Rereading in 2023 it's as good to me as I remember. I feel like the possibility that the serialization was simply cancelled with three months left to wrap up is overlooked when discussing this series. It doesn't strike me as "bait" so much as a slice of life series wherein the leads have explicit feelings for one another that simply never came to fruition due to the rushed nature of the ending. It's not a satisfying conclusion to be sure, but the criticism I see in this thread whenever I return to it seems way too harsh.