Awa-kun was overwhelmed and surprised by the gay

It's okay dear. You'll learn to get used to it, and even embrace it.

huh yeah i certainly didn't expect the unraveling of her normal life to start at work, instead of with her fiancee, but honestly that just means that I can see Mitsuki just going full force "yeah turns out I'm just too in love with Tsuzuki to keep pretending like the life I lead now is something I want more than the life I can promise myself by allowing me to be with her"

last edited at Aug 15, 2022 3:01PM

God lesbians move so fast she's known her for like no time at all and barely had that much alone time with her yet she already loves her?

I really don't like Tsuzuki as a character at all she seems so arrogant to me and just comes off so smug. How she has two guys okay with both being with her and now some how has Kashiwai in love with her is beyond me. Feel bad for her fiancé sitting at home that she's probably going to continue to string along for god knows how long behind is back. At least break it off with him if you're going to go be with the chick and her revolving harem where you will most likely never be number one to her.

last edited at Aug 15, 2022 3:04PM

so she's owning up to it at work... what about at home with her current fiancee?

so she's owning up to it at work... what about at home with her current fiancee?

I think this chapter is leading up to her getting home and owning up to it. Especially given how she had an internal monologue about how she could still put a stop to all this and just go back, and then very much moved forward instead by giving her personal details to Tsuzuki.

i really want to see Tsuzuki's side of this whole thing. she doesnt seem dishonest when she says she loves Mitsuki, but she seems a bit lukewarm or too composed in comparison. maybe it's a question of breadth vs depth. perhaps Tsuzuki's love is of a more casual variety where the subject is open to wherever things lead without necessarily placing expectations on things. Mitsuki seems to be quite overwhelmed with her own feelings by comparison. im really curious to see how this pans out.

God lesbians move so fast she's known her for like no time at all and barely had that much alone time with her yet she already loves her?

I think it's safe to say that, at least at this current point in time, Kashiwai doesn't so much love Tsuzuki as much as she loves the idea of Tsuzuki. Idealization is after all what her character is built on; the entire reason she loves being a wedding planner is so she can create her ideal brides that she then...lives vicariously through? We know she's loved weddings since she was a kid (chapter 4). The tension in her character from the beginning, before she even met Tsuzuki, is the contrast between the "ideal (in her mind) weddings" she constructs for others and the boring, ordinary mundanity she's experienced since her own engagement.

Tsuzuki is so fascinating to Kashiwai because the very qualities that (seemingly) make her her ideal bride -- beauty, confidence, sincerity, openness with her love -- also allow her to reject everything Kashiwai stands for. This fundamental contradiction is what's driving her insane and tempting her to throw away her life, but that too is a major part of Tsuzuki's appeal. In chapter 5, the one where they kiss, Kashiwai says: "The sensation of insecurity coming from being on water is both scary and enjoyable." Both Tsuzuki herself and the prospect of being with her terrify Kashiwai, but that is precisely why she's going through with this. From the very beginning she's wanted to take a wrecking ball to her own life, and Tsuzuki just happens to have given her an excuse to do so.

Thinking it through like this, the real mystery is actually why Tsuzuki fell in love with Kashiwai. Hoping we get another chapter from her PoV to shed some light on this.

“love is something you have to cultivate” is immediately overwhelmed by a sapphic crush

smacks of gay woman who convinced herself that she can fall in love with men if u ask me

LOL very much this.

Communication's the dominant idea in this chapter, and I continue to be enthralled by how masterfully Akiyama braids motifs around this tale's diverse themes, as intricate and complicated, as quick to bunch and unravel as the bramble-flowered relations that filigree our protagonists' affairs. From the message that kicks off our latest match of spousal squash to the clipped private conversations Kashiwai has with her colleagues, as well as the misdirected card from a marriage happier than anything on-page, the anecdote about planners arranging a series of talks to secure an ailing union (along w/ the money they'd otherwise lose), and the granting of a personal contact number, we see channels of contact and secret messages abound across this segment, and yet so often, there's a certain spillage, an unwanted listener or a distortion of meaning. Awa vaguely catches onto the private implications behind Kashiwai's correspondence, although she's violating professional ethics they haven't even put in the rulebook yet; Fukunaga receives a message meant for Kashiwai, detects the feelings she's been trying to hide, and preaches to her from the Book of Lothario; and both our protagonists are acutely aware of the sensuality of the meetings they arrange, and have grown close enough to develop private jokes, pick up on each other's hearts from miles away, and even confess their love (is that thunder I hear rumbling in the distance?)

Much like the transit motif from previous chapters, communication in Iberis serves as a means to dramatize the greater conflict between public and private spheres that runs across the story, as Kashiwai in this chapter comes to realize that just as there's nothing in the world that's entirely transparent, so can there be nothing entirely intimate. Language is both the lifeblood of humanity and yet as private to us as the blood in an individual vein, the words that web and shore our connections lent delicious secrecy, entailment and idiosyncrasy by the ways in which we perform them to diverse listeners. The dissolution that Kashiwai perceives in her notions of marriage and morality, the perilously enthralling complications that Tsuzuki blows into her life like a storm, now extend not only to weddings, but indeed the meetings that arrange them, the words that define them, the vows that institute them and the implications that bind them. And yet there's beauty in the unravelling of concrete paths, in the light that bleeds from shattered chapel windows, for in the spaces of broken language resides poetry, and all the breathless songs Kashiwai hears in Tsuziki's call, the sirens that once sounded the alarm in her wedding-planner mind for the melting of a matrimony now tempting her to jump ship and risk the waves. And leap she does, accepting the indivisibility of private and public, the irresolution of sin and convention, the intersectionality of work and home, both of which Tsuzuki has proved an admirable wrecker. She puts her cards on the table (quite literally in Tsuzuki's case) and lets the drama unfold, hoping to secure her private affections precisely by making them public, by elevating them from shame to proclamation, stepping onto the Other Side and inviting the peanut gallery to judge until their eyes pop out. There is, of course, a mild irony to the audacity of her revelation, a commitment to Tsuzuki that's not unlike a vow of its own, binding her in rebellion to her co-conspirator in sickness and in death (I trust Akiyama will serve up great helpings of both); it brings the motif of communication full circle with earnestness in the admittance of dishonesty, loyalty in disloyalty, a resounding "I do (not give a fuck)". It'll remain to be seen whether Tsuzuki's as much of a Ride or Die (2021) chick as Kashiwai'll need her to be, though regardless of whether they hop on a train or strap in for pain, I think Akiyama and Ching would both agree that you can never quite outrun yourself.

I think the reason why this is progressing so fast is because the story will focus a lot more on Kashiwai and Tsuzuki's clashing ideals about love, particularly the number of people you can/should share it with.

I love this so much. A mixed feeling between painful and heart-warming come to me whenever I read this manga. To the point sometime I even forgot about Kashiwai and self-insert to fall in love with Tsuzuki as well lol. I love this woman, always has her way to make my heart skip a beat althought she’s just a fanfiction character :)

last edited at Aug 15, 2022 4:59PM

I love this so much. A mixed feeling between painful and heart-warming come to me whenever I read this manga. To the point sometime I even forgot about Kashiwai and self-insert to fall in love with Tsuzuki as well lol. I love this woman, always has her way to make my heart skip a beat althought she’s just a fanfiction character :)

I think it's easy to fall in love with Tsuzuki (even though we really don't know much about her) because Akiyama writes the unexplainable passion Kashiwai has for her so damn well. Like every thought and interaction Kashiwai has about her is so jam packed with sexual and romantic tension that you end up getting swept away as well.

She just went and revealed the whole thing to pokerface-kouhai, this is getting out of hand

                                           Today's Planner

17:30 Meet secret love, under pretence of a work meeting.

17 :32 Slip secret love my personal contact info in order to hide affair from work and fiance

17:34 Find out secret love is mutual

17:35 IMMEDIATELY blab about secret love to coworker

last edited at Aug 15, 2022 11:35PM

                                           Today's Planner

17:30 Meet secret love, under pretence of a work meeting.

17 :32 Slip secret love my personal contact info in order to hide affair from work and fiance

17:34 Find out secret love is mutual

17:35 IMMEDIATELY blab about secret love to coworker

17:36 Now that I'm aware I'm a lesbian, perform the sacred ritual of renting a u-haul

God lesbians move so fast she's known her for like no time at all and barely had that much alone time with her yet she already loves her?

I think it's safe to say that, at least at this current point in time, Kashiwai doesn't so much love Tsuzuki as much as she loves the idea of Tsuzuki. Idealization is after all what her character is built on; the entire reason she loves being a wedding planner is so she can create her ideal brides that she then...lives vicariously through? We know she's loved weddings since she was a kid (chapter 4). The tension in her character from the beginning, before she even met Tsuzuki, is the contrast between the "ideal (in her mind) weddings" she constructs for others and the boring, ordinary mundanity she's experienced since her own engagement.

Tsuzuki is so fascinating to Kashiwai because the very qualities that (seemingly) make her her ideal bride -- beauty, confidence, sincerity, openness with her love -- also allow her to reject everything Kashiwai stands for. This fundamental contradiction is what's driving her insane and tempting her to throw away her life, but that too is a major part of Tsuzuki's appeal. In chapter 5, the one where they kiss, Kashiwai says: "The sensation of insecurity coming from being on water is both scary and enjoyable." Both Tsuzuki herself and the prospect of being with her terrify Kashiwai, but that is precisely why she's going through with this. From the very beginning she's wanted to take a wrecking ball to her own life, and Tsuzuki just happens to have given her an excuse to do so.

Thinking it through like this, the real mystery is actually why Tsuzuki fell in love with Kashiwai. Hoping we get another chapter from her PoV to shed some light on this.

Mmm, yes. There's the letter she gets from her former client who lived out an ideal resolution to pre-wedding troubles, then there's Kashiwai and her fiance. Will she see a similar resolution in her mundane life? The thought doesn't even cross her mind. Just like her disinterest in making venue plans for her wedding earlier, Kashiwai either doesn't want to or can't follow that ideal. However much she can see its beauty in her professional life, it's the counter-ideal that Tsuzuki represents that enthralls Kashiwai. Tsuzuki acts an incursion of ideals into a mundane, material personal life of comphet that hasn't worked out. Work and personal matters first stopped being separate when Tsuzuki broke that barrier. And Kashiwai fell for her, of course.

last edited at Aug 16, 2022 3:07AM

Mitsuki's gonna fuck up her life so hard and I'm here for it

I don't know why people forget that they literally fell in love with each other on first sight. They both didn't admit it at first, because it felt somewhat outlandish, but by now, they both came to term with it.

They didn't even know about each other, they could have not met ever again, but somehow, by some fate's decree, they were reunited and entangled. It's not like they had to interact for a while before they fell in love. All it took is their gaze crossing.

I don't know why people forget that they literally fell in love with each other on first sight. They both didn't admit it at first, because it felt somewhat outlandish, but by now, they both came to term with it.

They didn't even know about each other, they could have not met ever again, but somehow, by some fate's decree, they were reunited and entangled. It's not like they had to interact for a while before they fell in love. All it took is their gaze crossing.

Train station = Cupid’s bower.

Mitsuki's gonna fuck up her life so hard and I'm here for it

She’ll get married for the money… and keep her girlfriend on the side for fun, to keep the story “polyamory”.

Blabbing her affection for a customer is a great way to change her life for the worse. (IRL, major mistake, for the manga—helps move plot forward)

Probable funny lines:
(“We need you to stay in the back office, because we don’t wanna lose business when you’re making out with future brides!”)

“She can still work in the company so long as we find customers who don’t fit her body-type.”

“In terms of testing their bride’s commitment to marriage, She’s better than a bachelorette party.”

Mitsuki's gonna fuck up her life so hard and I'm here for it

She’ll get married for the money… and keep her girlfriend on the side for fun, to keep the story “polyamory”.

I think the term kids these days use for a statement like this is "cringe"

What I find interesting is the subversion of the trope of cheating by Akiyama Haru.

In the beginning, people were up in arms because they thought Tsuzuki was cheating on Hiroki with Fukunaga and were pitying Kashiwai, which seemed to have strong opinions about adultery and cheating, to have fallen for such a "slut".

But then it appears that Tsuzuki isn't cheating at all and it's Kashiwai who's suddenly in the position of the cheater. The more level headed in there seems to be Tsuzuki, which is comfortable with her "abnormality" (in the eyes of society) in being in a poly relationship and whose, as she said, love is additive. There's nothing wrong with Tsuzuki's point of view in adding a woman to her "harem". She loves them all equally. She won't stop loving Hiroki or Fukunaga. She'll add Kashiwai to her love. I think she's being sincere and honest.

The one who need to own up to her feelings is Kashiwai. It looks like she's not indecisive at all and has taken the matter in her own hands. Giving her contact info, "coming out" to her coworker, and Fukunaga has obviously noticed something. He probably saw her when he was kissing in the back alley and that she came to the dress store on a day off probably raised flags to him. Hence, his warning: keep work and personal separate.

The next step is sort things out with Jun-kun. I don't know how it will play out, but I think he's not completely unaware there's something wrong with their relationship, so it may not be as messy as we think. He may even accept Kashiwai's relationship with Tsuzuki and not be actually jealous, which would be an interesting twist.

After 7 chapters, I still have no clue how all of this will unravel, so I'm looking forward to how Akiyama Haru will handle this mess.

But, I think they will have a marriage ceremony, because it's the central theme. But who with who remains to be seen.

last edited at Aug 17, 2022 5:26AM

The next step is sort things out with Jun-kun. I don't know how it will play out, but I think he's not completely unaware there's something wrong with their relationship, so it may not be as messy as we think. He may even accept Kashiwai's relationship with Tsuzuki and not be actually jealous, which would be an interesting twist.

If Akiyama is going to go the maximum drama route -- and it's Akiyama so there's a high chance of that -- then Jun will inwardly be upset and jealous but agree to some sort of poly relationship because he still loves Kashiwai and doesn't want to lose her.

This is getting out of hand guy's

Hey listen, did Fukunaga just say to Mitsuki: “Keep trying to seduce my blondie, you lesbo bitch, and I'll fire your ass so hard you'll get burn marks on your buttcheeks!” or did I get his implied meaning wrong??