A Story to Read When You First Fall in Love: An Unexpected Love In An Enjoyable Show

Japanese drama ‘A Story to Read When You First Fall in Love’ follows the life of a cram school teacher whose only dream in life was to get into the prestigious University of Tokyo. However, when her dream shattered as she was unable to make the cut, her life stagnated and hardly moved forward until she met the pink-haired rebellious boy determined to ruin his life.

I personally hate the idea of a teacher-student romance. It is okay when it is about a student’s one-sided crush on a teacher but when the teacher reciprocates I feel it is too much to take. But this show stars my current favorite, Ryusei Yokohama, and the doll-faced Kyoko Fukada so I couldn’t keep myself away from it. I have loved their individual work before and was curious to see them together so I had to watch this show.

Thankfully, the show is nothing like ‘Love and Fortune’ which had lots of cringy love scenes between an older woman and an underage boy. Instead, it deals with a teenager’s rebellious phase and how he changes because he has a crush on his teacher. He is aware of the age gap and does not get carried away or cross the line. The topic is handled with maturity and there is nothing to cringe at in this love story. Their love develops organically making it an unusually beautiful experience.   

A Story to Read When You First Fall in Love (Hajimete Koi wo Shita Hi ni Yomu Hanashi) (2019) (10 Episodes)

During her school years, Junko Harumi (Kyoko Fukada) was a book nerd completely focused on getting into the University of Tokyo. She studied day and night and had no interest in dating and relationships. However, she failed to get into Tokyo University and lost ambition in life. Thereafter, her life dragged on as she found it difficult to hold a permanent job. At 32, she works as a contractual teacher at a local cram school. She has no past dating history and is still single as always.

Low on confidence, Junko is unaware of her successful cousin, Masashi Yakumo’s (Kento Nagayama) interest in her since school days. He too has been single all his life only because he could never muster the courage to ask Junko out and remained in unrequited love for over 15 years.

Junko lacks enthusiasm in life and quits her unrewarding job until the intriguing pink-haired boy, Kyohei Yuri (Ryusei Yokohama) walks into her cram school with his father. Tired of his rebellion and unruly ways, his father criticizes Kyohei in front of everyone at the cram school. This reminds Junko of her teen days and how pressured she felt to work hard to make her mother happy. She strongly opposes Kyohei’s father and suggests Kyohei never give in to his bullying ways.

Seeing Junko take a stand for him, Kyohei feels moved by this pretty teacher and decides to study with her to make it into the University of Tokyo. Kyohei’s poor school record makes her apprehensive but she decides to teach him to challenge herself as a teacher.

As she starts teaching Kyohei, she learns that his homeroom teacher is Kazuma Yamashita (Tomoya Nakamura) her childhood friend who was the only guy to ever confess his feelings for her. Meeting him reignites some hope for romance in her mind as she is oblivious of Kyohei’s growing possessiveness for her.      

I enjoyed watching ‘A Story to Read When You First Fall in Love’ because…

…even though the show is about the budding romance between a student and his teacher, there is still a lot more that it offers. Firstly, let’s have a look at Junko’s life.

We see that Junko does not like her teaching job at the cram school. She sees other teachers have multiple students to coach while no one wants to study under her. There is no job satisfaction for her and she feels stuck in life. She has never had a boyfriend and spends her free time either at home with her family or drinking with her friend, Miwa.

Her over-achieving cousin, Masashi Yakumo likes her and has even hinted at the same several times before but she is so low on confidence that she cannot believe someone like him could be interested in an unsuccessful person like her. Also, she considers him family so she never even looks at him in a romantic way.

She is frustrated and tired of her boring life and often regrets being overly studious as a teen and not taking any interest in dating. Her mother often compares her with Masashi and taunts her for having a contractual job at her age. She could at least find someone and get married but Junko has zero dating experience so finding a romantic partner on her own seems impossible to her.

Tired of her mother’s taunts, when Junko sees Kyohei’s father bully him for being weak in studies she is reminded of her teen years and she loses her calm. She screams at Kyohei’s father for putting undue pressure on the young boy and tells Kyohei to never listen to a father who does not respect him.

She decides to put an end to her misery and quit her pathetic job. But Kyohei returns to the cram school and insists on studying with her. His pink hair and thug-like appearance make Junko unsure of him but she consents because this is probably the first time a student has asked to study with her.

She sees herself in him and encourages him to work hard to get into Tokyo University. Through Kyohei she wants to fulfill her uncherished dream. Kyohei becomes her pet project and she decides to guide and help him in every way possible to get him into the prestigious university.

Initially, Junko’s interest in Kyohei seems weird but as we get into the drama, we see how Junko has always been helpful towards others.

For instance, in high school, she witnesses a teacher bully her classmate Kazuma Yamashita for not being a bright student. She then takes it upon herself to coach him and help him pass the exam. Her kind nature appeals to Kazuma and he falls for her.

Similarly, Kyohei is not an inherently intelligent student and so Junko finds different ways to make studying interesting for him. She works so hard to help him that his lonely heart warms up to the kind teacher.

We see that Junko is the same over the years. She hates bullies and helps underdogs. She is inexperienced in matters of love and so she does not understand that her helpful nature can melt a guy’s heart and make them like her.

Like Kazuma, Kyohei too falls hard for Junko but when he realizes that him being underage can get Junko into serious trouble, he contains his emotions. However, his proximity to Junko often sees him slip inadvertently which makes Junko awkward. But she is so focused on helping him that she brushes it aside and continues to help him.

Till the very end, we see Junko being undeterred by various difficulties and continuing to support Kyohei. She is so passionate about helping Kyohei that she cannot see anything beyond that.

Junko may be innocent in matters of the heart but she is not intimidated easily. For instance, in one scene we see Junko trying to teach Kyohei’s class that is full of disobedient boys. In a regular drama, we would see either Kazuma or Kyohei stand up for her and help her. But that does not happen as despite her two admirers being present in the class, Junko finds a way to make the class pay attention to her and listen to what she has to say. She may be under-confident but is still a strong woman.

She tries to find love when she shows interest in Kyohei’s homeroom teacher and her former classmate, Kazuma. Of the three suitors for Junko, I liked Kazuma the best for her. And I think it is because of the deep-voiced actor who played Kazuma and not because I liked the character of Kazuma. 😉 

Casting the gorgeous actress Kyoko Fukada was a good idea because even if she is older, she still looks absolutely stunning making it natural for a young boy to fall for her. She does a great job playing the naïve Junko. She has an honest appeal supported fully by her pretty doll face and easy charm.

Coming to Kyohei, in the show we see that he comes from a rich family and is the son of a politician. He does not share a good relationship with his father and so he does everything to annoy his dominating dad. From dying his hair bright pink to keeping the company of punks at school, he rebels against his father who wants him to study and pursue a meaningful career in life.

As we delve deeper into his story, we see that Kyohei lost his mother a few years ago and has been a lonely child because his father has no time for him. When Junko supports him, he finds his lost support. Seeing her have expectations of him motivates him to study harder and achieve what seems impossible. He wants to fulfill Junko’s dream and is entirely focused on it. Even minor setbacks do not discourage him from working hard.

As time passes, he realizes how he has been feeling closer and closer to Junko and how he has probably fallen in love with her. Unable to hold his bursting affection for her, he does confess his feelings a couple of times but then holds back because he knows that an affair between an underage student and teacher can have Junko arrested.

He has his moments of anger and frustration when he sees other men like Junko’s cousin Masashi or his class teacher Kazuma get close to her. When furious, he takes it out on Junko and acts like a typical unpredictable, moody teen as he feels helpless about not being able to act upon his feelings.

But he directs his helplessness towards his studies. He focuses on preparing for his exams as being a successful adult is the only way he can have Junko in his life.

[[Spoiler]] Towards the end, we see that Kyohei has to make a choice between his exams, and Junko, and thankfully the boy chooses his exams. Not because he doesn’t take Junko seriously but because he is assured that Junko would want him to go on to fulfill her dream and not miss an opportunity that he has worked so hard to achieve. The poor guy feels so guilty for choosing his exams over Junko that he is unable to meet her again.

I’m glad the writer decided to make Kyohei take this path because as a student his commitment is first to his exams. I appreciate the fact that the writer did not make Kyohei so blinded in love that he throws away everything just to check on Junko. I actually had my fingers crossed hoping that Kyohei would do what was right and when he did it, I was satisfied with the way the writer handled the situation and did not promote reckless, blind love. [[Spoiler]]

My current favorite actor, Ryusei Yokohama is brilliant as the determined young student Kyohei. I absolutely loved his controlled and subtle performance. What I love best about Ryusei’s acting is his ability to express grief, hurt, anger, and a multitude of emotions through his eyes. When he is happy his eyes are happy, when he is sad his eyes are sad too. There is complete conviction of his emotions in his eyes. He hardly ever overacts and that’s why I enjoy watching his shows so much.

…other than the main leads I also like Junko’s friend Miwa a lot. As a character, she makes up for the fun lacking in Junko’s mundane life.

She knows of Masashi’s feelings for Junko and even tries to help him win over Junko. But she does not pressure Junko to consider him as a romantic partner knowing how much Junko needs love in her life. In fact, when the ‘pink boy’ Kyohei enters Junko’s life she likes it because she feels it makes Junko’s life more interesting.

Miwa is cute and enjoys doing some crazy stuff that can make her life more entertaining. She is Junko’s support system and is always there for her friend. Miwa is a friend every girl needs in her life.

I did NOT LIKE ‘A Story to Read When You First Fall in Love’ because…

…of the teacher-student relationship between the leads. Teens are highly impressionable and susceptible to drama portrayals. I was a teen once and I know how seriously I took the shows that I watched at that time. I believed that whatever was shown in dramas was how relationships were supposed to be.

The relationship between a teacher and student should always be one of trust and respect. And when you add a romantic angle to it you dilute the sanctity of the relationship. We don’t see a lot of romance between Junko and Kyohei so that was a relief. But once again, I wish drama makers could keep the teacher-student relationships out of love angles.    

…sometimes they showed Junko to be too old than she is. Actress Kyoko Fukada is way older than Ryusei Yokohama but she does not look that old in the show. In fact, she shares good chemistry with all three male leads. So, probably to emphasize the age difference between Junko and Kyohei, she is often shown to walk with a walking stick because of a back problem. I felt the walking stick was a little too much. Perhaps they wanted to show how Kyohei is unaffected by the clear age difference. But the walking stick was unwanted especially considering that Junko is 32 and not 72.  

A Story To Read When You First Fall In Love is a show about finding a passion in life and working toward it with complete focus and determination. Romance may be the crux of the plot but the show still gives you a lot more than that. It gives you the confusion of a teen and the regrets of an adult. It gives you the mistakes of the central characters and shows how to navigate through them to come to a satisfying conclusion.   

I give A Story to Read When You First Fall in Love 4 out of 5 rating. If you are a teen then do not watch this show as it might influence you to fall for an attractive teacher, which is not advisable. But if you are a mature teen who does not take drama romance seriously, then go ahead and watch it as it might motivate you to take your studies seriously or you might end up regretting it in your adult life.

If you are an adult, far off your studying years, then do watch this show as it is a cool show without a single dip in the pace or the level of entertainment.

 

Where to watch A Story to Read When You First Fall in Love: Viki.com (Free)

 

Image Courtesy: Viki.com

 

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