My Last First Kiss - Rin's route
After having finished Ayato's route I was so ready to give up on My Last First Kiss.
I honestly thought My Last First Kiss would've been right up my alley. It seemed to promise a slice-of-life romance with childhood friends so I expected a lot of sweetness but perhaps I should've left my expectations at the door. I ended up feeling bitter upon finishing a route most of the time, as if LI and MC getting together at the end didn't provide enough sweetness to temper the bitterness of the drama that happened earlier in the story.
Maybe I should view this through a "love languages" lens: I really like quality time, so if MC and LI spend a lot of time together (not necessarily on dates either) I'm more likely to be engaged with the story.
However, if the story focuses more on the interpersonal drama part than the LI-and-MC part then that's when I start disengaging. It probably explains why story-wise I liked Ichiya the most even though personality-wise I found Makoto the best: Ichiya's story was more about the hurdles over the project he and MC were working on together so they had plenty of time together, whereas Makoto had certain circumstances that lessened the on-screen time he and MC spent together in the route.
Enter Yakumo Rin.
I liked how MC was more assertive around him! I can't really put my finger on why but most of the time in the other routes I've read it felt like she was "getting carried by the current" with the LIs, in the sense that it seemed like she was always at a disadvantage for some reason. Coupled with her naive and less "mature" personality, it didn't seem like a great combo to me.
Rin's and MC's friendship was lovely to read too—I liked how he genuinely enjoyed her company for the sake of enjoying her company and not because he was attracted to her immediately or anything. Attraction as an impetus to spend time with MC isn't a bad thing, of course, but personally I love it more if the LI had no "ulterior motives" to begin with.
Reading manga together so Rin could study up on ways to woo his crush? So wholesome.
(Coincidentally Ayato had made fun of MC for "still" reading manga in his route, so I felt vindicated on MC's behalf 😂)
I think another reason why Rin worked with MC for me was that they were on an even playing field of experience so the narrative wasn't going on and on about how inexperienced MC was, how she needed to be more "adult" or more "mature". It was getting old after five routes so Rin's route was a good break.
An excellent break, lol.
On top of that, Rin's a normal patissier—not a famous celebrity chef—so the story didn't spend time emphasizing stuff about how adored he is by a lot of people or whatever and he was more "in-reach" so MC wasn't angsting about how "far away" he was or anything.
All that precious time went to them hanging out instead, which is great!
Rin himself is a sweetheart too. Even before he fell in love with MC he was already pretty attentive to her, noting her preferences, remembering things she'd said that MC herself had already forgotten, etc. to the point that even MC points it out to herself. He can be blunt with MC, yes, but it never encroaches on "offensive" territory that turns most people off with tsunderes.
It would've been too easy to make Rin's route fall into the same pattern of Makoto's route Hiroki-wise (i.e., putting the focus on Hiroki a bit too much for Plot Reasons sigh) but it hadn't, instead it placed the focus on how Rin and MC supported each other with their respective unrequited loves. As it should, because this is Rin and MC's story and not Hiroki, Rin, and MC's lol.
It ain't about you Hiro
So did Rin's route in MLFK check all my boxes? Hell yes. I'd easily put him as my top Voltage boy along with Takashi (Scandal in the Spotlight).
But you know what the absolute best part for me in Rin's route was?
This:
LMAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOO
Riku apologized to MC for being a dick (because he called her "wishy-washy" istg the Lion the Witch the Audacity of this B*tch) and called himself a flake in Ayato's route though so he's slightly forgiven.
tl;dr I want Yakumo Rin for MLFK MC and no one else. I ship it.