Oh man, I love it when all the characters are some degree of messed up. The parents get first prize for being messed up though, of course. I hope they can, uh, heal from all that trauma and perhaps start to find some stability at some point? Though their current relationship doesn't seem set up to promote stability.

Really didn't see that plot twist coming...

Oh man, I love it when all the characters are some degree of messed up. The parents get first prize for being messed up though, of course. I hope they can, uh, heal from all that trauma and perhaps start to find some stability at some point? Though their current relationship doesn't seem set up to promote stability.

well, that doesn’t seemn to be as important tho, she got out of the marriage and even got some funds for a new life sooo i don’t think she actually cares what kind of relationship they have

WTFn' TWIST is this?... I like it.

woooooooah.

I wish there's some tags that say "these bitches crazy" cuz Drama just ain't enough for this lol

Well that was some knot plot twist we got there

WTFn' TWIST is this?... I like it.

It's like a Reversal, except it's a half-twist? They don't quite reverse positions, more like, end up on the same level of toxicity.

Default Romance mode: Girl A is nice, girl B is nice, they love each other.
Regular Drama mode: Girl A is nice, girl B is messed up, "I can fix her".
Toxic Reversal mode: Girl A is nice, girl B is messed up, except psych! Girl A turns out even crazier.
Kodama Naoko mode: Girl A is messed up, girl B is messed up, end up in a surprisingly functional relationship.
Nobody But You mode: Girl A is messed up, girl B is messed up, except psych! They are both devoted girlfriends with compatible fetishes.

Within this model, this is effectively a toxicity Reversal chaining regular Drama into Kodama Naoko territory of toxic. A strong combo, if you can pull it off.

last edited at Jan 9, 2024 10:46AM

gotta say, was a fun read^^

Oooooo that was some M. Night twist at the end there, not bad. Love a good curveball.

That was AWESOME

i'm actually not sure what to make of that twist, lol. the lead-up made me so anxious, and then to have it end on that note... yeah

e-eyo???

And that's what we call an unreliable narrator

i'm actually not sure what to make of that twist, lol. the lead-up made me so anxious, and then to have it end on that note... yeah

nevermind, i somehow managed to skip page 20 entirely on first read??? this makes WAY more sense now. thumbs up for the twist.

THIS
WAS
SO
GOOD
THIS
WAS
SO
GOOD
HOLY
FUCK
i was like "what is this shit"
and then i was like "WHAT IS THIS SHIT"
and then i was like "THIS AUTHOR IS A GENIUS"

read it thrice, ultimate satisfaction

so good

just... so good

And that's what we call an unreliable narrator

DUDE THIS WAS LIKE A LESSON IN WRITING

Im just

god so good

And also hot as fk

It was pretty good. I thought the twist was reaching a bit--like, to pull it off they had to kind of stretch the credibility of the first part. I think it's actually hard to do a good unreliable narrator in manga. I mean, to me the thing that makes unreliable narrators work is that they have an implied audience that they have some kind of awareness of--they're telling the story, and they colour it in some way to fit what they want you to think. In manga, you've got a viewpoint character, but normally they're not telling you the story--they're unaware of the fourth wall. And so if a character's thoughts turn out to have misrepresented how things are, particularly if they misrepresent how the character is perfectly well aware things are (ie it's not that the character has delusions), to me that comes off just implausible, or borderline cheating, or at best just kind of clunky.

This twist was pulled off mostly by having the character not think about certain aspects of the interactions until it's time for the reveal, and it pretty much works . . . but it's a bit clunky to me, because frankly it would be really weird for someone's stream of consciousness recollecting events to be structured in that way, where thoughts about certain aspects of their relationship get delayed even though clearly as events happened they were mixed in.

So I'm not as wildly impressed as many here, but I still liked it.

This was fun. Loved the twist and reveal. There was a lot of defiance and power in her black "As if," which hinted that she didn't see herself as a victim or powerless. Her whole demeanor shifted then (to what we now know is her natural state), compared to how she was with her never-to-be mother-in-law. She was completely unfazed by the meeting. So, as the memories came in, I wondered where that confident, defiant personality had gone and when it would return. It returned in an interesting way. They did good to seed in hints of her real personality earlier in the story before bringing it back at the end.

last edited at Jan 9, 2024 2:15PM

I wish we had Minako's perspective.

oh wauw this is a good one!

nevermind, i somehow managed to skip page 20 entirely on first read??? this makes WAY more sense now. thumbs up for the twist.

Page 20, with "the shoplifting was worth it" and a sex scene, was missing from the initial upload.

That was so well set up i did not see it coming

The twist made this more fun than I was expecting.

It was pretty good. I thought the twist was reaching a bit--like, to pull it off they had to kind of stretch the credibility of the first part. I think it's actually hard to do a good unreliable narrator in manga. I mean, to me the thing that makes unreliable narrators work is that they have an implied audience that they have some kind of awareness of--they're telling the story, and they colour it in some way to fit what they want you to think. In manga, you've got a viewpoint character, but normally they're not telling you the story--they're unaware of the fourth wall. And so if a character's thoughts turn out to have misrepresented how things are, particularly if they misrepresent how the character is perfectly well aware things are (ie it's not that the character has delusions), to me that comes off just implausible, or borderline cheating, or at best just kind of clunky.

This twist was pulled off mostly by having the character not think about certain aspects of the interactions until it's time for the reveal, and it pretty much works . . . but it's a bit clunky to me, because frankly it would be really weird for someone's stream of consciousness recollecting events to be structured in that way, where thoughts about certain aspects of their relationship get delayed even though clearly as events happened they were mixed in.

So I'm not as wildly impressed as many here, but I still liked it.

I'm just grateful that this isn't Heavy Rain, Shelby is possibly the worst example I've seen of what you're talking about in media.

nevermind, i somehow managed to skip page 20 entirely on first read??? this makes WAY more sense now. thumbs up for the twist.

Page 20, with "the shoplifting was worth it" and a sex scene, was missing from the initial upload.

and here i was thinking it was entirely user error haha.