Probably what bothers me the most is that what he did was a low key ejecting Ayano from the closet to her sister

How ? He didn't say anything about that matter, if anything it stay vague as hell. And i found very quick to jump on the husband for that when most ofthe fault is on Ayano, who go to say at who want to heard it that she cheat on her husband. I mean that she said to her husband,it's normal. It's the kind of thing you had to go trought at two but then she goes saying to her mother in law and her sister in law. She doesn't really have to do it but she does anyway. Plus after she cheats the first time, instead of telling Akari directly she have a husband. She come back to the SAME bar, knowning Akari will be here, with her husband.
You can blame the husband for giving his sister the bar location but remember that the sister wouldn't have ask in the first place if Ayano didn't say anything.

How? he may not directly said anything but he was very certain of what Kaede would found out when she got there, he knew and that was entirelly his idea, Kaede never asked anything about the person that was involved in the affair, and that is leaving out the potential suffering and embarrasment he was sending Akari's way since he had no idea if Kaede was going to make a scene or not, he simply took a chance and sent her there.
Ayano is doing a blunder after another and I think right now she's about to do one once again because she refuses to be decisive about what she wants, she has to make things clear with both her husband and akari or just cut it off.
I'm just saying that being less wrong than Ayano doesn't make his last action right, it was blunder on his part, even if rationalized and justified by the blunders commited against him.

out of all this happening I really feel for Akari tho, hurt comming her way once again.

the fact that we have so much to discuss about this is one of the reasons I love this title, and I like to get in on the character's motives and reasons.

I'm just saying that being less wrong than Ayano doesn't make his last action right, it was blunder on his part, even if rationalized and justified by the blunders commited against him.

And i don't say what he did was right but he wouldn't have bring that to his sister if it wasn't for Ayano talking about her cheating to the sister. Of course telling your sister to go to the bar to see who is the person Ayano cheat with is a dick move but for one he didn't force her to go and second he didn't tell her to ask Akari about the matter, which was very rude from the sister. He is not innocent but he isn't entierly guilty.

Of course telling your sister to go to the bar to see who is the person Ayano cheat with is a dick move but for one he didn't force her to go and second he didn't tell her to ask Akari about the matter, which was very rude from the sister. He is not innocent but he isn't entierly guilty.

I think he is and I would be very mad at him in Akari's place, at ayano too for blabering for that matter.

Forcing or not is really of no consequence, the only reason he talked about the bar was because he wanted her to go there, and he wanted it to be a surprise hance the vagueness, and he could not predict how Kaede would react. It could very believebly turned into a scandal at Akari's workplace and costed her her job since we all know how japan is acceptable of that sort of situation, so that is why I don't think it was an innocent or inconsequential action, he may not realized all the bad things that could happen but the decision to goad Kaede into going there didn't come from a good place.

Which is good for the character in my opinion, when people do shitty things to you you want to do shitty things back, its a normal human reaction, which makes him more believable I think. I think this is his first visceral reaction since the whole thing started, he seemed to be stunned and out of it about the whole thing so I think this is a turning point to him being more proactive and taking actions to get what he wants out of this mess, whatever that may be.

Probably what bothers me the most is that what he did was a low key ejecting Ayano from the closet to her sister

Rereading chapter 6 now, I guess he did push Ayano in a corner about admitting she had an affair with a woman to her mother-in-law.

But as for Kaede, I think it's a bit different. First off because Ayano herself was the one who told about the affair. Then Kaede gets confused, and asks "how could my sister do that?" and I think the husband's trying to offer an explanation about why Aya would cheat on him. Rather than wanting to get revenge on Aya or something, it's more like he's admitting he can't win against that, something like "Aya didn't cheat on me because she wanted another guy, she cheated because she found out she's gay, and I guess there's nothing either of us can do about that"

(of course, she may be bi, but I guess that's not how her husband sees it)

the fact that we have so much to discuss about this is one of the reasons I love this title, and I like to get in on the character's motives and reasons.

Last time this happened to me in a manga was in YagaKimi. Goes to show how talented this mangaka is as a storyteller.

last edited at Dec 31, 2019 10:55AM

Althought that doesn't really trigger my definition of cheating. I mean, as far as i remember they just kiss no ?They didn't have sex so for me, it doesn't fully count as cheating for me.

meh

Althought that doesn't really trigger my definition of cheating. I mean, as far as i remember they just kiss no ?They didn't have sex so for me, it doesn't fully count as cheating for me.

So you're like Aya's mother in law, who said kissing is a "yellow card", but also "feels like a false alarm"

It really just depends on what sort of agreement you have with your partner. If you two decide that you can kiss other people so long as you don't have sex, then that's fine, right? But I guess for most people, kissing is already considered cheating.

Also, Aya seemed pretty interested in taking things further when she stayed over at Akari's.

So you're like Aya's mother in law, who said kissing is a "yellow card", but also "feels like a false alarm"

Something like that i guess. Ayano herself doesn't seem to know what to do. She still talk to Akari and is being friendly but on the other hand, she bring her husband to the bar where Akari work and she turn her down for the barbecue invitation. So yeah, Mother in law might be rude but when you see the whole picture, it's hard to deny it's a bit true. Ayano really need to take a decision about she want about both relation.

Small typo in chapter 7 page 32 first panel
"But I've fallen you anyway, y'know?"
maybe:
"But I've fallen for you anyway, y'know?"

Small typo in chapter 7 page 32 first panel
"But I've fallen you anyway, y'know?"
maybe:
"But I've fallen for you anyway, y'know?"

I thought I was tripping when I saw it while reading the chapter.

You also have to keep in mind his situation is pretty goddamned frustrating. His mom dragged them both back to live at home and is insisting they should just ignore what happened. He knows his wife is going through a serious identity crisis. I think he suspects that she's gay. From his perspective, he may not want it to be true, but a lot of things about their relationship are probably adding up in his mind. The laid-back nature of it, the way they're more like best friends than lovers, the way she does't really seem to cherish their wedding rings. So when her sister starts on "how could she do this?" I think he wants her to understand that it's more complicated than she's assuming it is.

That's the best analysis of Wataru's reasons I've read so far. Well done!

By the way, I dunno if anyone mentioned this before, but Kaede's reaction to Wataru's attitude was hilarious. She totally thought he was into NETORARE!

"So his wife is cheating on him, and he's all relaxed and smiley? And he has already met the guy who cuckolded him!? And he's now pushing me to go see that guy!? Like, he wants to parade his wife's lover or something!!?
I can't believe it, omg Wataru, I'd never thought you'd have a NTR fetish!!!"

Probably what bothers me the most is that what he did was a low key ejecting Ayano from the closet to her sister

How ? He didn't say anything about that matter, if anything it stay vague as hell. And i found very quick to jump on the husband for that when most ofthe fault is on Ayano, who go to say at who want to heard it that she cheat on her husband. I mean that she said to her husband,it's normal. It's the kind of thing you had to go trought at two but then she goes saying to her mother in law and her sister in law. She doesn't really have to do it but she does anyway. Plus after she cheats the first time, instead of telling Akari directly she have a husband. She come back to the SAME bar, knowning Akari will be here, with her husband.
You can blame the husband for giving his sister the bar location but remember that the sister wouldn't have ask in the first place if Ayano didn't say anything.

Okay... lets go through the things that are wrong with @Lilliwyt's reply here:

1) How did he "eject Ayano from the closet"? He sent Ayano's sister to the bar, telling her to look for a server who's name starts with 'H'. He doesn't know if there are any OTHER servers who have names starting with 'H' there, but he does know that Akari's last name DOES, so he sent her there expecting her to find out that the person Ayano cheated on him with was a woman... Not a mystery...

2) "then she goes saying to her mother in law and her sister in law" - She never said ANYTHING to her sister-in-law. Her sister-in-law is a shut-in. AND she didn't start the conversation about it OR out herself to the mother-in-law. It went like this:
MIL: "Did you two have a fight?"
Wataru: "We might get a divorce, maybe."
MIL: "Erm... WHAT? What's this about, Ayano?"
Ayano: "Ah, well... I'm... Im the one to blame here, so..."
MIL: "Eh? Eh? And? What does that mean?"
Wataru: "And if she has? Cheating on me, with--"
MIL: "With-- EH!? YOU KNOW!?"
Wataru: "I know. We met. She's really, really pretty, too."

SO, Wataru outed her to his mother. It seems that Wataru is making it a habit... outing her to people. I wonder if he's outed her to his co-workers now?

3) "after she cheats the first time, instead of telling Akari directly she have a husband. She come back to the SAME bar, knowning Akari will be here, with her husband."

While this is partially her bad, the bar was HIS choice. She didn't chose to go there and flaunt her husband in front of her. She can be faulted for A) Not telling Akari that she was married in the first place and B) not warning her before they got there, but, to be fair, that would have been a bit difficult after A) had been skipped. "Oh... you want to go to that place... sure, but let me text a friend first... (so I can warn her that I'm going to be there with my husband...)

4) "You can blame the husband for giving his sister the bar location but remember that the sister wouldn't have ask in the first place if Ayano didn't say anything."

And here I understand the origin of why you thought Ayano told HIS sister about the affair.. NOPE! That is AYANO'S sister! Her OWN sister. She told her OWN sister that she had an affair, but DIDN'T tell her that it was with a woman, then Wataru sent her to the bar to discover that his sister had an affair with a woman. So... that's what happened.

oh god everyone is so nice and everything is so fucked up and no one just gets to be happy or even really seems to feel like they deserve to be happy

I'm pretty sure that this chapter removed at least one person from the "everyone is so nice" list and Wataru's mother was NEVER on it!

Yeah, it's weird, but somehow I feel like the little sister is introduced as a consolation prize for the husband. Hm.

Either way, yeah, this is an entertaining and fun and unpredictable trainwreck.

AND

okay Ayano you can follow your heart and get your girl right
just give your hubby to your sister, everyone's happy lol

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that got that slightly creepy vibe... Though I do recall that Kaede was seriously not a fan of Wataru's family, especially with them forcing Ayano to move in with them, so that is probably a no go...

Overall, I thought that this chapter painted Wataru in a very bad light. While his actions might not have been intentionally malicious, they were hurtful. If he wanted Kaede to know that Ayano slept with a woman, he could have just told her outright instead of sending her to the bar and making an uncomfortable situation for Akari. I HOPE that Ayano calls her sister and asks her why she went there and finds out that she got the information from Wataru, then Ayano lays into him and goes over to Akari's place... with a suitcase... and asks her if she can stay with her until she finds a place of her own.

On the other side of the coin, Wataru's oldest sister seems to be treated like crap, while the youngest one is very anxious and VERY concerned that Ayano not see her the way she was presenting... it furthers my questions about whether she's not straight... and maybe has a crush on her brother's wife...

And here I understand the origin of why you thought Ayano told HIS sister about the affair.. NOPE! That is AYANO'S sister! Her OWN sister. She told her OWN sister that she had an affair, but DIDN'T tell her that it was with a woman, then Wataru sent her to the bar to discover that his sister had an affair with a woman. So... that's what happened.

I might have made a mistake about who Kaede was but the point still stand, if Ayano didn't talk to her sister about the affair, she wouldn't have ask her brother in law about the matter and i didn't he will have bring it

but he does know that Akari's last name DOES, so he sent her there expecting her to find out that the person Ayano cheated on him with was a woman...

How ? Saying the person's name start with a H is not the same as saying she is a woman. I mean, she even think it's a man atfirst and just bring the pieces together by thinking it throught.

Wataru's attitude is mostly due about how casual Ayano has announced it to him and how she doesn't seem to be bothered and also well,imagine you're married from some years with a woman and suddendly she come and said "Oh yeah i cheated on you with a girl." Most of peoples will be freaked out and didn't think rationally. He just don't know how to react in this situation.

You also have to keep in mind his situation is pretty goddamned frustrating. His mom dragged them both back to live at home and is insisting they should just ignore what happened. He knows his wife is going through a serious identity crisis. I think he suspects that she's gay. From his perspective, he may not want it to be true, but a lot of things about their relationship are probably adding up in his mind. The laid-back nature of it, the way they're more like best friends than lovers, the way she does't really seem to cherish their wedding rings. So when her sister starts on "how could she do this?" I think he wants her to understand that it's more complicated than she's assuming it is.

That's the best analysis of Wataru's reasons I've read so far. Well done!

By the way, I dunno if anyone mentioned this before, but Kaede's reaction to Wataru's attitude was hilarious. She totally thought he was into NETORARE!

"So his wife is cheating on him, and he's all relaxed and smiley? And he has already met the guy who cuckolded him!? And he's now pushing me to go see that guy!? Like, he wants to parade his wife's lover or something!!?
I can't believe it, omg Wataru, I'd never thought you'd have a NTR fetish!!!"

Lol, this is all because she misunderstood that Ayano's lover is a man. Had she known from the beginning Ayano's lover is a girl, she'd prolly have found Wataru's relaxed attitude much more excusable.

As in the case of Kenta's dad:

From the epic webcomic famous for inventing the "fap" and "shlick" onomatopoeia... ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

Unlike tMnR's If I Could Reach You, I want Akari and Ayano to be together ... after I figure out what's up with Ayano ...

I'm surprised nobody is talking how after mom said "you earn too much, better sell your house and come support me with that money", they just did that. That's why I hate putting family over everything else.

The husband's move with the sister was about springing the details on the sister in the most shocking way possible. It's all pretty nebulous and vague in his head, but he has a sense that as many people are in Ayano's ear telling her that what she did was crazy and weird, the better (especially if they're from her 'side'). He knows that Aya's family doesn't like him or his family, and he senses they're way more open and less repressed than he's used to. Under normal circumstances, they'd be not kicking up all that much of a fight about divorce.

I doubt this is some big nefarious move to hurt his wife; he's clearly making this up as he goes. His family is about secrets and power. Growing up with his mom, he's learned that the way to handle things is to tightly control them so no one finds out the ways things have gone wrong. A big part of him is trying to suck Aya away from her more open family and into his, where shame will keep her quiet.

Of course, the other interesting layer is that he hates his family, too. He knows that whole deal sucks, even as he's acting it out now... that's why he's usually so passive (he rightfully resents his awful mom, but he knows it does no good to pick a fight, so he just lies down). It means he could go in a lot of different directions moving forward.

last edited at Dec 31, 2019 3:04PM

Everyone's typing up whole english analysis essays here, whereas my normal ones made for assignments suck so much

And here I understand the origin of why you thought Ayano told HIS sister about the affair.. NOPE! That is AYANO'S sister! Her OWN sister. She told her OWN sister that she had an affair, but DIDN'T tell her that it was with a woman, then Wataru sent her to the bar to discover that his sister had an affair with a woman. So... that's what happened.

I might have made a mistake about who Kaede was but the point still stand, if Ayano didn't talk to her sister about the affair, she wouldn't have ask her brother in law about the matter and i didn't he will have bring it

but he does know that Akari's last name DOES, so he sent her there expecting her to find out that the person Ayano cheated on him with was a woman...

How ? Saying the person's name start with a H is not the same as saying she is a woman. I mean, she even think it's a man atfirst and just bring the pieces together by thinking it throught.

Why did he tell her where the person works, and what their name is, if not to allow her to figure it out? That's like saying "No, officer, I didn't murder anyone, I just tied them up on the train tracks. How was I to know a train would come along and splatter them over the countryside??"

He clearly doesn't know that there happens to be a guy whose name starts with the same letter working there, he gave her enough information to figure it out, which she did, and he did it because he wanted her to find out, which she did.

He de-closeted his wife. Just because he didn't literally say "She has fallen for another woman" doesn't mean he didn't clearly do exactly that.

You can make an argument (a decent one, actually) that this is one of the very few situations in which exposing someone is at least understandable, you can argue that he might actually be trying to help the situation rather than make it worse, but arguing that he didn't just deliberately out Ayano (and Akari, for that matter) is just silly.

And i don't say what he did was right but he wouldn't have bring that to his sister if it wasn't for Ayano talking about her cheating to the sister.

My main point wasn't to say he was all white on that, he clearly shouldn't have told that but he is clearly not the only one to blame here.

His family is about secrets and power. Growing up with his mom, he's learned that the way to handle things is to tightly control them so no one finds out the ways things have gone wrong. A big part of him is trying to suck Aya away from her more open family and into his, where shame will keep her quiet.

Of course, the other interesting layer is that he hates his family, too. He knows that whole deal sucks, even as he's acting it out now... that's why he's usually so passive (he rightfully resents his awful mom, but he knows it does no good to pick a fight, so he just lies down).

Are we even reading the same story?

Because I have no idea how you reached any of these conclusions.

His family is about secrets and power. Growing up with his mom, he's learned that the way to handle things is to tightly control them so no one finds out the ways things have gone wrong. A big part of him is trying to suck Aya away from her more open family and into his, where shame will keep her quiet.

Of course, the other interesting layer is that he hates his family, too. He knows that whole deal sucks, even as he's acting it out now... that's why he's usually so passive (he rightfully resents his awful mom, but he knows it does no good to pick a fight, so he just lies down).

Are we even reading the same story?

Because I have no idea how you reached any of these conclusions.

Yeah, some people on this thread seem to have taken "Kaede doesn't like his sisters" and spun that into HIS FAMILY IS A WEB OF LIES AND MANIPULATION

Guys, his mom visits them regularly, brings them hand-made presents, and worries about their happiness and well being. She didn't get judgemental at all when she found out Ayano kissed a woman, (kinda the opposite, actually,) she just tried to encourage her son's wife to cherish their marriage. She's been nothing but nice this whole time. Yeah, she's probably trying to keep her son's wife from running off with another woman, I mean...Of course she is? She's looking after her son's happiness. She was pushing about children the first time she showed up, but the flashback after that made it pretty clear Wataru wants kids, and Ayano is meh about it, so...again, worrying about her son's happiness. She asked them to contribute financially now that her husband is injured, but they've got medical bills to worry about and her husband is hospitalized, plus she's got an adult daughter that seems to be living off of them. They seem like they're actually in a significant jam, so it's not that weird that she'd go to them for help.

We've seen basically nothing about the sisters, aside from Kaede doesn't particularly like them. This issue showed us that the youngest is a shut-in who loved her grandmother, and the oldest is using her old bedroom as a storage space.

THOSE BITCHES.

Wataru has expressed zero ill will towards his family that I can recall. He was vaguely embarassed by his mom when the family met. Not exactly uncommon. (He also smilingly talked about how she was happy about the marriage, which suggests that he's happy that she's happy.)

I re-read their interactions just to make sure I wasn't missing anything significant, and I can't see anything that suggests Wataru's family isn't just a bunch of pretty normal people.

His family is about secrets and power. Growing up with his mom, he's learned that the way to handle things is to tightly control them so no one finds out the ways things have gone wrong. A big part of him is trying to suck Aya away from her more open family and into his, where shame will keep her quiet.

Of course, the other interesting layer is that he hates his family, too. He knows that whole deal sucks, even as he's acting it out now... that's why he's usually so passive (he rightfully resents his awful mom, but he knows it does no good to pick a fight, so he just lies down).

Are we even reading the same story?

Because I have no idea how you reached any of these conclusions.

Yeah, some people on this thread seem to have taken "Kaede doesn't like his sisters" and spun that into HIS FAMILY IS A WEB OF LIES AND MANIPULATION

Guys, his mom visits them regularly, brings them hand-made presents, and worries about their happiness and well being. She didn't get judgemental at all when she found out Ayano kissed a woman, (kinda the opposite, actually,) she just tried to encourage her son's wife to cherish their marriage. She's been nothing but nice this whole time. Yeah, she's probably trying to keep her son's wife from running off with another woman, I mean...Of course she is? She's looking after her son's happiness. She was pushing about children the first time she showed up, but the flashback after that made it pretty clear Wataru wants kids, and Ayano is meh about it, so...again, worrying about her son's happiness. She asked them to contribute financially now that her husband is injured, but they've got medical bills to worry about and her husband is hospitalized, plus she's got an adult daughter that seems to be living off of them. They seem like they're actually in a significant jam, so it's not that weird that she'd go to them for help.

We've seen basically nothing about the sisters, aside from Kaede doesn't particularly like them. This issue showed us that the youngest is a shut-in who loved her grandmother, and the oldest is using her old bedroom as a storage space.

THOSE BITCHES.

Wataru has expressed zero ill will towards his family that I can recall. He was vaguely embarassed by his mom when the family met. Not exactly uncommon. (He also smilingly talked about how she was happy about the marriage, which suggests that he's happy that she's happy.)

I re-read their interactions just to make sure I wasn't missing anything significant, and I can't see anything that suggests Wataru's family isn't just a bunch of pretty normal people.

I agree that we haven’t seen much either way of Wataru’s sisters, but the mom has so far absolutely played the role of a matriarch who suppresses resolution in favor of convenience.

The whole “girls kissing doesn’t even count!” reaction was a great way of invalidating both her son’s and daughter-in-law’s concerns about the relationship they’re in and encouraging them to put the blinders on.

Moving them in primarily seems like her way of more readily micromanaging her kid’s life (and by extension the person who’s a piece of “his life”).

I agree that we haven’t seen much either way of Wataru’s sisters, but the mom has so far absolutely played the role of a matriarch who suppresses resolution in favor of convenience.

The whole “girls kissing doesn’t even count!” reaction was a great way of invalidating both her son’s and daughter-in-law’s concerns about the relationship they’re in and encouraging them to put the blinders on.

Moving them in primarily seems like her way of more readily micromanaging her kid’s life (and by extension the person who’s a piece of “his life”).

She didn't say "girls kissing doesn't count!", she said a kiss isn't a big deal. That's explicitly why she asked how far it had gone in the first place, because there IS a point at which things have gone too far. And she's not wrong. Kissing someone other than your spouse is wrong, but it's not necessarily a good reason to get divorced. -We- know that Ayano is actually going through a deeper emotional crisis, but Wataru's mom hasn't heard any of that. (She did even ask if Ayano likes women, to which Ayano said she didn't know. I don't think it's crazy to suggest that maybe she's just hoping for a resolution that doesn't involve her son having a broken heart.)

As for the rest, we don't really have any evidence of that. You say "micromanaging her kid's life" but we haven't seen her micromanaging anything. It could be that she just literally needs the support, or it could even be that she wants to make Ayano feel more like part of their family. And even if she is being pushy, that doesn't mean she's being the kind of conniving manipulative control-freak bitch that some on these forums seem to want to paint her as. Everythig we've seen suggests that she cares about her son's happiness, that she likes Ayano and treats her with respect and affection.

I don't think it's unreasonable to disagree with the way she's handling the situation, but I -do- think it's not fair to start characterizing her as a terrible person based on what we've seen so far.

From the first chapter to now, poor Akari.