This series is just way too precious, seeing young Miss Sunflower's trauma spelled out like this hit surprisingly hard and its interesting that she, rather than being attracted to the previous Miss Sunflower, rather had some sort of mum-complex towards her that was weirdly wholesome?!
I had forgotten that we’d actually seen this “first Miss Sunflower as surrogate mother” thing before until I just happened to re-read Chapter 43, the one where our Miss Sunflower is sick and dreamily remembers her mother staying home (as she so rarely did) and taking care of her when she was sick as a little kid.
Her mom got her pudding and read to her (as a substitute for her brother, who would tell her stories), which recalls the first Miss Sunflower reading to her as she worked in the bookstore. Then she says, “Maybe it’s that they had begun to merge together,” just before she fully wakes up.
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/miss_sunflower_ch43#13
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/miss_sunflower_ch43#14
Then in the present Matsuri shows up with pudding, at which point she flashes back to her mother reading to her, and the chapter ends with a big Miss Sunflower smile.
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/miss_sunflower_ch43#18
I admit that for a long time I too had been assuming that our Miss Sunflower was romantically attracted to the first MS, but these chapters make it pretty clear that their connection was about the affection and emotional support that she didn’t get from her own mother (and, of course, the healing from the guilt she had by blaming herself for her mother’s leaving).