unnecessary that's not easy to overcome.

Overall, an easy palate cleanser. They're dating by the end of the volume, which seems end enough, but apparently there are more volumes, so not sure where it can really go from here.

[Zian B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like that the story didn’t have the characters progressing too quickly in such a short period of time. Things are still very much in the developing stage for Natsuki and Masamune, and don’t seem like they’ll be going much further anytime soon, which I really appreciate given the age gap. Overall, I’m curious to see how things play out for them in this next and final volume (especially since Natsuki’s father still needs to become aware of their relationship).

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

A very cute and soft story. This is an age gap romance with a salaryman and a university student. The author did make the student underage (19), which seems unnecessary but I guess they wanted to add drama? The angst doesn't work for me. It felt like it lacked emotional depth. But I always complain about that.

If you like food centered love stories this isn't bad

[Zephorah Dove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay I found this to be extremely cute but what's up with all of these age gaps?! I'm rooting for it on the younger guys side but also side eyeing the older guy.

Their connection is adorable and it's so fun to see them both blushing and giving the other longing glances. I can't wait to see how their relationship will develop.

Thanks so much to the publisher for the DRC!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Instalove is always a bit of a hurdle for me but it’s really not too bad so long as I find the characters likable and these two were cute. I do feel like Masamune was being a little too wishy washy for someone who was continuously accepting Natsuki’s advances but I do get where he was coming from.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the kind of low-stakes romance I needed right now

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

There isn't much to this, but what there is is adorable.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Shayla Stubblefield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg this was so cute omg omg

[Emily Chimento · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute but kinda boring ? idk

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This manga is fine, I guess. Kind of boring.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute couple, resolves much of the tension before ending the volume.

[Lailah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was scrolling through Hoopla and I found a bunch of these short romance manga that don't have the best writing in the world but they are definitely entertaining. This is about a man named Masamune who hires a chef and the chef happens to be Natsuki, his bosses son.
The relationship build up in this volume was very cute and wholesome, and I read it pretty quickly.