'Suki na Hito ga Iru Koto' (or 'A Girl and Three Sweethearts', or 'AGATS') is the story of a young pastry chef who spends a summer working and living with three brothers who own a restaurant in a seaside Japanese town. When she was in school the pastry chef had a serious crush on the oldest brother, who since then has gone on to become the manager of the family restaurant with his middle brother as the head chef. The youngest brother is still of school age and doesn't contribute much to the business -- he's too busy having fun.

The oldest brother hires the pastry chef to serve as the restaurant's pâtissière for the summer and also invites her to stay in one of the empty rooms in the house where he lives with his brothers. Between the work at the restaurant and life at home there is plenty of opportunity for drama.

Fans of the 'Enemies to Lovers' trope best be warned: the ML in this series (Kanata) starts out as one of the meanest jerks in any drama I've ever watched, and even by the very end he's still got a way to go before he'll ever become Prince Charming. This is a guy who in his very first meeting with the FL (Misaki) takes delight in watching her literally fall flat on her face on a public beach. And from there it only gets worse between them.

Truth be told, for Misaki the early episodes of AGATS are quite an ordeal. Kanata makes no allowance for her lack of life experience and seems to despise her wide-eyed view of the world, mocking it at every turn. When she tries to create a beautiful dessert that will impress him enough to start taking her pastry skills seriously, he ends up knocking it out of her hands so it lands in a messy pile on the floor, totally ruined. Then he simply walks away after ordering her to clean up the mess.

Eventually things warm up between them, and one thing I actually give this drama credit for is that Kanata's unapproachability remains consistent even after he has fallen in love with Misaki. In so many dramas of this type a rude lead character will turn into a pussycat once feelings develop for their counterpart. Not here. Yes, Kanata does tone it down in the insult department and shows flashes of affection and appreciation, but to the very end he retains that core of grouchiness.

I don't want to make too much of all this because this is a fun drama that I highly recommend. The performances are all first-rate, and for those who don't like plot complications that get too intense there's only a moderate level of angst. The love triangles (there are two) aren't taken to any extremes, and even the menacing rich guy who's constantly appearing on the scene with his threat to take over the restaurant ends up having more bark than bite.

Each of the three brothers gets his own plotline that isn't directly related to the FL. To me the one involving the youngest brother was the most touching. On the outside he's a happy kid without a care in the world but we eventually come to see the pain and resentment under the surface. I really like how this was handled and resolved, and Nomura Shuhei deserves credit for his nuanced performance in the role.

The performance by Yamazaki Kento as Kanata is simply fantastic. The actor is required to convey so much of his character's thoughts and feelings with only his eyes and facial expressions, and, much like Misaki does, over the course of the series we have to learn how to 'decode' him before we can understand where he's coming from. (I was happy to spend the time studying him this way because looks-wise he's very easy on the eyes.)

What I quibble with in AGATS is that the series never tells us why Kanata, who has grown up in a loving household and is on his way to achieving his dream of becoming a reknowned chef, has such a hostile outlook on the world. I also wish that Misaki had been more confrontational in those moments when he treated her the worst. Too often it seemed that she'd flare up and get in a couple of good retorts but then retreat. It felt like Kanata got away with too much.

Further regarding Misaki, like the FLs in many dramas she comes across as a little *too* naive, however compared to the immature FLs in such series as 'Thirty But Seventeen' she is a model of maturity. Still, it's never exactly clear to me why Kanata goes from despising her to falling in love. This is one reason I'd like to rewatch this series someday, to see if there are clues that I'll notice the second time around.