Am I the only one that find interesting that Kase, who's head over heals for Yamada, didn't introduce her as her girlfriend to Inoue who's supposedly her ex-girlfriend and thus should know Kase is into girls ?
Usually, you go for the "friend" introduction when you don't want people to figure out your gay. Makes me think that not only Kase never dated Inoue, but also never tell her that she like girls. Well, could also be that she was overly cautious of being on school grounds, so there might be a risk of someone coming within earshot. Also, it feels that Yamada is especially hurt by that introduction exactly because she's so set on Inoue being Kase's ex-girlfriend that she would have feel natural to be introduced as her girlfriend.
As for Inoue, I reserve my judgement for now... She did come across rude about the "don't get in my way" comment, but might just be because she was looking forward to have a proper run with Kase without any distraction and she doesn't like having Yamada tagging along for no evident reason. Maybe she also feels that if she wins against Kase with Yamada around, there's a chance her win might be caused by Kase being distracted by Yamada.
Or, plot twist : Inoue actually has the hots for Yamada as well (the "I" quickly changed to Kase when mentioning noticing her on the side) and would get distracted by Yamada just as much so she doesn't want that. Would be kinda fun, the two of them running around poorly because both trying to sneak peeks at Yamada in the middle of it. XD
Inoue knows about Yamada planning to go to Tokyo - a recent development. So we can assume Kase keeps talking about Yamada to Inoue... who also obviously remembers Yamada from back then, in one way or another.
Kase's fairly popular, but my take is, that Inoue is her only real friend at this point. On the same line of thought, when Kase talks to Inoue about someone else's life, Inoue would know that that someone must be important to Kase (she wouldn't recall any information of every of Kase's plenty fangirls, right?). The name "Yamada" got stuck with Inoue...
Inoue's initial response when Kase first (proudly) presented and introduced Yamada seemed friendly, charming even. Even later, she seems amused by Yamada's passion - it possibly being one thing she can somewhat relate to; she may have even (incidentally?) tested Yamada there to see if she was able to defend herself and her passions... (and Yamada seems to have passed, so far.)
I am also still hung up on not her last line, but the one immediately prior: "I don't know if you're her friend or what[ever]..."
-- taken the above into account (Kase talking to Inoue about Yamada), she would know, that they are AT LEAST friends, so the "or what[ever]" can (in my head) only imply something even more special than just friends. And let's not forget that Inoue seems to know Kase fairly well (rightfully calling Kase "a bit of a blockhead" XD ).
My take is, Inoue really does know there are lillies in bloom here. But as long Kase doesn't spill the beans, she won't push the matter. She doesn't really care that much if they are an item, either. She just wants to run (and so does Kase). She's a good friend to Kase, who still keeps in frequent contact even after graduation. And her warning is more of a "You probably won't get this kind of competitiveness, but don't fret. You do your thing, and I do mine - and we'll be good."
Inoue is a strong-willed character, but chapter 6 also showed her not to be overly fond of drama and angsty rivalry. So this may be her way of saying she won't get jealous of or bud into their relationship as long Yamada won't get jealous of or tries to mess with their friendship...
Edit:
However, this doesn't quite explain the "I..."
But, since she doesn't get what Yamada was doing there, Inoue presumably never really persued observing Yamada herself. But she saw her too, when she was walking home with Kase. So, maybe Inoue was about to say "I/Me and Kase saw you", but withheld that to not imply anything distractive - maybe being aware of Mikawa's rumors. In that interpretation, Inoue would be a nice person who wouldn't want to bring up anything that could lead Yamada to think of something that never was, but rather keep the focus on Kase as their common ground (and her source of anything Yamada-related, her even back then obsessing about Yamada).
last edited at Aug 24, 2016 10:03AM
