Personally I like this ending (probably has something to do with it not concerning myself). Yeah I might be f***ing sick but there is indeed some appeal about yuri cheating (specifically the yuri part), and both of them look amazing slash hot so why not. To me, this is kind of a happy ending (the degree of happiness however depends on whether the marriage is an actual one or an agreement between the husband and the wife). Am I the only one here who thinks that the husband is gay and his business trips are really just him going to his boyfriend? Maybe that is why Ryouko did not feel bad one bit for cheating on her husban with Seri? I mean it is a possibility, unless you are very sure that Ryouko has no morals nor shame.

last edited at Nov 17, 2017 7:24AM

Am I the only one here who thinks that the husband is gay and his business trips are really just him going to his boyfriend?

Yes, you are. Since you invented that theory whole cloth with zero textual evidence. I think it's more likely that Ryouko is a manipulative cheater who either doesn't care about the impact of her actions on others, or perhaps she feels bad about what she's doing but continues anyways. That's how she is presented in the story. That goes along with the whole theme of the anthology. But you could be right. Maybe in the single panel the husband shows up in you got a "closeted gay man in a sham marriage" vibe from him, and this is actually happy, fulfilling relationship for everyone involved.

I will take a different route. The ending you know?... bubble gives off a lot of possibilities.

1. the husband may not be clueless. He knows what is Seri-chan to Ryouko. Thus, he was intrigued and very curious. His business trips may also entail that he is meeting a same-sex lover as well.
2. Ryouko plan to move back and bought a house hoping to be with Seri-chan. So, the park meeting was intentional not coincidental. Confirming that Seri-chan felt the same, she resolved to transfer.
3. It could be that Ryouko entered to an agreement with her husband(already in a same-sex relationship) to lift the stress and interrogation of parents(esp. mother) about settling down and having children with this kind of arrangement and told about Seri-chan.
4. Part of the agreement is to live away from parents to avoid interrogation from both families. Remember Ryouko's family moved out also because of the father's job. It could be that Ryouko live in the same neighborhood as husband's.

These are all possibilities inspired by real life journey of a Chinese woman who is in a same-sex relationship. She helped young Chinese generations because of non-acceptance of same-sex relationships. The article was part of a documentation on LGBTQ.

I like this take on it. While the younger generation is slowly changing things, I've met quite a few women (and men) who are in this sort of situation / relationship. One should also not forget that some women marry to be able to have children, even if they are not really interested in men. Even in more tolerant societies, it can be very difficult indeed for women to find donors if they are not married (+ doctors who will help in these cases -- not everyone is a big fan of turkey basters).

That being said, I have also met young women who were in relationships with older married women with children. This included one case in Japan that was pretty darn dark, with the older woman basically outright abusing the younger one, both physically as well as mentally (wealthy married woman meets rather young adult who ran away from home...).

To jtt, yes, it is a harsh reality. It is sad that, it is society that drives people to clandestine life to avoid the biases and cruelness of unfounded judgment.

To others, the possibilities I mentioned are based primarily to "consistency and inconsistencies".

1. The husband remarks on staying, may it be a banter/joke, is inconsistent to the word "business trip". Business trips are made because there are transactions that can't be done in the office. It takes extra time and effort to make one. Schedules, tickets, deadlines and meetings with the other business party or employees of the other branch. That said, it is illogical to postpone it. If one can go back to the one page, you may notice as well the tie of the husband. If I am the wife, I will fix it for him or even tell him to fix it before leaving the house. Business trips must build impression. You are not only representing yourself but the company also. So, by this impression, I justify it that Ryouko doesn't bother herself to take care of the husband's needs and more, the husband doesn't mind. He is just as jolly and interested to know Seri-chan. Why? That for me is "inconsistency of behavior".
2. If one will go back to pages on the park scenes, the questions/statements are directed to solicit personal answers from Seri-chan. Short but effective choice of words. Buying a house in that neighborhood. Why? It doesn't show a lot of friends and memories except with Seri-chan. So, why buy a house that entails business trips? Would it be logical to ask the company for transfer to the place where he does business trips and even buy a house there? If it was only a one-time/few business trips, why buy the house there? Your answers at this point are also pure speculations that has no substantive evidences as well from the few pages of the manga. But for me, buying the house in that particular is inconsistent to the husband's work and no details was provided on Ryouko's work.
3. So, to be consistent to the inconsistencies, I provide scenarios that would explain things. Like, the business marriage. I could have point out that the husband is not gay since stereotyped businessgays are always neat. But, if this is the case, why the business trip(as explained in #1 that the business trip is questionable)? He could just stay in the house. So, I was thinking there is more.
4. So, if you put these scenarios would it explain why Ryouko and Seri-chan can do it during the business trip of the husband? Seri-chan knows what is going on. That is why she willingly come into terms by spending time in the house of Ryouko. The convenience of having a husband and a house to avoid the judgmental eyes of society.

Edit:My speculations/inferences will change if there is more to base from. And that is the beauty of us all, we think differently. Just like the recommended manga I read yesterday by Yuri Guy in the New Readers forum, Qualia, the protagonist Yukari thinks differently. Rather shunning it off, think of the endless possibilities.

last edited at Nov 17, 2017 8:39PM

You people need to face the bad and good. Relationships shouldn't be fantasized and this jot is one of em. Sure, the moral of the story isn't quite "normal", but overall, you will come across people (or yourself) in this situation. Did I like the ending? Not really, but it was also an intriguing way of going about it...

You people need to face the bad and good. Relationships shouldn't be fantasized and this jot is one of em.

This is fiction, and all fiction is just fantasies. To say relationships shouldn't be fantasized means that you can't write fiction about the interaction of any two people, ever.

Also, if I want to read a lot of happy love stories, that's my choice, and it is not a moral failing.

Besides, if I wanted to see unhappy relationships, I can always turn on the news.

Thor

This is fiction, and all fiction is just fantasies.

Ain't nothin' just about fantasies, take it from me.

La Aoi Beau Chico

Relationships shouldn't be fantasized and this jot is one of em.

Welp, the entire romance industry can just pack it in then, lol.

I kinda get what you're trying to say here, that we shouldn't be idealizing (rather than fantasizing) relationships, but even that doesn't really work. I mean in this case the situation is pretty artificial and relies on some rare circumstances to even happen at all. So it's no more realistic than a fluffy, happy end story.

It is an interesting story though, even if I don't find it relatable.

wild speculation in a situation of desperation for justification of a prevarication for fornication is causation for damnation.

I found this terrible. It couldve been better than what it was, It lacked to me.

last edited at Dec 2, 2017 2:12AM

Ohhh I'VE BEEN TRICKED!! NO TAG SAYING IT'S ABOUT CHEATING TOO!! T^T

Being a lesbian, but being mad when called a lesbian...

heck

Sorry, don't like the ending.

Pretty sure you're lesbian girl lmao. The ending left a bad taste in my mouth, wish there wasn't cheating involved and just went for unrequited first love full of angst.

Shouldn't this have the cheating tag?

EW WTF

Original Mental Illness Girls Love Anthology

O_o

My thoughts exactly.

I wonder if the whole anthology is devoted to unhealthy relationships, with a title like that. Given that the other translated one-shot from it involves self-mutilation...

I think so. Love that’s just different from the norm. I wouldn’t say it’s unhealthy though. If it’s consensual then it’s healthy to them.

This is not good, damn.
Why the fuck kyouko....
Should put 'cheating' too

nnngh, I like it.... make a part 2!!!

I get the feeling that the husband doesn't mind, so it isn't cheating.
Still not really worth reading though.

It's family pressure, Asians family and the communities itself are pretty tight, there are the good and the bad that comes with it. Most of them who are married don't look for love, they just look start a stable family, they might love their significant other, but not "in love" and that's enough for them. Being Asian and traditionalist myself, I would most likely get married to a guy and settle down; despite being bi.

I wouldn't even say it is exclusive to Asian families and communities. One of my best friends is in a relationship like that, with a guy who is fine with her having flings with a ton of girls because she prefers girls so much more to guys. She just kind of gave up on having a real relationship with another girl because she had a few who didn't treat the relationship seriously, despite her track record with guys up until this last one being just as bad. Which seems kind of weird to me, as one of her best friends, who is currently in a happy lesbian relationship next to her, but it was her choice really.

It is definitely not restricted to Asian culture.

I live in CA and the first person who ever told me a similar story is my English professor. He had a wife and 3 daughters until he found someone who was happy with him. His wife and daughters knew and also were also supportive. His wife divorced and allowed him to marry the man he loves. He said his biggest achievement was proof reading his eldest daughter college admission essay about growing up with a gay father.

It is understandable for stories like these to trigger range of conflicting emotion. For me personally, it makes me question whether a relationship like that is twisted or that my understanding of love and marriage, which normal culture and media have taught me, itself is twisted.

First time I've double-quoted like this; wanted to save these for my own records. I haven't even read the story, but I appreciated these thoughtful comments. Even though they were made years ago, they resonate with/are interesting to me as examples of the lives others have lived.

When I heard her said she's married I was like O0O

SERI, NO

It seems like many in the West might be ignorant of how things are in other countries, but just as a reminder, same-sex marriage is not yet legal in Japan in 2021 and marriage, in addition to being a standard status symbol and rite of passage, also brings many financial benefits not afforded to unmarried people. You can say a sham marriage is cheating the system, but until it is corrected, you can argue the system itself is broken in the first place.

A common viewpoint in Japan is "strangers doing the gay, whatever, but please not my own family members" which is not at all easy to dismiss when people around continually emphasize the importance of respecting family.

The younger generation may see things differently and slowly changing things, but another important point is that loveless marriages are common in East Asia. Its purpose to bring forth offspring, no happiness with a partner or anything like that. Many enter marriages understanding this to be the case. While divorce does happen, the fact that marriage is a status symbol and not simply a personal matter means it brings a risk to one's reputation unless there are extraordinary circumstances.

The commenters who say "rotten cheater" are the ones with the privilege of not being under such discrimination, and perhaps this shows that it is easy to take privileges for granted. The other works in this anthology does bring some doubt on these characters, but overall they don't seem as crazy as the other ones.

It is true that this short of a manga doesn't allow the cultural context to be explained very well, but it is important to keep in mind that even as things change rapidly in the modern world, that things still vary wildly between countries.

last edited at Feb 26, 2021 3:50PM

Am I the only one here who thinks that the husband is gay and his business trips are really just him going to his boyfriend?

Yes, you are. Since you invented that theory whole cloth with zero textual evidence. I think it's more likely that Ryouko is a manipulative cheater who either doesn't care about the impact of her actions on others, or perhaps she feels bad about what she's doing but continues anyways. That's how she is presented in the story. That goes along with the whole theme of the anthology. But you could be right. Maybe in the single panel the husband shows up in you got a "closeted gay man in a sham marriage" vibe from him, and this is actually happy, fulfilling relationship for everyone involved.

Right? The lengths people go on this site to invalidate any situation where the man is the/a wronged party is astonishing. They always either had it coming, knows about the infidelity but it secretly cool with it, or is doing literally the exact same thing. It can't just be the woman is manipulative to her own ends.

Seri is also in a precarious position. The woman is just using her as an outlet, and has likely used others in her previous location for similar before, given how smooth she is at it. It's not like she's ever going to leave her husband or otherwise pursue anything serious with her. She's just going to string along this young girl and potentially ruin her life.

We don't even have her motivations for why she married in the first place. Was she pressured into it? A lot of people are jumping to that conclusion but by her very nature she could also have been in it for the stability or any other number of reasons. Not every person like this character has been victimized by guilt from their families.

last edited at Jun 14, 2021 9:19PM

At least in My Unrequited Love, Uta had reasons other than Kaoru to live with the pair. And she didn't actually cheat with her on the brother.

Not a fan.

saw the tag. yep never gonna end well.

lame