Even though I really loathed Fukami when the author raised her from the background into this awful centerpiece villain role, now I feel frustrated thinking, what use will the author have for her in the future? Is she going to get written out now that Kase has shut down her harebrained scheme? It seems pretty likely. And yet there was so much buildup of Fukami, for so long before this––only to really make nothing of it. In the end, the race added nothing to the story but fake drama. Because it had no more serious tie to Kase and Yamada living together than just this up-or-down, yes-or-no, win-the-race-and-find-out sort of denouement, it offered no possibility of a serious test of or change to the couple's relationship. I would have much preferred if the conflict had forced Kase to reach out to other members of her track team, for instance, and find some sort of allies to help her reach a solution with Fukami that didn't call for the race. If the result was that Kase was forced to trust her teammates more, reveal to at least one or two of them why she wanted to leave the dorm in the first place––and then they got Fukami to relent––then I would have been cool with Fukami wanting the race anyway, just to see who would have won. That would have been a great moment for Kase to clean her clock--better than what we got, even though after months of being frustrated with Fukami's aggravating dense obstinance, it was still gratifying to watch her get beat so decisively as to show that there was no chance of her ever winning. I just wanted the author to make something productive out of some of this, some character advancement or change of situation...and I don't think we really got any. I agree that Kase and Yamada's relationship seems to have taken a step back in terms of communication, but I also think that was basically by accident, and not what the author intended. So I feel that probably the damage to their relationship, like Fukami, will be ignored, relegated to the background, and ultimately dismissed.