I know that only my opinion, but this isn't fucking work. Main characters are as simple as can be, there never been surprises to them. Only interesting major character is Aki, and she is rival. But a "meh" rival. You see, there are ways how to handle rivals properly and how to mess up them.
You can mess up if make them overly disgusting, too underpresent to even have a chance... Or in this case too fucking "good". She is just gives up too easy, too easyly overcomes defeat like "meh, whatever" and even helps Hino way more than anyone, i d say if not for her help, the main pairing might have failed. You are fucking rival, behave properly!