really gorgeous art. i'm a sucker for older women living shitty lives falling for younger girls. i would love to see a sequel to this

tbh i dont understand people saying "being locked in a room for months is unrealistic and too extreme". are we now softening abuse? do depictions of abuse have to only be to a certain threshold?

The 'locked away for months' bit feels extreme and out of place. Avoiding the coffee shop because she was sorting out her feelings would be more grounded.

Ah,if only you knew what some people can do...those things do happen.

They do happen, but in fictional stories they can be silly depending on how they are presented. Being hit by a track is very common but it’s now a meme for isekai. I do agree that it feels extreme, she feeling shame because the 16yo she has the hots for saw her with her family would have been better. “A hit of reality” that made her ashamed.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I always find it funny how depicting the accurate behavior of shitty men would be considered a caricature in fiction. Like, I write as a hobby, and sometimes I think about literally just writing in my/my wife/my friends' run ins with horrible men but then I think "nah, I need to give them some kind of complex motivation and backstory or people will think its too exaggerated."

Says a lot about society, I think.

The thing it says is the maid should stab the husband repeatedly by the way.

As I said, it’s the way it’s presented what make it feel out of place, no one said anything similar as that they think depicting shitty behaviour of men in fiction is always cartoonish because the acts are “unrealistic”, not that you need to give complex context. It’s very obvious since the beginning that she is abused, like I said in my first comment she is a very common archetype. My own opinion is that this is the weakest oneshot on meriba, it feels like separated illustrations instead of fluid, everything happens and nothing happened.
I gave a very common example of what I mean with Truck-kun. Soap operas are another good example, and in those they give you “complex motivation and backstory” but still feel silly, out of place, etc.
How something is fitted and presented in a story changes everything. That is why you can easily separate cheating and NTR, for example.

last edited at Jun 19, 2026 11:53AM

When I wrote 'out of place', I meant in relative to the rest of the story. If the narrative were about the two of them murdering the husband and getting away with it, then it would have felt more organic. In this case, the woman just casually reveals that she was imprisoned by her husband for an extended amount of time, but the other girl has no reaction, and then it just ends with she going back to her husband instead of the police, with Tsubaki telling her to "hang in there." I would call this the real softening (and trivializing) of abuse because the narrative is treating an egregious case of domestic violence and human right violation as a tough marital situation that the woman just has to power through. It doesn't even feel right in that conversation because Yuki seems more distraught by the fact her son is turning 20. It's not about how realistic or likely such an situation is, but bringing it up and doing nothing about it just makes it feel cheap, and it took me out of the story. If you left that line untranslated, and told people to guess it with the hint that it was about Yuki's reason for not visiting the cafe, few people would have guessed it right because the narrative and surrounding context don't give it the gravity it deserves.

last edited at Jun 19, 2026 8:23AM

^
She basically tell her “hang in there we will be able to fuck in two years” lol I did liked that part though.

last edited at Jun 19, 2026 1:11PM

When I wrote 'out of place', I meant in relative to the rest of the story. If the narrative were about the two of them murdering the husband and getting away with it, then it would have felt more organic. In this case, the woman just casually reveals that she was imprisoned by her husband for an extended amount of time, but the other girl has no reaction, and then it just ends with she going back to her husband instead of the police, with Tsubaki telling her to "hang in there." I would call this the real softening (and trivializing) of abuse because the narrative is treating an egregious case of domestic violence and human right violation as a tough marital situation that the woman just has to power through. It doesn't even feel right in that conversation because Yuki seems more distraught by the fact her son is turning 20. It's not about how realistic or likely such an situation is, but bringing it up and doing nothing about it just makes it feel cheap, and it took me out of the story. If you left that line untranslated, and told people to guess it with the hint that it was about Yuki's reason for not visiting the cafe, few people would have guessed it right because the narrative and surrounding context don't give it the gravity it deserves.

Oh, I see what you mean, I agree with you.

The panels of her skirt fluttering in the wind were egregious lolol

I can agree that the ending was really wtf with how they brushed it off. I really was thinking the maid was going to do some murder by the end.

The panels of her skirt fluttering in the wind were egregious lolol

That was what shocked me the most, random ass display lol

Also, I genuine don’t understand why people want the maid to kill the husband and not the wife herself

last edited at Jun 19, 2026 2:34PM

Peak. I want a sequel where they're happily married.

I was half expecting the maid to kill the husband

And flee to Vietnam? ;-)

Hehe, nice ref

I'd like a sequel where they're happily together too.

I would call this the real softening (and trivializing) of abuse because the narrative is treating an egregious case of domestic violence and human right violation as a tough marital situation that the woman just has to power through.

I whoheartedly agree with that, though I'd like to note that it's also possible that, having a DV husband is indeed a "tough marital situation" in Japanese cuntural and societal consensus.
Japan's women's right situation has always been pretty bad, and women are often blamed and shamed for something they did nothing wrong. What you saw in this comic is trivializing, which, might not be coming from the author's prejudice alone, but what has been agreed by the whole society.
Which makes it particularly egregious.

Oh..is this considered a merry bad end yuri?
I thought Yuki san finally has a good ending yuri (?) D:

last edited at Jun 19, 2026 8:23PM

^ I think I'm seeing a pattern here. In both work in Vol.2 (Snow Camellia and Regrets & Goodbyes) the pairs aren't in a romantic relationship (yet) in the end. There's no explicit breaking up, "never see you again" or even murder/suicide, they just didn't end up together.
Now obviously I can't tell what the editors are thinking, but I guess anything that doesn't end up with them being together count as "merry bad end" for them?

last edited at Jun 19, 2026 9:41PM

Now obviously I can't tell what the editors are thinking, but I guess anything that doesn't end up with them being together count as "merry bad end" for them?

Perhaps they told authors to draw what for them would be a Merry Bad End. The first one is Bad End but the girl is so anxious and brainwashed that is still Merry, in the other one the girls did not end up together and probably would not meet again (Bad End) but both of them took something from the other that improved their lives (Merry)
In this one the Bad is the home situation and the Merry is that they obviously are going to be together in 2 years.
So I don't think the requirement is that they don't end up together but it’s probably what most authors and people envision with Merry Bad End romance

Completely insane thread

"How did she get locked up with nobody noticing?" Abusers often cut people off from their loved ones or target people who have no loved ones.

"Why did she just casually reveal that she got locked up?" She was at her wit's end and has no one to turn to except a 16-year-old who she only knows as a waitress.

"Why didn't Tsubaki react very strongly?" She had already assumed the husband was abusive ever since she saw Yuki show up to a café alone on her birthday. This was not a surprise in her mind. She is written to be a bit of a wacko, which is most of the driving force of the story.

"Why didn't Tsubaki do anything about it?" What is a high-schooler supposed to do about someone's abusive marriage? Don't say cops

"Why didn't she just leave?" Do you like... know what abuse is?

"This was cool but why did she have to be leading a bad life?" Do you know what a story is?

"How is this a bad ending?" A lot can happen in two years. Aren't you afraid for her...?

"She should have killed Yuki" What?

sad husband wasn't offed by yandere maid, I was so sure it was gonna go there

"Why didn't Tsubaki react very strongly?" She had already assumed the husband was abusive ever since she saw Yuki show up to a café alone on her birthday. This was not a surprise in her mind. She is written to be a bit of a wacko, which is most of the driving force of the story.

If you were told by someone that they have been locked in their home by their abuser, wouldn't you have some kind of reaction? Even if you know they're being abused, it's still shocking.

"How is this a bad ending?" A lot can happen in two years. Aren't you afraid for her...?

Indeed, a lot can happen in two years. But that "wait for a time period" ending has already been used many times in other works (e.g. Yuzumori-san), and not necessarily as bad end. Even if they end up drifting apart, for now this is only an "uncertain end", not "bad end" (how are you certain they're not going to be able to get together?).
The presence of an abusive husband do added a lot uncertainty, though.

last edited at Jun 20, 2026 5:00AM

Completely insane thread

"How did she get locked up with nobody noticing?" Abusers often cut people off from their loved ones or target people who have no loved ones.

"Why did she just casually reveal that she got locked up?" She was at her wit's end and has no one to turn to except a 16-year-old who she only knows as a waitress.

"Why didn't Tsubaki react very strongly?" She had already assumed the husband was abusive ever since she saw Yuki show up to a café alone on her birthday. This was not a surprise in her mind. She is written to be a bit of a wacko, which is most of the driving force of the story.

"Why didn't Tsubaki do anything about it?" What is a high-schooler supposed to do about someone's abusive marriage? Don't say cops

"Why didn't she just leave?" Do you like... know what abuse is?

"This was cool but why did she have to be leading a bad life?" Do you know what a story is?

"How is this a bad ending?" A lot can happen in two years. Aren't you afraid for her...?

"She should have killed Yuki" What?

I agree with what you're saying in regards to the abuse - like I said, cartoonishly evil abuse like this is (sadly) realistic, but like

"Why didn't Tsubaki do anything about it?" What is a high-schooler supposed to do about someone's abusive marriage? Don't say cops

violence solves everything

last edited at Jun 20, 2026 5:25AM

"Why didn't Tsubaki do anything about it?" What is a high-schooler supposed to do about someone's abusive marriage? Don't say cops

violence solves everything

Including or excluding suspected marital infidelity?

Ok people are being dense on purpose, it has been explained two times that no one is questioning if this does or doesn’t happen in real life, we are talking if this works or not narratively in the one-shot, which is a fictional story, no one is dismissing real life abuse or questioning the veracity of abuse, etc. When the backstory of the strong female character is always rape, authors believe that using that makes it look realistic and perfectly justifies why she is strong and people find it realistic, “it makes sense”, and debating it as a weak or lazy backstory would make you looking insensitive. But today it is questioned, not because of whether it is realistic or not, but for narrative reasons and this is the same.

last edited at Jun 20, 2026 3:04PM

"Why didn't Tsubaki do anything about it?" What is a high-schooler supposed to do about someone's abusive marriage? Don't say cops

violence solves everything

Including or excluding suspected marital infidelity?

it goes without saying that the application of violence should exclusively be the right of cute psychotic maid women towards shitty abusive husbands

I hope this gets a sequel cause I really wanted to know what happened