Oh I loved Kieta Hatsukoi, the first half of the show was especially good! There were typical misunderstandings and miscommunication and it caused drama, but not *drama* it never felt unnecessary or overblown in the vein of "you lied to me, how could you betray my trust!" etc.
The characters were for the most part very likable, especially Aoki, Ida and Hashimoto and the acting was really enjoyable to watch. It was a teen romance so of course there were some cringey parts but that's life lol they still made a very cute and believable couple.
Both Ida and Aoki had some serious real life issues to work through that affected their relationship, Ida with his uncertainty of his own feelings and Aoki with his internalised homophobia, and had the show been longer I think we would have gotten a much more in depth look into both, but I think the show still handled it well. As I mentioned at the beginning, I felt the first half was stronger than the latter part, the story felt like it was treading in place a little compared to the beginning but it wasn't too bad, I enjoyed all of it still!

Would absolutely love to see a second season, Kieta Hatsukoi has become one of my favourites <3