If the "baby bomb" were Kaoru's trick to get Reichi to speak overtly about their (lack of) relationship, I think she'd be able to know if he were cheating or not. I think that's giving her too much credit. ^^;

I hope that is what comes of it, but I'm banking on her being shocked the conversation when the conversation switches to that topic -- assuming it does.

Zero expectations.

Clueless1 posted:

Now we have at least four more chapters till this storyline resolves.

That's so kind of you. You assume it'll get resolved.

Ah, yes, I’ve forgotten profit motive over the story. Foolish me, I thought it was the mangaka’s desire to present a great story in brevity, rather than a never ending story with profits.

Maybe this manga will go along the route of Kurogane Ken’s latest manga where it will probably all end up back at the beginning.

so just a theory, but maybe reichi felt bad about what his mom did to kaoru's mom so he felt he needed to take responsibility for that by being with and eventually marrying kaoru? OR R and U's mom forced him to.. we've seen how manipulative and forceful she is, saying Uta will always be her "parents property", Uta saying she "always has to be right" and also how she is able to completely shut riechi out of the argument when he trys to defend Uta in chapter 17.. she was probably like "yo i killed the girls mother so do me a solid and marry her to compensate for my wrong doings" but it was probably more like "REICHI YOU ARE GONNA DO WHATEVER MAKES THIS GIRL HAPPY AND YOU ARE GONNA LIKE IT!! so riechi being the wet seaweed that he is gave into his mothers iron fist.

OR PLOT TWIST!! they had to do it for legal reasons. from our current understanding, R and U's mom did something that cost K's mom her life. so she lost her license to practice medicine in japan. but according to the law she KILLED SOMEONE DUE TO MALPRACTICE, hence breaking the code of ethics. that's a pretty big offense that should result in jail time. so reichi and kaoru got married so thier mothers were not just friends but in-laws. which is why R and U's mom didn't go yo jail. this, however, doesn't match up with the timeline of the story. the incident happened 5 years ago, but R and K got married a year ago. BUT from what we can infer, the ceremony of their marriage was held a year ago, not the actual legal act of marriage between the two. its a bit of a stretch but honestly this story has been all over the place since page 1 sooo its fair game lol

and my prediction for how the story will end? well uta has suffered enough and deserves to be happy, and koaru is insecure in her current mariage.. so uta will go off the live the life she wanted b4 her mom interviend: go to college get a job and move out. and kaoru will break up of riechi who is obviously cheating on her, and she will pursue uta the person she loved all along :) and Raichi can be with risako I guess -_-

hhhhhhhh theres no way it will end so neatly tho :*) but a guy can dream lol

last edited at Sep 30, 2019 10:03PM

I'm just like absolutely baffled anyone is reading this and thinking it's the story of Straight Couple Drama when 1. the relationship should end immediately for many reasons the author has spelled out very well, and 2. Kaoru questioning her sexuality is a big part of what's going on here.

maybe i missed it, but when exactly have we seen her questioning her sexuality? i noticed her missing uta, but not much more.

This is insufferable

that credit page is so accurate

I’m from Ph and my dialect is visayan so if anyone understand this. Thank you!

Pisting giatay og wa na gani ganahi sa palibot layas najud dli kay magdahom paka ana nga gugma maskin ikaw mismo looy na kaayo ka. Ambot jud og nganung naay mnhid sa kalibutan. Ako ana bhala na layas na mangitag kag laen dghan gwapa girl dli ra siya. Pag move on bahalag sakit.

^ Despite knowing no Filipino, I still took a shot at reading it, just to see if I can pronounce everything

^ Despite knowing no Filipino, I still took a shot at reading it, just to see if I can pronounce everything

There is no "Filipino" language, BV. That appears to be Cebuano aka Bisaya.

^ Despite knowing no Filipino, I still took a shot at reading it, just to see if I can pronounce everything

There is no "Filipino" language, BV. That appears to be Cebuano aka Bisaya.

They also speak English. That might help.

how to make decisions 101

Clueless1 posted:

Clueless1 posted:

Now we have at least four more chapters till this storyline resolves.

That's so kind of you. You assume it'll get resolved.

Ah, yes, I’ve forgotten profit motive over the story. Foolish me, I thought it was the mangaka’s desire to present a great story in brevity, rather than a never ending story with profits.

I actually meant more that this story has a bad track record of not resolving most of its conflicts.

oh baby , kaoru loves our mc and is delusional and lies about wanting a kid , can i just kill reichi off ? i think this missunderstanding is because of him , in many ways and he's fucking cheating ...

Clueless1 posted:

Clueless1 posted:

Now we have at least four more chapters till this storyline resolves.

That's so kind of you. You assume it'll get resolved.

Ah, yes, I’ve forgotten profit motive over the story. Foolish me, I thought it was the mangaka’s desire to present a great story in brevity, rather than a never ending story with profits.

I actually meant more that this story has a bad track record of not resolving most of its conflicts.

True dat

can i just kill reichi off ?

Well, it’s not good to kill people, but if it should happen when I’m not looking, I really wouldn’t know anything about that.

BTW, I’m going to be looking over in another direction for quite some time. Just FYI.

It still looks like the author has decided to speed things up. This chapter happens the day after the chapter where uta goes, if the next one continues in this way, we could finally understand the details of the cheating of reii and risako and really know what kaoru will want to do....
Several possibilities that she really wants a child but that depends on her reii too and it is the key for me to their break-up or not.
I would be surprised if risako pushes kaoru to have a child innocently. I really think behind her sweet smiles is a calculating bitch.

last edited at Oct 1, 2019 3:32PM

Idk why I do this to myself the title literally says unrequited and here I am like maybe just maybe she has a shot between this and life with my brothers wife I’m all angest out.

Idk why I do this to myself the title literally says unrequited and here I am like maybe just maybe she has a shot between this and life with my brothers wife I’m all angest out.

You know you might have a point there. This could actually be about Kaoru's unrequited love. It seems to me that Reichi never actually loved her, he might've literally just married her because she was there. As soon as Kaoru stopped providing him everything he wanted he just went to find someone who would and then Risako just seized on that. Whether because she actually wanted Reichi or because she's punishing Kaoru for not choosing her.
So it could happen that Kaoru and Uta end up together, or I'm thinking about this way too deeply and trying to convince myself this isn't going to be a flaming train wreck of an ending.

So it could happen that Kaoru and Uta end up together, or I'm thinking about this way too deeply and trying to convince myself this isn't going to be a flaming train wreck of an ending.

Does this actually feel like it’s even remotely close to an ending?

Comparing this to the opening of the story, what exactly has changed for the MCs?

• Kaoru has been given (strong, almost certain) reason to believe that Reiichi is cheating on her with Risako.

• Uta has confessed to Kaoru and moved out to live with her mother.

Possibility #1: the established pace of events remains constant. Whatever the outcome, that suggests at least twice as many chapters as we’ve had already.

Possibility #2: something suddenly happens to push the plot elements quickly toward resolution. Given the execution of the story so far, what could possibly go wrong with that?

Idk why I do this to myself the title literally says unrequited and here I am like maybe just maybe she has a shot between this and life with my brothers wife I’m all angest out.

You know you might have a point there. This could actually be about Kaoru's unrequited love. It seems to me that Reichi never actually loved her, he might've literally just married her because she was there. As soon as Kaoru stopped providing him everything he wanted he just went to find someone who would and then Risako just seized on that. Whether because she actually wanted Reichi or because she's punishing Kaoru for not choosing her.

Risako is punishing Kaoru for not choosing her, and so is having sex with this dude since high school? Good grief. Crazy 101.

BTW after reading this ch, it's clear to me no matter if Reiichi is cheating or not, or if he was out with Risako or not while Kaoru was shopping, what's CERTAIN is that Risako is pushing Kaoru to break up with Reiichi, by making her ask for a baby, which will, of course, make Reiichi backtrack from the relationship since he doesn't actually love her.

Also I agree with some now, that Kaoru does seem to have some massive subconscious crush on Uta. Her feelings and internal dialogue are not those of someone who is just missing her "little sister".

BTW after reading this ch, it's clear to me no matter if Reiichi is cheating or not, or if he was out with Risako or not while Kaoru was shopping, what's CERTAIN is that Risako is pushing Kaoru to break up with Reiichi, by making her ask for a baby, which will, of course, make Reiichi backtrack from the relationship since he doesn't actually love her.

interesting; hadn't thought of it that way, but you make a good point.

say what you will about the plot/content/etc, but i think it shows that the author is pretty good at writing characters if we can all see so much deeper than whats on the page. it's rare that an author can consider the motivations of each character, rather than just using them to move the story along.

there are plenty of debates in these forums, but its not all that often that the subject of the debates is the intentions of the characters.

last edited at Oct 1, 2019 10:34PM

what's CERTAIN is that Risako is pushing Kaoru to break up with Reiichi

thank god somebody is trying to knock some sense into this bitch if this turns out to be true then i fuck with risako

Also I agree with some now, that Kaoru does seem to have some massive subconscious crush on Uta. Her feelings and internal dialogue are not those of someone who is just missing her "little sister".

That’s pretty much where the story started out: Kaoru and Uta were much more emotionally attached than Kaoru and Reiichi were, and Kaoru habitually used Uta as a substitute for her brother.

I mean, the two of them go to the amusement park on Kaoru and Reiichi’s first wedding anniversary, Kaoru gives Uta a necklace on the top of the Ferris wheel in an almost-kiss scene, and they walk home holding hands in Chapter 1. Then in Chapter 3 Kaoru starts a (culturally highly unusual) greeting-and-goodbye hugging skinship ritual. Basically, almost everybody in the story remarks on how unusually close Kaoru and Uta are, and how much the older woman depends on Uta.

But Kaoru seems to become less self-aware about her feelings toward Uta as the story goes on, and it really doesn’t help that we get long stretches with the Cafe Clique that have nothing to do with their relationship at all.

Even assuming that this is supposed to be a tragic story of Uta’s ultimately unrequited love (as the title suggests), having Kaoru either entirely oblivious or stuck in denial doesn’t really advance the ball in that particular direction either.

At this point I not only can’t see what story this wants to tell, I don’t quite see how it gets to any satisfying conclusion except, “Thank God Uta got away from those two fucking idiots.”

@runrin: I don’t think the characters are particularly deep; I just think the characters’ motivations aren’t clear because the writing is muddled.

last edited at Oct 1, 2019 11:24PM

I’d say Kaoru is currently missing her husband; Uta basically fulfilled all of Kaoru’s needs (other than the sexual ones) and now Kaoru is realizing that she had a de facto husband alongside her de jure one.

The only displays of romantic affection from Reiichi I can remember are their date for Kaoru’s birthday and Reiichi trying to get a Christmas Eve nookie and getting turned down; for the former, he initially blew her off because of work, and even then, Reiichi only kissed Kaoru because she was practically begging for affection. Reiichi may be aloof, but at this point I’m inclined to believe he is completely uninterested in Kaoru despite caring for her.

Regarding Risako, I just can’t read her as malicious enough to want to harm anyone directly. My reading of her intentions lies more along “Kaoru and Reiichi are married, if they can go on to form a happy family and live happily ever after then that’s great. I’ll just steal Reiichi away from time to time for a date, or maybe even a small holiday, not like there’s much difference between staying late for work and going on a business trip anyway.”