Asou Mitusaki Sensei drew the short stories about the four characters in 2011 and then got published with two additional chapters in 2016.
I like this manga following two couples through their student life, middle school/high school/university. It may get a bit confusing when you first read it as the chapters are not sequential and jump back and forth in time. I personally support the second couple, the lil bro x the older bro’s best friend because of their chemistry.
同時収録作品 ほんとのところ / ほんとのほんと The seme 芹沢一太 is the eldest brother with four younger siblings, the uke 土屋慶悟 is a transfer student from Shikoku. The uke is a loner and has grumpy personality, he doesn’t care about making friends. His parents divorced so he lived with his grandparents until recently.
The seme recruited the uke into student council and gave him task to help plan the school trip to Shikoku. During the trip, the seme followed the uke to his grandparents’ home and got to hear about his childhood stories. The uke wanted to keep distance from the seme because he overheard that the seme will be moving home after the school trip.
The uke ran away from the seme while wearing headphones and got hit by a car, he got sent to hospital with light concussion and an injured leg. The two of them got scolded by teacher and grounded in separate rooms. The seme called the uke and then climbed up the building to the uke’s room…
After they established a relationship, the uke still keeps on avoiding the seme in school. He cannot help but say mean things in front of the seme, and then text or call the seme to apologize… The seme couldn’t stand it anymore so they got into an argument.
The seme’s whole family went on a hot spring trip by winning lottery ticket, leaving seme home alone. Fortunately the uke came to apologize and stayed over until the family came back.
表題作 彼が眼鏡を外すとき The seme 芹沢賢次 is 芹沢一太’s younger brother, the uke 国井巴 is 芹沢一太’s best friend.
The seme was in third year of middle school when he developed crush for his older bro’s best friend, who’s two years older than him. The uke told the seme to feel free to call and hang with him, to share thoughts about high school application that he couldn’t discuss with his parents. The seme was cute and short, with baby face, so the uke treated him like a lil bro.
The uke realized his feelings for his best friend as well as his jealousy towards the transfer student. He closely observed the whole process of the two’s emotional development and he is becoming becoming more and more distant from the best friend…
The seme confessed to the uke while pointing out the uke’s feelings for the older bro. The seme said he feels more sad about the uke hiding his feelings than himself getting rejected by uke… They didn’t meet for a few months while the seme studied for high school entrance exams. The uke kept on asking his best friend about seme, also went to a shrine on New Year’s to get lucky charm for the seme.
The seme came over to the uke’s home after he finished the exams, with a photo album containing his older bro’s childhood photos. He told the uke that he will mimic his older bro’s speech, gestures, and looks so he can be a replacement. The uke had already developed feelings for the seme and they finally got together.
Two years later, the seme is in high school and grew much taller. One day he came over to the uke’s home, suddenly his older bro texted and is on his way over too. The uke told the seme to hide in the bathroom while he tries to send the older bro off. The uke noticed that seme never wore glasses around him and also hunched his back so he could look more like the older bro. The uke told the seme that he’s the favorite person in his world and the pair came out to the older bro.
The story starts out a little rough, but once it transitions to Tomoe and Kenji, it finally settles into a nice pace. The final chapter is surprisingly sexy. Never have been a big fan of MA's art work, but on occasion a character can actually be beautiful.