Rereading this, I still find myself enjoying the later parts of the story and the side stories but I think that the breakup came out of nowhere just because the author wanted to push the character towards confessing their feelings. Ash telling people that he and Lyle have no relationship whatsoever, supposedly because he didn't want Lyle to be involved in rumours before they even became something, is so silly. People had already seen Ash and Lyle together, and the rumours would only get worse after he told people they have no relationship whatsoever. Also, if that was the reason, why would he repeat that to Lyle when he asked him later? No one else was around, so he didn't have to say that. If the author wanted to break them up for a while to make Ash realize his feelings he could've just made Lyle confess and Ash tell him that he isn't sure what he feels towards Lyle....Boom, they're broken up.
Rereading this, I still find myself enjoying the later parts of the story and the side stories but I think that the breakup came out of nowhere just because the author wanted to push the character towards confessing their feelings. Ash telling people that he and Lyle have no relationship whatsoever, supposedly because he didn't want Lyle to be involved in rumours before they even became something, is so silly. People had already seen Ash and Lyle together, and the rumours would only get worse after he told people they have no relationship whatsoever. Also, if that was the reason, why would he repeat that to Lyle when he asked him later? No one else was around, so he didn't have to say that. If the author wanted to break them up for a while to make Ash realize his feelings he could've just made Lyle confess and Ash tell him that he isn't sure what he feels towards Lyle....Boom, they're broken up.