I'm so worried about Hikaru's grades

Holy, this has such a great character growth. I love it. In the beginning I was a little worried that this was gonna excuse toxic behaviour, but I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of self-reflection and that reverse scene at Kairi's home was awesome!!

Please explain to me chapter 4 like I'm five, I didn't understand it

Kira is tired of people she does not know falling in love with her. From her perspective she's not doing anything, just existing, and then suddenly now and again a stranger who intensely wants things from her appears. Worse yet the unwanted attention causes her social problems, so it's experienced as an imposition that she starts to resent. "You have no idea who I am and yet you show up, demand the most intimate things from me and fuck up my social life in the process??" Which is a fuckin mood, though I didn't experience it myself until I was in my 20's, and which has mercifully subsided now that I'm an old hag.

Then Hikaru shows up and she thinks it's going to be more of the same, except Hikaru actually asks to be rejected. There's this dynamic in social justice circles that might be illustrative here, where sympathetic people on a higher rung of the social hierarchy get verbally abused by those lower on it because people who deal with bigotry can't take it out on the actual bigots but you can yell at a friendly straight person or whatever. It's a kind of displacement, the people you actually want to yell at won't ever understand why you're yelling at them but the friendly straight person will see and understand your pain, so you take out your frustration on them instead. Hikaru actually isn't shallow in the way Kira disdains, despite her uncontrollable infatuation she has her priorities and asks to be rejected, but Kira sees her as a convenient outlet for her frustration so she decides to mess with her. As she gets to know her she realizes she's treating her as a prop in her internal drama the same way people who don't know her asking her out do, and starts to feel guilty about it. And catches feelings in the process.

There's a trope in medieval Arabic literature (you're an extremely precocious five year old, we're assuming) where a character gets asked by a monarch to become an advisor, and the character refuses, because they're a pious person who does not sully themselves with ugly demands of power, their priorities correctly concerned with heaven rather than earthly matters. The offer to become a vizier establishes the worth of the person, and the rejection of the opportunity for more social status establishes their piety. In a sense Hikaru established her worth by asking to be rejected, because what is not demanded can be freely given. Kira can love her back and feel it uncoerced specifically because Hikaru never asked to be loved.

^ really nice analysis! Beautiful.

Not the sudden tragedy D:

I was literally wondering when there will be more of this earlier today (well, technically yesterday, since it's a few minutes past midnight).

I unknowingly manifested the scanlation team into completing this chapter and uploaders into getting it here lmao /j /lh /not-serious

Thischapter went from "fuck" to "hehe cute" to "hehe fuck" real fast ykwim?

The comedy part became 20% and angst 80% since the last three chapters ahaha This story is really great. I just hope it won't end in tragedy because whew all these characters, especially the mom had gone through a lot.

sudden unexpected dark turn

this manga has had dark vibes from the first chapter. Also, remember chapter four?

last edited at Mar 7, 2025 4:55AM

Man, they were making so much progress. At least Kira made. Hikaru seems to have a lot of self-loathing in herself. She said it from the beginning, that she is not good at anything... And we just believed her. But she probably is just hating on herself so much :O Also she still wasn't able to be honest about what she really wants to do. It's like they are tip-toeing around each other. "Let's do what you like." - "No, no. let's do What YOU like..."
And now this. -.- I bet her mom has similar issues. Like that she has trouble finding out what she needs and always putting others first in a way that is not healthy. But maybe it's a chance for Kira to show a supportive side?

I am so addicted to this. I was checking the series for updates for days...

last edited at Mar 7, 2025 3:42AM

Girl, you should have said aquarium, it was obvious. Now your mom is in the hospital, see what you did?

She's certainly done everything her mom told her not to do now, but yes, she's clearly happier for it. ^_^

What a harsh twist there at the end, though...

It stood out to me that the Mom had short, dark hair when she made an appearance in this chapter, after having seen her only with long, dyed hair in the flashbacks. So I figured she would receive some focus, but of course I didn't expect a sudden hospitalization. Still, that cough in chapter 4's flashback might have been a shorthand for her being in poor health from working too much.

i did take note of that cough, but in the overall darkness of chapter four it fell by the wayside for me. especially since that chapter was Kira's perspective, I was mostly focusing on reading her

Oooh, lots of compelling threads this chapter.

I prefer some toxicity and drama so I was prepared to be disappointed by the relationship being less toxic than advertised, but I actually really like the progression of this story. both characters are really compelling and distinctive and I like the dynamic between them. there's sort of a believable amount of distance between them still, but also enough of a sense of closeness/feeling comfortable with each other that I can buy into feeling like the relationship will work out in the long run

that's a surprisingly level-headed explanation to the whole "don't fall in love" thing. Her mother's not a villain or romance-hating control freak. She just tried to delay smth she was afraid of bc she didn't know how to teach her daughter smth she wasn't equipped to deal with herself. And simply told her as much.

Can't think of many other instances where smth like this went by as straightforward.

I've enjoyed how everything in this manga has a kind of extremely level-headed answer and conclusion that seems like it's gonna verge into something toxic but then just swings right back to normal.

Oh no mom collapses! control freak! no, she's just overworked and stressed single mom who just wasn't ready to talk about it yet. the reason she doesn't want her daughter to get involved with that stuff is she's the type of person to bullrush into anything 100% of the way and wants her to think first.

which is also has made her endearing to Kira, because she has a lot of associative trauma with high school romance, and there is just this dogged girl who just wants to constantly do the right thing and be good for her with 100% conviction that she can't actually help but be actually smitten with her and her sheer earnestness. Not unlike our MCs mom

last edited at Mar 31, 2025 6:52PM

Hikaru being a carbon copy of her dad, who is absent not because he's a piece of shit but because of genuine care about them, is hilarious. Quite a few spins on tired tropes.

I wonder, will she also get that Kira is falling for her?

I genuinely gotta buy the volume when it comes out

"You fell in love at first site... with a woman? Ah fuck, I never even thought to warn you about falling for women. I guess this is on me."

10/10 coming out scene.

last edited at Mar 31, 2025 8:40PM

Dang, apparently it's ending in 2 chapters:
https://x.com/torii_shiduku/status/1901883199359521157

Great family moment but the story does seem to be wrapping up.

last edited at Mar 31, 2025 9:36PM

Are we going to find out in the future that Hikaru and her dad has some kind of disease that lowers their IQ when they fall in love or something.

Debt sucks but to divorce someone over that and making them become a single parent? I don't know about that.

Are we going to find out in the future that Hikaru and her dad has some kind of disease that lowers their IQ when they fall in love or something.

Debt sucks but to divorce someone over that and making them become a single parent? I don't know about that.

I mean that song from Phineas and Ferb across the 2nd Dimension makes it seem like divorce can save some ache financially …..

Dang, apparently it's ending in 2 chapters:
https://x.com/torii_shiduku/status/1901883199359521157

Great family moment but the story does seem to be wrapping up.

Noooo this is so well written my god I really want to buy this if it get licensed in English. May get it in Japanese if I have to.