An interesting read, I appreciate the straight representation. There is a lot of art and even though I personally prefer the BGs over the sprites, it's just a matter of personal taste, both are good. I will note the art clashes a bit with the story at points though (for example, there are BGs with a lot of snow even though the story does not feature any snow).
I will premise this by saying I'm not a huge fan of romance or slice-of-life, but my biggest gripe with this story is there isn't much in the way of obstacles that the protagonist needs to overcome, or other kinds of twists that would make the plot engaging.