Page (000)45, the girl went for the... is it called second-hand kiss? I blanked the fuck out right now. In any case, girl went for it without a shred of hesitation. Makes me think a few things:
One thought is what I'd say is the more obvious idea that the girl legitimately harbors feelings for her actual sister with said sister being either departed or living but unreachable. Perhaps said sister had already rejected her or had gotten married, plenty of options, but the girl's now seeking to fill the void with the conveniently placed pretty office lady.
Another thought is that the girl was, from the start, interested in the pretty office lady who was very implicitly (read: as implicit as a mega car crash) into her and decided due to whatever reasons to get close to her through this contract thingy. Admittedly much more of a reach as a theory, and would need a bit more extra work to make actual sense, but the way two chapters had paralleled Hayafuji with the other woman in Meguru's flashbacks gives me that vibe. Also the kiss thing, you don't just do that out of nowhere. Said woman, in this line of thought, would either be an unreachable sister or a past love/past partner/past contractee, which is where I think this theory would be leaning toward.
I don't yet have an opinion or a thought regarding the awfully convenient housing situation. I don't necessarily feel that Meguru would have enough power to have an active part in it, but we also don't know much about her at all. I do think that there's a method to the madness and that this isn't just lazy and convenient writing, with evidence for that being the mentioned parallels between the two women in Meguru's life.
(edit) I also don't know how to exactly explain this, but there's something about the little details of Meguru's behavior that radiates a not exactly sexual, but intimate and seductive aura, at least in little sister mode. Some of the panels have a very peculiar tension to them that isn't exactly sexual in nature, but much closer to it than anything else. Admittedly I'm definitely reading too deep into things at this point and this is a shot in the dark, but there are visible differences in the nuance(s) that legitimately interest me, and I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing the series develop and how these come into play from this point.
In either case, what I think the plan here is to have Hayafuji and Meguru develop an actual bond through the whole contract sister thing, and most probably develop into romance, and that the story would overall be on the more lighthearted side of things, but not without its fair share of turbulence. Honestly, I'd say I'm in for the ride either case, so yeah.
last edited at May 1, 2022 8:58AM
