That's one of the things I like about Adachi and Shimamura, they feel like suuuch goddamn teenagers. They have no freaking idea wtf they're doing.

This would've been a lot better if the author had cut out about like half a dozen plot threads.

Like there's good ideas in here but it's all so messy and cluttered and nothing gets developed, it never gets any time to just do like basic character and relationship building.

An update out of nowhere!

So nice!

So, I just noticed that in Japan the novels got released on a fairly frequent schedule from 2013-2016, but then there was almost a 3 year gap before the 8th volume in 2019. Anyone knows what is up with that?

At least for part of that time the author was writing the Bloom Into You side-story novels

OH MY GOD HE REALLY IS THE SAME AUTHOR. I didn't even notice until now. That's such a perfect coincidence. Or not coincidence, match-up.

Story's continuing to move in a great direction. Shimamura's changing slowly, becoming softer. Her uncharacteristic concern and reflection on Adachi's outburst was pleasant to see. The way she mulled over that in confusion, even wondering if she did something wrong, and considering ignoring it but knowing it could bite her in the ass was glorious. Same for the softness she feels for her dogs. And that swimsuit picture - how smooth Shimamura is should be illegal.

We really need a scene of Shimamura pulling that picture back out to look at.

In a perfectly ordinary gal pal way, of course.

God at this point even nagafuji is more aware of stuff than shima is. Nagafuji!

On the other hand shima's in top "flirting without realizing she's flirting" form. Is it mean of me that I kinda want shima's mom to discover that her daughter has her friend's sexy selfies on her phone? I just need someone to call her out on this stuff!

Big thanks for the translations, rather desperate for cute gay stuff to read these days :)

So, I just noticed that in Japan the novels got released on a fairly frequent schedule from 2013-2016, but then there was almost a 3 year gap before the 8th volume in 2019. Anyone knows what is up with that?

At least for part of that time the author was writing the Bloom Into You side-story novels

Honestly the way the parents treated this makes this seem more gay than it probably is. XD Mom's whole knowing "go get your girlfriend back" vibe killed me.
Now kisuuu!! >:[

Seriously, the parents' conversations in this series are like the subtext-iest thing in the whole story.

oh man that makes me super happy, I'm going cabin fever crazy

Thanks for all you do sneikkimies, stay safe :)

When Shimamura's mom was all like, "Oh, she got you flowers, huh?" I sure got the impression of a knowingly raised eyebrow while she was talking. Shimamura might be willfully clueless but I can't see her mom not noticing the meaning.

twist ending: Adachi and Tarumi start flirting and fall in love. Years later they both laugh about that mean Shimamura girl and wonder whatever happened to her.

Yeah it'd be nice if volume 6 was very Shimamura heavy.

Minami is acting like that because unlike who was a loner and awkward socially, she was a loner but not socially awkward. Minami is acting like a bitch because the first friends she made was acting like that and she had to also act like that to not being a loner.

This is not an excuse for being a literal shitpile of a human being. People's circumstances do not excuse their shitty actions EVER. I just lost what respect I had left for you.

good lord, calm down there kiddo

YoshiMako is such a cute ship. I'm always a huge sucker for tomgirl/girly girl ships, and the two of them are the most wholesome girls in the whole cast.

Plus it's nice to have one set of characters whose development doesn't really have anything to do with Tomoko.

Shimamura, volume 19:

"Wait, you mean you LIKE ME like me?? Why didn't you ever say so?!?"

Immediately turns into a bumbling embarrassed shy girl for the rest of her life

Ever since the phone call it definitely felt like Shimamura's had a lot more stuff going on in her head than Adachi picked up on. Even when they were leaving after karaoke it seemed like Shima wanted to keep hanging out or wanted to say something, she was acting weird.

One thing I'm hoping for long term is for a little crossover in the side stories. Like it would be just delightful to have a scene of the other girls talking about just what is the deal with adachi and shinamura exactly. Or for shinamura to start noticing that her little sister is acting a lot like someone with a crush and what her reaction to that would be.

Sheesh, and here I was eagerly waiting for a big reveal Shinamura chapter so we can finally find out what she's been going through, and instead we get nothing. Like yeah OK so we get Adachi yelling about loving Shinamura, but Adachi's finally come to terms with having a crush on Shinamura like, 8 times now! I even complained about that LAST time we had an ending like that, lol.

It's tough too cuz Adachi is just so in her own head in this chapter that like while she definitely notices that Shimamura is acting weird and different, she can't really put anything together or figure out why exactly. Like I think we can all agree that Shima wasn't putting her face in that random fan because she didn't care about naked Adachi! But Adachi had no clue.

At any rate, good job Adachi on reconfirming what you said before, instead of just wussing out and settling for a return to the status quo.

oh also that Shimamura was self-conscious enough about changing with Adachi that she wore her swimsuit under her clothes to the mall, back from the mall, and then to the pool. Way back in volume 2 when she first went swimming at the pool she brought her swimsuit with her in her bag.

"She was tolerant of others taking steps towards her, yes, very much so, but good luck if you ever wanted her to take one towards you."

Good lord, this is a good quote. I've known people like this a few times and they're always such a pain in the ass. Adachi, find someone who cares about you as much as you care about them, girl.

This was what I noticed by the end. Shimamura holds out her hand, she says how she'd like to be the one resting on Adachi's lap sometimes, she's the one touching Adachi in the pool... Oh, also, the way she shows up for their date like 30 minutes early, she seems really eager to see Adachi as soon as possible. They're really subtle things, but they're also Shimamura changing the dynamic bit by bit.

I suspect the author is going to be a jerk and just pick the story straight up from Shimamura's viewpoint instead of actually going back and letting us know what Shima thought of Adachi's rant and then their long silent streak. It's still going to be really interesting to see just how rocked her worldview is though.

last edited at Feb 22, 2020 1:55AM

Definitely a big thanks to sneikkimies for the continuing translations!

I'm going to have to reread this chapter again, first impressions:

Shimamura started off in extra-super-duper Shimamura mode, to the point that I was starting to think the author was going to pull some kinda BS "oops Adachi you pressed the mute button before you started your rant" nonsense. She seems very determined to just not acknowledge anything and keep going back to friendship mode. But then she starts slipping. She literally has to go fan herself off when Adachi's getting naked (lol), and then she gets more and more affectionate as the evening goes on. And then by the end of the night she apologizes and they're standing outside holding hands and it feels like Shima's maybe coming to terms with what's going on between them. I definitely got the impression that Shimamura's been quietly freaking out ever since the phone call and trying to act like she's not.

last edited at Feb 21, 2020 10:31AM

I mean Shimamura has explicitly considered the possibility multiple times and then her brain immediately goes HAHA NO JUST KIDDING IT'S JUST FRIENDSHIP! She even thinks about how her explanations don't actually make any sense. Or we get sequences where Shimamura just refuses to consider the meaning of her own actions - buying that flower hair clip that matches the one she's already got for Adachi, for instance.

I think sometimes the author pulls it off better than other times, but overall he's pretty clearly established that Shimamura's just in denial. She'll follow Adachi's lead wherever it takes them, but she refuses to think of any of the implications beyond the moment.

last edited at Feb 3, 2020 11:45AM

I have no outside knowledge, but I have to think Shimamura is definitely on her way to Adachi's house. Like it would just be too brutal to do practically anything else, the audience would lose patience with Shimamura entirely. And we only have like two more chapters to end this book, and I doubt the author's gonna leave things hanging entirely until the next book.

And it's rough too cuz like... this is the first time she's actually said ANY of this out loud. Most of the time she won't even admit most of this stuff to herself. Like she's always talked around liking shimamura. we get what she means, but this is the first time she's actually openly and directly just said that she likes shimamura.

So she finally started talking and then she couldn't stop.

Adachi obviously comes across as kind of a crazy ranting loon in this... confession? Rant? But I kind of like that for once it's not like a sparkly beautiful stereotypical confession scene, she's not even fully aware of what she's saying it just all comes out. Some of it's on Shimamura too, she never responds so Adachi just keeps on crying and talking.

And it is tough on Adachi... She knows she doesn't have the right to be jealous because she's just a friend, but also it kills her that she's still just a friend, and she's been kinda hoping that OK well, technically we're just friends, but really maybe we're something beyond just that, we just haven't said it openly yet. The way Shimamura always goes along with everything but also never really provides anything to hold on to really is kinda brutal - Adachi and Tarumi kinda need to form a support group together, they're both having the same struggle!

And there's also obviously other shit going on for Adachi too. The series doesn't really focus on gay angst but it's stuck around under the surface, and she's obviously freaked out Shimamura would hate her if she's too open with her crush.