Thanks for the huge translation batch! I didn't mind the rougher quality all that much, appreciate the work! Was nice to read this all at once.
Anyways, to be honest, I didn't mind the ending all that much. Y'all are right in that this felt like it had a lot more potential than it realized — but at the same time, I'm satisfied. I think it's because I feel the author accomplished what they set out to do, even if I feel the work had potential for so much more. It's a fun story with likeable characters that introduced and touched on aspects of fashion the reader may not be aware of, and I feel like that exploratory sharing of the author's passion for the field was the point in the end.
Perhaps I'm being generous, but their relationship not being explicit in any way felt like it fit the work. My personal criteria for whether I consider a work queerbait or not is simple: "Should there have been a kiss?" Does it feel like the work is inauthentic or incomplete due to the lack of explicit romance or not?
For this, I think the answer is no. I don't think the story is incomplete or inauthentic. Their relationship and the way they ended up sharing their life was sweet enough. Do I think the setting and characters had the potential to be a lot more, to focus more on that side of things? Absolutely. But the story that ended up being told was not that, and I hesitate to judge what it is based on a direction not taken.
I'unno. Just my thoughts. Probably helps that I really didn't get the sense that either of them are very romantic people — their acts of service felt like an honest representation of how they express care for each other.
Overall, it's not making my master list of recommendations as I had initially hoped, but I don't find myself as let down as I feared I might be. Always nice to learn something about the complex industries that modern life takes for granted, even if only a small slice.