...I personally don't think that the new character was Mai's mother, I feel that it'd be too silly for this series...
From my own comment the other day, which I have edited with this comment instead of posting a new one, fun for me. In any case, well, slap me silly. I don't hate this development, but any semblance of an answer to questions about this story's direction was thrown out of the window, pretty much. Let's see what happens from here on out. I'll be fully honest, I've seen the idea of shipping Mai's mother with Tae at least twice, and... uh... I'm not totally against this, y'know?
Also big oof for Yuki, she's a good egg.