What happens when Ayaka becomes obsessed with a manager at work, but her superior Hiroko keeps viewing Ayaka as an overly friendly straight colleague? Can Ayaka ever convince her Hiroko senpai that she is in fact flirting with her?
Relationship Context
💥 Couple Dynamic
Ayaka & Hiroko – Gap Couple
Ayaka pushes hard. Hiroko steps back. Comedy meets ache.
🩷 Ayaka – Overeager Disaster
- Ordinary loner office worker
- Transformed after falling for Hiroko
- Flirts with full-force, zero success
- Direct sincerity
🖤 Hiroko – Wounded Soul
- Cool, capable manager
- Avoids or misreads Ayaka’s signals
- Flirty at the bar, closeted at work
- Emotionally guarded
| Title | Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko! / Ayaka-chan wa Hiroko-senpai ni Koishiteru |
| Author | Sal Jiang |
| Status | Completed, 2023 |
| Genre | Modern Yuri |
| Tags | Comedy, Romance, Office, Age gap |
Review
| Category | Rating (0-3) |
|---|---|
| Romance | 🌸🌸🌸 Flirting in your face |
| Intimacy | 🔥🔥 Not for a lack of trying |
| Story | 📝📝 Multi-faceted and funny |
| Pacing | 🚶🏻♀️🚶🏻♀️🚶🏻♀️ Fast-paced |
| Emotional damage | 🥺🥺 Hurts but not an overkill |
| Fluff | ☁️☁️☁️ It’s so fluffy I wanna… |
Story Overview
Ayako Is In Love With Hiroko is a story of comedy and romance about:
– Struggles that femme-presenting lesbians face
– Worries that plague older lesbians with their past baggage and societal expectations
– The strength it takes to give yourself the chance to be truthful to loved ones
Key Themes
Workplace romance: Set in an ordinary workplace with generally younger workers. This suggests a space of possible open-mindedness and acceptance. There is an office status gap between the leads with Hiroko being a higher ranked manager.
Age gap concerns: The two main leads have an obvious age difference. This translates into different expectations and experiences in the workplace, society, and love.
Femme-presenting lesbian assertiveness: Ayaka flirts hard using her feminine outfits, cooking skills, and attention to details. But these often get dismissed or misunderstood by Hiroko as aimed at a male colleague.
Personal Review
I enjoyed how the younger Ayaka was given such a hardworking and direct personality. She tries so hard to flirt with Hiroko but gets fed up with all the misunderstandings.
This led to a direct love confession, which is great because there is no more confusion, right?
Unfortunately the more senior Hiroko did not accept that confession very well. She decided to cut Ayaka’s infatuation short to bring her back into reality.
Conscious of her promiscuous past and society’s damning opinions, this confession is too risky to accept.
After the failed confession, Ayaka tries another relationship but realises she is only lying to herself. She decides to continue loving Hiroko, while staying respectful of her inhibitions. How will Hiroko hold up against the undeterred Ayaka?
Final Thought
The focus on an office romance with age gap difference did not shy away from the concerns and struggles experienced by both leads. Ultimately Ayaka and Hiroko are trying their best to answer the same question: Is this love worth the risks?
My Rating: 10/10 highly recommended!
How would you rate this story?
Additional note: I’m trying a different review style here and am open to changes in the future. Let me know which parts of this review attracts you to start reading this story!
