A cheerful delinquent seeks fighting advice from his reformed-troublemaker teacher in this unconventional coming-of-age BL love story! Haruka and Narumi-sensei’s dynamic explores what it means to be a leader and a role model amidst the social and emotional turbulence of adolescence.

Spring is here—and with it, a new beginning for an old legend.

Third-year brawler Haruka Shirakawa finally claims the title of Top Fighter, only to learn his new Classic Lit teacher, Mr. Narumi, once held it too. Haruka’s friends want him to challenge Narumi and surpass the legend, but Haruka just wants to understand him.

After seeing a video of Narumi fighting in his prime, the fire in Narumi’s eyes ignites something in Haruka too: the blazing desire to grow stronger—and to grow up. And since Narumi won’t fight him, the least he can do is teach him to fight… and Mr. Narumi’s lessons strike deeper than any blow.

Content Warnings: explicit sexual content, age gap, student-teacher relationship

To be honest, when I read the description of this manga, plus the content warnings, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this one. The potential for things to go downhill or to very dark places seemed quite possible based on what I’d read.

However, I’m pleasantly surprised and happy to share that this manga was nothing like I expected it to be. It’s funny and heartfelt, too, and I think I’m going to add it to my keeper shelf.

Shirakawa is crowned the top fighter at his high school, and while this attracts good attention, bad attention comes his way, too, from people in and out of school who want to fight him to win glory and defeat his title. Thus, he’s almost always fighting somewhere with someone.

At the welcoming ceremony, Narumi-sensei, the new classic lit teacher, gives a self-introduction and the students recognize him as the former top fighter in the very same school. Shirakawa’s friends eventually show him a video of Narumi fighting in action, and Shirakawa is completely in awe.

Shirakawa’s friends dare him and egg him on to fight Narumi-sensei to see how strong Shirakawa actually is. It doesn’t go very well.

Shirakawa asks Narumi-sensei several times to fight him, and each time, Narumi-sensei turns him down. He finds out that Narumi-sensei does not fight for the sake of fighting–he only fought in school in self-defense, because people attacked him.

This makes a light bulb go of in Shirakawa’s head, and one day, he decides to go ahead and attack Narumi-sensei to get him to fight with him. The fight ends quickly, with Shirakawa’s nose bloodied. This excites Shirakawa, however, because it’s been ages since he’s had an injury like this from someone. Shirakawa gets even more curious about Narumi-sensei, and comes up with a new proposition for him: he wants his teacher to show him how to fight!

Narumi-sensei turns him down repeatedly, but all the while, Shirakawa gets more curious and interested in his teacher, until he makes a move on him by forcing a kiss, which pisses Narumi-sensei off. Shirakawa is rejected multiple times, but doesn’t quite get it until Narumi-sensei gives him a short, harsh, personal rejection.

That sends Shirakawa into a sort of depressive spiral where he is self-reflecting and trying to figure out where he went wrong.

Of course, Narumi-sensei points out, he can’t carry on a relationship with a student.

More stuff happens in between and after all of this, where Shirakawa tries to get right with himself and his studies and with his teachers and mature into an adult so he can try again with Narumi-sensei. Narumi-sensei is firm in his rejections but is still a caring teacher. As these two grow and change separately, graduation hits, and it’s time for Shirakawa to say goodbye to Narumi-sensei for one last time…

And, that’s all I’m going to tell you. Just know that it ended up being surprisingly sweet, and, even more importantly, nothing sexual happens until characters are out of high school and out in the real world and are legal adults. So, despite the age gap of this romance, there was nothing that was there that grossed me out at all.

What I thought was going to be weird and dark turned out to be lighthearted, sweet, funny at times, and a work that tugged at my heartstrings. I love it when a manga surprises me in a good way.

There is some silliness to the plot here and there, but overall I enjoyed this story and wanted these two to get together after some patience, growth, and maturity.

As a sidenote, I really liked the art in this manga. I thought the character designs were original and distinctive, and I loved that Shirakawa had so many different facial expressions for his emotions, even flipping into a chibi face here and there. It made the art fun to look at. Of course, when things get spicy, things look great there, too (beware–it’s uncensored). The main story doesn’t have spice, but the after-stories where characters are older and out of school has it. Be sure to read all of it to see how Shirakawa and Narumi’s relationship has grown!

I don’t like high school/teacher relationships in 99% of the stories I read. It just creeps me out. But there’s something about this one that seems like an exception to the rule. I did not feel uncomfortable reading about this relationship, and was so relieved when, after some time, these two finally got together. I enjoyed this story immensely.

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A Nightingale Awaits the Blooming Love of Spring is available for preorder now directly from the publisher or from online book retailers. It will release April 7, 2026, in paperback and digital copies.