Rereading the chapter, I feel like the bed girl might even be Amane, if it’s not Hayama. For one, she kind of looks like the girl in the picture, with about the same length of hair, and secondly, it may explain some of the drama between her and Nene? Seems like Hayama herself isn’t sure when they broke up, but it could’ve even been after the picture was taken.
I can't really deny the possibility. It's not like I'm an artist, so I'm only going by my gut feeling, but the eyes, facial structure and hair just don't seem to be Amane's. If it is Amane, then even MC did not recognize her, because she would certainly have asked her why she was a model for her idol.
I mean, all the art things aside, it’s possible that Tarumizu couldn’t recognize her because of the somewhat dark background (I’m no photographer, but I’m assuming it’s gotta be pretty dark in the bedroom if it’s already sunset with no other lighting) and if it is Amane, she isn’t donning her gyaru style at all in the photo, so she might look pretty different. It’s also Tarumizu’s first time seeing Amane in person, so it’s not surprising at all if she didn’t recognize her.
On the flip side, using your same argument, if the girl in the picture was Hayama, wouldn’t she have been able to recognize her to some degree as well? But again, this is the first time Tarumizu’s ever seen any of them, so it’s reasonable enough to expect that she wouldn’t be able to recognize any of them right off the bat.
When I think about it a bit more, Amane’s involvement in a photo shoot seems like it would make for a really big plot point. Maybe Nene felt inferior to Amane for being in a contest winning photo, and that caused a rift in their relationship. Or perhaps Amane looking vulnerable while being on someone else’s bed was the turning point. Adding onto that, it’s possible Amane wasn’t even posing for a photo, but was in a bedroom with Hayama, who just happened to take that photo to capture Amane’s “natural” beauty and submitted it into a contest.
Whatever the reason behind their breakup was, I feel like Hayama had some involvement in it... partly because there has to be some reason why she even exists in the story (keeping her role as president of the ex-photography club into consideration), and partly because of the way she refers to both Amane and Nene (first name basis). She also knew they were dating, but I guess it also depends on how public Amane and Nene were with their relationship. Finally, Hayama also mentioned she was in a slump... Supposedly after that “Sunset Girl” picture, so that struck me as suspicious too.
In any case, I’m curious about how this will all play out. I don’t know why, but Hayama just gives me this “evil” vibe, LOL. Something about her makes me feel like she has ulterior motives. Like how she ominously repeats the word “Together?” when Tarumizu suggests they enter the contest together, or the way she examined Tarumizu’s photo and commented on how good she was. I mean, also the fact that she casually drops the “oh yeah, they’re ex-girlfriends” bomb on Tarumizu in their like, first week of knowing each other, but tbh, that was probably just to move the plot along, lol.
Edit: Oh, more evidence would be that Hayama took the “Sunset Girl” photo two years ago, and because she’s a third year and Tarumizu is at least a second year or below, it would line up with around the time Amane and Nene were still in middle school/possibly about to enter high school as well. This may have been when the breakup happened. Tarumizu also specifically wonders about how Hayama managed to get such a perfect shot too.
last edited at Apr 23, 2019 2:36PM
