Just as I was complaining about wanting more development for Magenta, we finally got a chapter focused on her yay! But man I totally didn't expect the story to pair her up with Alice. Kinda bummed and it's honestly kinda weird with the ages, but I'm interested to see where it goes. I do hope it stays non-sexual between them though because Alice is barely out of diapers herself my god.
Somehow the beach chapter really pointed out who is being paired with who like it was showed that haruka and korisu is being hinted on.. at first i thought they just had randomly put together for interaction at the beach for the sake of having a partner because each girls had one... not saying it would be sexual just maybe it will be the paired for the last battle or whatever it is that is happening...
Yeah when the beach chapter first came out I was like oh magenta is playing with alice and had an inkling that they were already "pairing" people up, but i didn't expect it to actually be their endgame lol. Like you i just thought they were just tossed together as the left over characters (which they kinda are right now :/
But it is kinda cool that the basis for their friendship remains the same as the beach ch: Magenta being the one to reach out to Alice when no one else wants to play with her.
As some other people have already said/alluded to, age and physical/mental development is often wildly disparate in anime and manga, I barely think of it lol. And in this series there interacting with others the same age.
Everyone except Alice!!!!
....Which is why I hope Magenta and Alice's relationship stays in the wholesome, non-sexual thing they got going on right now. I really, really hope that this doesn't open up any kinks for Magenta that she'll look to Alice to fulfill ×_×