Wonderlove wa Mayonaka ni – Panda

Yashiro Haruka is suffering from insomnia after changing jobs. There’s only one reason for this- he’s been reunited with Isshiki, the source of his dark past.

Yashiro has been having one-night stands with men as a sort of “sleeping pill”, but one day, when he gets into an argument, Isshiki saves him, and for some reason, they end up sleeping together.

That night, in his dream, the Demon Lord Thomas, who looks just like Isshiki, appears, and he showers him with his extremely sweet affection!?

Even though Isshiki treats him coldly in reality, Yashiro is tossed about by the gap between his dreams and reality...

Wonderlove at Midnight is a workplace romance with a healthy dose of magic realism and concupiscent dreams.

Haruka’s cure for his chronic insomnia is to sleep with a man. He keeps it to one-night stands, never repeating his encounters with anyone.

When his boss Isshiki learns of Haruka’s predicament, he volunteers to platonically sleep with Haruka and cooks him delicious, healthy meals to help him sleep. The thing is, Haruka has been crushing hard on his straight boss. To make things even more complicated, Isshiki looks exactly like Haruka’s favorite BL game character, Lord Thomas.

Haruka’s friend Akira is an amateur tarot card reader who advised him on how to have better luck. Following his friend’s advice, Haruka started having smutty dreams of Lord Thomas and him going at it like rabbits. Meanwhile, he fell into a nice domestic, and still platonic, routine with Isshiki.

Awkward doesn’t begin to cover it, come morning, when Haruka eats breakfast with Isshiki. It’s hilarious how the lines of reality and dreams blur, frequently disorienting Haruka or making him horny at inconvenient times, or making it hard to meet Isshiki in the eyes in real life when he just boinked his boss in dreams last night.

Isshiki is aloof, gorgeous, and surprisingly good at taking care of Haruka. Lord Thomas is affectionate, doting, and smiles a lot. Haruka couldn’t help but compare the two, but is drawn to both. He’s pretty much resigned that platonic is all he’s getting from Isshiki. Oh, the pining!

It’s always a thrill when we get the love interest’s POV. Slowly, we get glimpses of Isshiki’s perspective and my favorite childhood connection trope, which was tragic on Haruka’s side, was actually hell of a lot swoonier from Isshiki’s view. There is sekuhara involved and Isshiki is the dashing prince to the rescue. Plenty of pining here too!

My favorite part was the little panel at the end, after present-day Haruka smiled brightly at Isshiki. Flustered, Isshiki thought, “If he smiled at me like that in middle school, I would have been so screwed!”

The real-life romance slowburned while the dream romance blazed like a wildfire, and the eventual reconciliation of the two was seamless and spectacularly executed!

While the themes and tropes are very familiar, the use of tarot and magic realism made this story fresh and unique. The artwork is colorful and fantastically detailed with beautifully drawn characters.

Overall, a wonderful, emotional story of wanting love and living the dream.

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