So blonde girl agreed with black hair girl about it being strange to date girls.
I took the situation as Miyu (Black haired girl) questioning Ao (Blond haired girl) to get an understanding of her motivations. Passive aggressive yet innocent enough in the moment, the issue began when Ao's reply was interrupted by apparent friends of hers, and that even with this interruption, Miyu still expected an honest answer. Even a hetero couple would feel awkward and likely not give an honest answer in that moment, so a subtle irony in this scene is that it ends with having less to do with homosexuality and more to do to with romance in general.
To me, Miyu comes across as a person that has very high expectations of others and then cries foul when those high expectations are not immediately met. Ao certainly could have said something different, but I feel that Miyu would find fault in anything other than essentially a public confession. Even if Ao said "Let's talk about this later", I believe Miyu's response would be negative.
After this, Miyu begins the process of self-victimization by unfairly blaming others and lashing out. The author appears to make an attempt at balancing out Miyu's behavior with a bullying scene, but I think that only victimizes Miyu more because there's no precedence; Ao says "There's never been that kind of mess in our class. Are you done already?". The scene comes across as this forced attempt to create sympathy by distracting the reader from Miyu's behavior. Yes, she was hurt and as an audience we should respect that, but don't force our emotions. Let us see and experience the characters for who they are and why they are. I can only appreciate this scene because it helps fortify Ao's ability to stand up for others, but not for herself.
All said, Ao is also harming herself by taking on all the blame, and her personality is so meek with herself that while she can stand up for others, I don't think she can stand up for herself. It's a sort of self-sacrifice for all the wrong reasons and that likely only fuels the rumor of her being a suck up. Someone that doesn't speak up for themselves and seemingly just smiles along with the whims of others will appear that way, right or wrong, to others.
Sadly, for both of them and for the audience, the story ends in a situation where Ao is just enabling Miyu. I think the only silver linings are that Ao recognizes that Miyu is only expressing her pain while Miyu herself understands what she's doing. Miyu also knows Ao's answer from before wasn't genuine, so there is room for discussion.
Whether or not that discussion will be constructive and healthy is another question. Ao will need to stop being so hard on herself and to stand up for herself a bit, while Miyu will have to lower her exceedingly high expectations. It is good that Ao is patient, but in way for the wrong reasons.
To me, this is a sad story where a romantic ending isn't the focus, so in that light, the ending isn't vague. The clear ending I see is that both Ao and Miyu will have to come to terms with themselves before they can even attempt to reconcile with each other, let alone start a healthy romantic relationship. The vagueness is if they'll be able to do so.
This is one of those stories where I feel the best ending is where the characters don't end up together, but learn important lessons instead.
last edited at Oct 15, 2018 1:26PM
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