Jewel is always a good choice, Reed is more of a brat, I am afraid. 😂 I am glad you liked both of them though!
The latter. There’s more info about it [here] and [here] but generally, this VN is a teaser for the text-based version of Perfumare I’ll be working on later. So it only shows a few key scenes of the main plot, only one ending (well, two variants excluding the dead and neutral endings) and 3 romance branches with only a couple of choices and with a lot of missing content. The reason for it is that Perfumare (VN) was supposed to be only a demo, a simple story for me to learn how to code. I just didn’t expect it to become so well liked. But I digress. So, yes, like I said in the [devlog], the latest chapter locks your relationship with the characters; if you didn’t take your chances, there will be no other possibility to initiate the romance (in the VN, the IF version will include that option).
I hope that answers your questions, but if something’s not clear enough please don’t hesitate to ask for clarification!