And in Volume 4 out of nowhere the author casually drops the bomb that Saito actually has a girl he loved who he met only once when he was a kid. And it is implied that it was Akane though he is unaware about it. Dropping this info when there was no hint of Saito having loved a girl before only convinces me that the author decided to add this only to reduce the hatred Akane gets from readers. But author-san, no matter how good reason you try to come up with in future volumes in portraying why Akane changed so much from her innocent and good personality in childhood to her utter garbage personality now (though I am sure it would be another lame overused trope), it won't change my mind about her as an incorrigible piece of shit.

This is when they introduced NTR. Heroine's s**tty little sister comes in because obviously one aggressive harem member isn't enough. The entire volume revolves around Maho seducing MC and ruining the married life, only for an unsatisfying twist at the end that doesn't elicit sympathy

"Then, I'll make sure to clean up anything suspicious. Since it'd be bad if Himari walked up to the second floor, I'll put some tape at the stairs to block them off."

"With tape that says KEEP OUT, she'd only be more suspicious, right?"

"Why!? It's a crime scene! The police officers will get angry at you!"

"There's no police officers at my home."

Saito wished she wouldn't just tickle Himari's curiosity with something unnecessary like that.

"Let's set up a trap on the stairs then. Shooting arrows once you set foot on a pressure plate."

"People will die!"

"Nobody will. It'll be small arrows with poisonous tips that will make your body go numb."

"We're not being visited by some thief, it's your best friend, remember?" Saito pointed out, to which Akane's eyes opened in shock.

Akane and Saito's relationship felt like a classic enemies to lovers at first. The thing about enemies to lovers is that it's incredibly difficult to ever get on the same side because of some inherent distrust, Saito's familial trauma also comes into play here. However, Akane's tsundere grew to be a little more tsuntsundere—she literally only ever talks to him in tsun, and blames Saito for whenever the girls say something to rile her up. It's like, for god's sake, get a clue? Obviously they're saying that to rile Akane up and Saito's in a Catch-22 because, if he defends, he's guilty, if he acts non-chalant, he's guilty.

Finding out that she's Saito's first love doesn't do anything for me other than raise false hopes. When Maho came along (I'll get to her), Saito thought it was her—nope, it was Akane.

For a while, I started rooting for Himari. Why? Because, goddammit, she was so obviously best girl. Until she wasn't. You know that scene in Volume 6 where she reveals that she's a master manipulator? That explains why she keeps riling Akane up. She talks big game about winning Saito fair and square, and in harem situations like this, yeah all's fair. Take your shot, you know? Hell, V6 has her fake dating Saito to avoid the whole Akane-Saito cohabitation situation from leaking. Himari genuinely had more of a shot with Saito than Akane. The problem is that all she's done is push Akane away, not because she was numb to it like Saito was, but because she was in the way of her shot with Saito. She reveals herself to be just as selfish as Akane (and Akane had a right until V8C1).

For god's sake, Himari saw her best friend suffering and her words were I won't hold back. What about all those talks about I don't want to lose you as my best friend? Shoot your shot, I guess? But, no, she saw how Saito was suffering through the divorce. And she still tried to act like she could fix him. Girl, no, I wanna say you deserve better but you genuinely deserve depressed Saito. You saw the good side and fell for the good side, but you stepped back when you saw him at his worst.

I... used to have a problem with her because of all the NTR bait in V4. I used to hate her, genuinely. But when she came along and revealed that she was trying to steal Saito away to spare Akane of the heartbreak of being stuck with a man she doesn't love, she reminded me more of Shise (I'll get to her later).

She's... a lot more like a gremlin than an actual rival, from how it looks. Like she's pushing Akane to understand her own feelings with Saito. Obviously Maho might actually love Saito and that's par for the course, but I think that she just wants Akane to be happy. If it means stepping away from Saito other than to make him see Akane as a woman by shoving her own assets in his face (the sisters look incredibly similar, if the manga is anything to go by), she'll do it. V8 solidifies this for me, when she and Shise held hands, staring up at the moon, and making sure that no one disturbs Akane and Saito's reconciliation arc/hot spring arc.

No complaints. She knows her place, she's supportive, she's loving, she's a gremlin. 100% would die for Shise. I will feed her the whole world if I was Saito. Hell, the way Saito dotes on her is proof that they have a bond that is just plain unbreakable. She will do anything for Saito, even if it means supporting and threatening Akane into being honest with herself. Every single volume she's in shows me just how much she cares about Saito and how much she trusts Akane. Hell, it's almost like she's chosen Akane for Saito.

Volume 9 starts off interesting enough. Saito's conscious of Akane now, but the hijinks that ensue felt a little way too backwards. I get that the whole 'mu*derous vibe' thing was a running gag, but it's already run its course. Why couldn't it have shifted over to 'Saito overthinking everything as a romantic gesture'? To be fair, Chapter 2 really does set up that Akane truly is an idiot when it comes to romance. And I appreciated that Akane's finally making moves on him that are even relatively considered normal romantic moves. It's slow going for Saito to start seeing it as romance moves but he's getting there. And, of course, the fact that they finally acknowledge the 'first love' arc. Man, that was gorgeous. The dinner, the stress, the honesty. I can't believe it took 9 volumes but we got here, didn't we?

Maho may be a gremlin who likes messing with Saito just for a gag, but she genuinely does offer some kind of advice to Akane. How to seduce him, how to gauge his reactions to simple romantic gestures, all that good stuff. And Shise, when she said this: "Talking about your hand or weakness and all that... If you worry about every small thing like that, nothing is going to work out for you." God, this line is perfect. Maho and Shise clearly love Akane and Saito enough to support them, even though they're both gremlins.

She's also a massive piece of sh*t for sabotaging this very thing that Shise's been trying to support from the very beginning. When Rui finally admitted that she felt ostracised as a distant member of the Houjou family, it didn't... really clear up the dislike I have for her. I mean, sure, she probably hated Saito for being a Houjou, but the guy literally went through hell with everyone around him. He just wanted to live a normal life and here she was making it harder for him, all because of her obsession with pleasing Shise. It's, like, Yandere-level obsession, man.

Jesus f*cking H Christ, woman. You are a certified homewrecker. I swear, at first I was rooting for her because she genuinely did seem like a decent person, until she just kept pushing her luck! Like, girl, Akane does not deserve to have Himari as her best friend. Seriously! Little Miss Sunshine here is a manipulative, conniving, toxic POS who is a try hard 'I'm gonna spoil you rotten' type girl. She's a f*cking landmine is what she is. I have a feeling that, even now that the light novel has is entering the realm beyond the 'confession' arc (very Reiwa Era) and Akane and Saito finally acknowledge the 'lost childhood love' arc, Himari will be there constantly trying to break them up. I just cannot accept her as a character. She's too... f*cking evil, man. And what the hell's with Chapter 4? 'I can't live if you're not my best friend'? b*tch, you're not Akane's best friend.

I don't understand why them living together is such big problem, their classmates have monkey brains but it's not like they cared about them in any way: MC is rich loner and FMC was conflicted with everybody anyway.

Only fMC friend and fMC have feelings for MC. I don't think fMC sister had a feeling for MC I think see goona support fMC

Its first of all getting annoying that every single female character keeps falling in love with the MC, his sister is in a grey zone but now that the friend and maho (FL sister) have been added its just getting annoying. At this point in the story what I want is the ML and FL coming closer together and falling in love with each other rather than more bs "another heroine has appeared" that the author keeps doing. Then you have things like the aunt being a prick for no reason, seriously no idea why the hell the author added that... They added a loving mother like character to the ML and then made them be an ass to the FL because "My daughter is the most important" but that's complete bs since her daughters was actively pointing out to the FL that she was in love with ml.

Other then that there's the entire maho arc which was kinda a train wreck, the ending slightly made up for it but not really. Now, I will add that this part is probably very biased since I hate maho's personality type but she constantly ignores the ml's personal space, and just overall spoils the book... Although I did finally warm up to her a bit at the ending when she was trying to do everything for her sister since it vaguely works and means were done with her bs but then she ruins it in the epilogue by saying she's in love with ML now... seriously author, f*ck off with the sub-heroines...

I guess the last thing would be the constant s*xual harassment "jokes" in this book. Its ironic since I normally think that the people who write these reviews are too sensitive since its a book (though some graphic books are an exception) but in this book it just gets annoying. Maho (FL sister) constantly threatens the MC by sexually harassing him and then threatening to tell everyone he did it to her, and this happens over and over and over... And the MC never learns to start recording their conversations or anything...

Overall I think the story has a lot of potential for volume 5 as long as the author actually focuses on the ML and FL relationship... though I doubt that will happen... I'm not sure if the author is trying to extend the story or what but volume 4 basically did nothing for the main characters relationship, the ending leaves a lot of room for it in the next volume but if the author continues to make it focus on all the side heroines coming onto male lead then this series will go to shit. Not really related to the book but I really wish authors would stop harems, all they seem to do is destroy character development simply so every single weeb can fantasize which girl they will never get...

Man, the other girl is so much better but for once the MC was s*upid af in thinking the heroine is better.