A review by ellelainey
Hate Me, but Let Me Stay Volume 01 by Hijiki

4.0

 

Omega Koga Naoto was attacked in high school by a group of upperclassmen, ending up with an unexpected pregnancy. Despite having been looked down on all his life for being an omega, Koga doesn't blame his daughter for how she came into the world. He's left with a terrifying fear of all alphas, who have only ever mistreated him, berated him for being omega, and tried to hurt him. 

So when his mother arranges for Koga to attend a matchmaking event, he's afraid but goes for his daughter's sake. He can't get a job, because he's omega and people think he's unreliable and only going to cause trouble for the alphas in the workplace with his hormones, so he has to do something drastic if he's to give little Shizuku a good life. As she's already been bullied at one school for having an omega mummy – her choice of words, not Koga's – it's understandable why he wants to do anything he can to protect her. 

Enter Tsuchiya. Working as a waiter at the event, he walks up to Koga, professes his love and claims that Koga is his fated mate...and Koga runs! 

Thus begins the start of a cute but complicated tale of how a terrified omega finds his way to love. 

This was such a sweet and lovely story. I loved Koga – emotionally fragile, afraid of himself and alphas and life really – and his precious daughter Shizuku. Despite their hard life, they don't look down on others and Koga actively tries to be as unobtrusive in life as possible, often to his own detriment. I loved his mother, who took such good care of him and Shizuku, and who was so deeply understanding of his situation, even his fear. 

I utterly adored Tsuchiya, who is hard working, sweet and loving, caring and protective and all the things that Koga needs. HOWEVER, in this story Koga is already 21 and Tsuchiya is ONLY 17! That is a huge issue for me. Maybe if he'd been 19 or Koga had only been 19 it would have felt like such a big distance, but I did have to take a star off my rating for the fact it made me feel a bit icky. 

Unlike a lot of other mangas, especially alpha/omega ones, there was a strong supporting cast here. I loved that both MC's had strong relationships with their mothers, who were both strong women and not only supportive but working women. There was a lot of positive female power here, which I loved. 

I would absolutely have given this a 5* if not for the age disparity feeling unbalanced and Tsuchiya being SO young that it didn't feel right.