Am I the only one who has absolutely zero idea what’s going on? I can’t tell the new characters apart, I don’t understand their relationship to one another, no idea.
The Blond with long hair is a manga artist (pen name "Heke") and a bit of a slacker. The darker haired girl is her editor, Shinohara, who is also a streamer who goes by Lala (or "Rara" in earlier chapters) online. They're friends online who game together, and they're both secretly in love with one another. We -thought- that Heke was oblivious to the fact that her friend who she loves is also her editor, but it turns out she's known from the very beginning and has been trying to drop hints to get Shino to make a move, but Shino thinks that Heke hates her, so she's afraid to reveal that the editor (she thinks) Heke hates is actually also the online friend she loves.
Shinohara is also friends with Iori from way back, they went to school together, which is how these two tie back to the main cast.