The stated purpose of the Sasaki and Miyano light novels is to fill in some of the gaps that original creator Shō Harusono had to leave in the manga. Apart from letting us know that Harusono is closely involved with these books (which her illustrations make apparent, but still), they promise to give us more time with our favorite characters as we see things that were glossed over or barely mentioned get their time to shine. That goes for plot points and characters, and while Sasaki and Miyano: First Years gave Tashiro far more page time than he ever gets in the manga, Sasaki and Miyano: Second-Years does the same for Kuresawa.

Of the novel's five chapters, a full three are narrated by Kuresawa. (Sasaki gets the other two.) While he may not be the most interesting of the characters in the franchise, he is one of the most consistent, and that holds true here as well. If there's one thing you can count on, Kursesawa will be all about his girlfriend, and that's the case for his chapters. Even when he's not with or talking to her, he's thinking about how everything would look through her eyes and what she'd like to hear about. While at times that can come off as annoying or almost creepily obsessive, Kotoko Hachijo (the series' dedicated novelist) is a good enough author that we can see that there's more to him than just the gag of the guy who's way too into his girlfriend. Kuresawa never forgets that Yuki has significant health issues which prevent her from living a typical life. She's out of the hospital for this volume but still very much stuck at home, and there's a sense that Kuresawa wants to live experiences for both of them. He's not doing so to the point of subverting his own life, but she's never far from his mind, and that lends him an interesting perspective on the budding (in this volume) romance between his friend Miyano and Sasaki.

As a boy in love, Kuresawa recognizes the signs of what's going on long before Miyano is ready or other people figure it out. He's more than aware of Sasaki's emotions while Miyano is still dithering around, and he's sympathetic to the older boy's cause. This comes through most clearly during the chapter recounting the second year's class trip; as he's thinking about pictures he wants to take for his girlfriend, he also starts to think about what he could do for Sasaki, and he also clearly sees through some of Miyano's actions and protestations to figure out that he's got some warmer feelings he's trying to sort through as well. While Kuresawa mostly maintains his distance, we can still see him being quietly supportive of whatever Miyano decides, even if he has a clear preference for Miyano deciding to date Sasaki – and not just because his girlfriend's a fujoshi.

One of the most interesting aspects of these chapters is seeing Miyano through Kuresawa's eyes. In the manga, we mostly spend time in the title characters' heads, so this is a chance to see them from the outside. Miyano comes across as much more prickly when Kuresawa is the point of view character, and just as interesting is how Sasaki and Kuresawa see Hirano, who pops up in the last chapter. (Kagiura gets a few cameos, with Kuresawa mostly being stunned by how physically huge he is.) That's a significant strength of these light novels as a whole; they're written to clearly and cleanly mimic Harusono's style, and that makes their different views of the manga's characters feel authentic to the source material while reminding us that everyone is the main character in their own stories – we're just seeing four people's versions of everyone's shared experiences.

It certainly helps that Harusono provides the illustrations for the novel, as well as a few short comics at the back of the book. (They are meant to be read after the prose novel, so there is no need to flip the book around to read them first.) The color illustrations at the front of the novel are excellent, with the second page having some truly adorable semi-chibi images of the two main couples. Harusono also mentions having outlined the stories present in the text, which is doubtless why they fit so seamlessly into the overall series. However, as I said before, Hachijo deserves a lot of credit for mimicking the feel of Harusono's work so perfectly.

If you're not a Kuresawa fan, this may not be as enjoyable as the first novel. He isn't quite as interesting as some of the other characters. However, his perspective still brings something new to the table, and the balance between his narration and Sasaki's much less level-headed voice works well to keep the book interesting overall. Sasaki and Miyano is a series where each iteration – manga, novels, anime, anthology – all brings a little something new to the table, and if you're a fan, this is worth spending some time with.