Three and a half stars, four for a romantic comedy.
We left our pathetic, drunk protagonist as his narcissistic, scheming ex-girlfriend was helping him stumble towards his home. She had recently learned that apparently the protagonist is dating a ten out of ten, which made the ex-girlfriend plan to break their relationship just so she can have the protagonist back to pining after her, even though this bitch doesn't actually want to date the guy, and pretty much considers him a pathetic loser. The protagonist confesses that looking at her thicc thighs made him horny, but when the ex-girlfriend starts dissing the guy's girlfriend (who is actually an escort, but nevermind that, as nobody else but the two protagonists know it) as if the girlfriend were a pretty face with a terrible personality, the protagonist goes serious and defends the escort. The ex-girlfriend is hurt that this guy, pathetic as he is, would defend his girlfriend over her. Facing a tense situation, the protagonist decides to just run away, a technique that he'll attempt at different points of this story.
In any case, the escort and the protagonist live door to door. This urge to defend the escort, whom he considers a nice person with a good head on her shoulders, is his first real step in his character development, which goes a bit further in this volume. Although she clearly doesn't want to get very involved with this foolish guy, when he admits what an idiot he's been recently and how difficult he's made things for her, she offers him to keep buying her time and attention if that's going to help him feel a little better. He states that he'll move towards figuring out if he has another chance with his shitty ex-girlfriend.
Shortly after, the protagonist is invited along with his two best pals and some college people to a beach in some other city. A beach episode on the second volume, huh? His ex-girlfriend is also onboard. The protagonist focuses on stealing glances of this girl's small tits in a bikini, as well as of her sand-spattered ass, which she keeps casually turning his way when bending over. In isolated moments we see how this girl is posting in some social media site (maybe a personal blog?) about her single-minded intention to break the relationship between the protagonist and the vastly hotter coprotagonist. This being an ecchi romantic comedy, turns out that the escort's college friends have also invited her to this very beach, and both protagonists face each other realizing that the might be very close to being outed as someone who hires escorts and as someone who is a escort respectively. The escort is wearing her regular clothes along with her glasses, which hide her identity in a Clark Kent sort of way.
Both protagonists argue in the bathroom of some shop. She demands of him to stay away from her during this trip to avoid putting suspicions in other people's minds. However, as they were formulating a plan, the guy's ex-girlfriend recognizes his voice. He gets out, but the girl knows that he was sharing the bathroom with someone, and the escort has no choice but to undress to her bikini and act like the guy's girlfriend. Whenever the ex-girlfriend faces this much hotter female, who now owns someone who briefly used to belong to the ex, the ex shrinks. Clearly her narcissistic frame of mind doesn't allow her to be second best. In any case, the escort insists to him that he needs to make an excuse as soon as possible to justify her leaving, because she needs to prevent anyone from learning about her chosen career.
Both groups gather on a table, and the mismatch between the protagonist and such a ten prompt everybody to pay extra attention to the couple and ask questions about how this unlikely pairing came to be. The protagonist, who should have already broken the situation up and left the escort alone, keeps making up lies about where they met, her family situation, etc. With her getting increasingly uncomfortable at the attention, he just bails from the situation and goes for a swim. However, he's ashamed of himself: although the escort is a good girl, he keeps hurting her because he can't stand up for himself and do what he needs to. The guy's ex pretends that she's lost some bracelet, and when he goes over to help her look for it, she kisses him in the mouth, which leaves him mostly confused and horny.
When both come back to the table, the escort looks as if she's getting sick. Shortly after he announces that they had decided to break up. His resolve impresses the escort, and when she notices his shaking hands, she takes pity on him. However, the guy's best friend, whom he's known from childhood, punches the protagonist in the mouth. They exchange punches for a bit. The friend, who seems the most decent guy on this cast, yells at him that he had misjudged him, that he didn't took him for such a calculating scumbag: he had noticed him stealing glances at his ex, and given that they believe the escort to be his girlfriend, the fact that he would sacrifice someone so good for a fling with this ex sickens him. The protagonist, crying, defends himself that they had no idea how much getting dumped hurt him, and that he never stopped wanting the ex. His friends are horrified at the protagonist saying such things in front of his fake girlfriend, who is standing there feeling increasingly sick.
In the end she takes the opportunity to leave and prevent her college friends from finding about her real life. However, as the protagonist was wandering off feeling like the biggest piece of shit, she intercepts him. He apologizes for having caused so much trouble for her. She states, however, that she was impressed by how he managed to close that chapter of their relationship in front of his friends even though it was killing him inside; she suggests that he has some manliness in him after all. He says that he'll use his newfound courage to pursue his ex-girlfriend, and that therefore he'll have no further use of the escort. He walks away saddened.
As the escort was preparing to change back into her Clark Kent persona and rejoin her college friends, the protagonist's childhood friend forces her into a conversation. He tells her that although the protagonist is an idiot, and that he keeps causing trouble for others, and believes that everything will turn out alright although he's constantly relying on others to do most stuff for him, he's someone who'll pursue his dreams to the end of the Earth. He tells an anecdote of growing some flower in class, and him methodically watering what everybody believed to be weeds, but that turned out to be the most beautiful flower, or something. He wishes for her to give the protagonist a second chance. He's bought two tickets for a ferry so they can have a private moment. The protagonist, who was hiding in the bushes listening to this conversation while crying his eyes out, later tells the girl that she doesn't have to go along with it, but the escort, looking under the weather, says that she cannot refuse after the heartfelt speech the friend gave, but that this is the last time they are going to interact with each other.
They board the ferry. Almost immediately the escort begins to feel terribly dizzy. The guy keeps insisting on how he's grown a spine and he'll just pursue his ex from now on and leave the escort alone, but she asks him to please leave her alone for a bit. The protagonist, wandering away, receives a call from the ex, who demands to meet him right now in some pool, but at that moment, the escort, nauseous, approaches the veranda of the ferry only to end up falling overboard. The protagonist, not stopping to think for a second, drops his phone, which breaks on impact, and he jumps after the sinking escort. As the last panel of this volume we have him embracing the torso of the passed out girl in order to bring her back to the surface.
For a guy who started as an unredeemable loser who tended to flee from every uncomfortable situation, risking his life without thinking to save her life adds some coolness in his favor. At this point, however, the only reasonable good ending for me would be if he manages to become a proper man and date a good girl in his league thanks to the guidance and general kindness of this escort person.
Compelling series for an ecchi romantic comedy. Good conflict, sexy girls. Unfortunately for me, my enjoyment of this series is reduced because I can't identify with the protagonist's decisions nor how he tends to make trouble for the people who care for him to whatever extent.