Waiting for a kid to be of age to start dating them is still illegal and the person in question still a pedo.

Hey what ? How waiting for her to in age to date legally is illegal ? That doesn't make any sense to me.

Like I said, grooming. Look it up.

You both have extremely valid points! Technically, in this fictional manga, this isn't grooming. Waiting to date someone legally that isn't already legal is not grooming. Imagine someone being 17 in the US and their partner being 18 in the US. Does that make the partner over the age of 18 a pedophile that grooms minors? Not particularly. Don't look too far into fiction, pedophilia sucks but grooming happens in a much more drastic way in reality! :)