MANGA: One Side In Room

One Side In Room – Mitsuko

Oka, a student, whose gaze could be considered menacing to others and which has led him to be apart from the rest, is in love with Saeki, a handsome student who attends his university.
A few days after the entrance ceremony, during the welcome party of his club, Saeki kisses Oka and tells him: “you’re adorable”.
Ever since that moment, both of them start sharing more and more time together in Oka’s house. They even had more intimate interactions than just kisses. Oka thinks Saeki might be with him on a whim due to his relaxed personality. However, Saeki might be actually taking his actions towards Oka quite seriously…

One Side in Room is a closed proximity, tsundere romance between two university students with opposite personalities.

Oka has a resting bitch face and crippling social anxiety, which prevents him from interacting with other students. He’s attracted to the super popular Saeki, who caught Oka staring at him often.

Saeki met Oka on the train after witnessing the introverted man kindly offering his seat to another passenger. When they were both at a drinking party, Saeki took his chance and kissed Oka. Since then, Saeki kept showing up at Oka’s apartment any chance he got.

This would have been your run-of-the-mill opposites attract romance, but Saeki won extra points for being the only seme who’s concerned about how his uke felt after seducing him.

While there is no dub-con, Oka goes along with the flow, wondering why Saeki is doing what he is doing. Our boy is pretty much resigned that his crush was experimenting and will soon go back to girls.

A part that pinched the heart was Oka, always leaving space on the other side of his bed, just in case Saeki arrived in the middle of the night. Saeki often does, attaboy! The biggest emotional arrow to the kokoro is that Saeki and Oka have heartfelt things to say to each other, and they don’t know how. Oh, the agony!

The romance was slow-burn, angsty, and full of delicious pining. This allowed the characters to grow and develop, making their connection feel genuine and relatable. Oka is my introverted spirit animal, and Saeki proved himself worthy by staying true and speaking from his soul.

Their story, especially the beginning reminds me of this Arctic Monkeys song:

Stop makin’ the eyes at me
I’ll stop makin’ my eyes at you
What it is that surprises me is
That I don’t really want you to

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