The Story To Read When You First Fall In Love is the title of a book Harumi, the FL, throws down in anger and is really seen for the first time by Yuri.

Harumi is, by all japanese standards, a failed individual. She was a smart studios pupil who failed to pas the prestigious Tokyo University entrance exam. She failed to get a good job and she failed to get married. Now she is 32 years old working without enthusiasm as a tutor in a low level cram school.
Yuri is a pink haired 16yr old high school student who is just waiting to grow up by sleeping on the desk in the worst high school. His father, in the last attempt to have him graduate at least from high school, takes him to Harumi's downtrodden cram school. Harumi is angered by the way he speaks of his son and throws the book down while telling the father off. Yuri is impressed and decides to start studying but only with Harumi. Because it was love at first sight for him.

Harumi is a woman lost, looking for the purpose in her life. Yuri gives her that and while teaching him, she starts to change as well. But not fast enough. Basically she's a sweet but completely dense, she's always been incapable of seeing what is right in front of her. There are three (maybe four) men in love with her and everyone around her noticed it except for her. While her being so dense was cute and adorable at the beginning it quickly became annoying and I kept wondering why do the man still insist on pursuing her!. She's rather straightforward, sweet and helpful, holds no grudges and does not really see anything bad in anyone. She is oblivious of other people's feelings though she is quick to see if someone is troubled (bullied etc.) and is quick to help: she is very clairvoyant in these situations. When it is about romantic feelings, she is totally ignorant! But she still lives with her parents and a huge fluffy dog (by far the best character in this drama!), she is pretty but dresses as a 50 year old spinster who had never dated (which is definitely her case!), wearing frilly blouses closed at the neck with huge ribbons. But on feet wearing stilettos. And some strange, asymmetrical coats. Ugly! On the other hand the pink haired guy was cool. Such an odd, unlikely pairing which probably will not last long: youthful arrogance will be soon replaced by adult reality!

While I was watching this, I liked it less and less as the story progresses. I kept saying to myself, it is a japanese drama, they are usually different, they tackle taboo themes, they are weird and original, you should not judge.... Still I could not help myself: the noona romance was not convincing enough: teacher/student and mother/son relationships were what I saw. And I love noona romances and have no problems with age differences but it did not work for me here. There are too many taboos broken by this drama for it to be convincing enough: 16 years age difference, a first cousin in love with Harumi, a divorced teacher who sacrifices his own happiness for a student....no, this was so wrong!

Apart from the FL and her three suitors, there was an interesting cast of support characters. Yuri's school friends were a strange lot: on the surface delinquents but not really. Supportive and kind and fun. Harumi's best friend Miwa, a no nonsense bar owner Harumi and her cousin both confide in. The parents were there as well but they worried more about work and exams than the romance. And of course, teachers in cram schools!

The drama surreptitiously denounces the exam system in Japan and the pressure parents and society puts on the young to succeed showing at the same time that you can be successful even if you do not go to top schools. It all depends on you!

I had another problem with this drama, apart from unconvincing pairings, which was the perceived length of each episode. Let me explain. Each episode is about an hour long. There are a lot of things happening, nothing is ever boring, no useless and superfluous events. And still I had the impression of extremely long episodes, like over two hours long. During the episode I kept checking the time stamp and repeatedly being surprised by how much I had left to watch; Such a weird feeling!