An emotional struggle as a senior–junior relationship takes the next step! “Goodbye Game” by Minaduki Yuu（南月ゆう）

Shinshokan Dear+ Comics “Sayonara Game” is the title I’ll be introducing!

The following is quoted from the back cover. This review does touch on the story’s content! If you just want a quick overview!! I’d be happy if you read only the red text and highlighted sections.

An adult’s first love is a little bittersweet—and sweet at the same time… ———

Arimura Ikuo ends up asking his high school junior, Ito Yosuke, to tutor his younger sister at home. Though Yosuke comes across as curt and unfriendly, Arimura learns that Yosuke has actually admired him for a long time, which makes him quietly happy. However, he soon realizes the true feelings that lie beyond that admiration…!?

From Shinshokan Dear+ Comics “Sayonara Game”

This was a title that caught my attention once I learned it was a baseball club senior × junior story, and it’s what led me to start reading it. I already knew Minaduki-sensei from other works, but I happened to come across this one right when I was just beginning to get into stories about working adults, so the memories of reading it are especially vivid for me. (I had just started working full-time, and it was a tough period…) Above all, the sunset on the cover is dazzling, and it seeps beautifully into the aftertaste of the story. That balance of freshness with a hint of melancholy is just perfect…

At first, Arimura struggles with how to interact with his blunt, unsociable junior, Yosuke, awkwardly trying to find a way to communicate. By chance, he ends up asking Yosuke to tutor his younger sister at home. Completely unaware of his own popularity, Arimura is unable to properly approach the person he likes and ends up heartbroken. In the midst of that, he learns that Yosuke has long admired him. As Yosuke starts coming over regularly as a tutor, his sister, Nana, also falls for him at first sight, causing quite a commotion. Behind Yosuke’s refined features and quiet demeanor, there’s a gaze filled with unspoken feelings—one that, before he even realizes it, pierces straight through Arimura’s heart.

Back in their baseball club days, there’s actually an episode where Yosuke was completely struck by Arimura, and that moment became something he could never forget, no matter how many years passed. So emotional… way too emotional…!! Despite loving him so devotedly for all that time, the contrast of Yosuke forcing himself to squeeze out his true feelings and desperately trying to put them into words completely got to me… It’s genuinely tear-inducing.

What makes Arimura truly cool is that he never gives up until the very end.

There’s a point where they end up missing each other, and Arimura nearly throws it all away, feeling like there’s nothing he can do about Yosuke anymore. But here, his natural refusal to give up—and his undeniable coolness shine through as he runs straight toward the answer. That scene is so good, so cool!! The climax will definitely make you cry, and the heart that felt tightly bound by longing and pain slowly begins to loosen, so please—let’s watch over the future of these two together…!!