"Even though she's a girl" / "but we're both girls" bro I'm so tired of this trope in GL.
Like it's totally fine for women to fall in love with each other lady, this isn't the 1900s!
After like say the age of 12 or something I'm sure you know that lesbians exist, especially living in the modern world with access to mass media.
I wish those types of corny lines would go away from all yuri.

Having heard of the existence of queer women is not the same as actually knowing any in person, let alone internalizing that identity for yourself. This trope endures because it references something true, and it's an easy way to pair a same-sex romance plot with a basic arc of self-discovery. I can relate to this sentiment when this trope is used as an excuse to actually shut down a same-sex romance plot, but I don't see why yuri should be purged of it.

It's pretty common in fiction that the main purpose of a statement is to make it even more satisfying when it's proven wrong. "I'll never join your band," says the mean bassist girl, even though we all saw her happily playing music with the other girls in the opening animation. "There is no way you will counter my special attack" says the enemy of the week, right before the battle shonen protagonist counters his special attack by punching really hard. "But we're both girls", "it's not that I like girls or anything", and similar lines should not be taken any more seriously when the pop up in yuri; the irony is the point.

This manga feels kind of amateurish to me. Is this the artist's first work? The compositions and dialogue are flat and cliché and the somewhat awkward posing and anatomy really exacerbate these problems. The characters also have left no impression on me other than boring or even annoying. The ex-homeless girl just lazing around makes the situation feel exploitative to me (@Cogito, I get what you're saying but she could still help out with the dishes, come on). I

I'm guessing she's from a privileged background and is used to having other people do stuff for her, so she doesn't know what's expected or how to do it properly. There's also the aspect of it all being stuff that belongs to someone else that could make it feel safer to do nothing.

This doesn't completely explain it, but things are usually exaggerated in manga. She seems fine with helping out, but is trying to get a feel for things.

I'm not expecting some fluffy romance where everyone acts ethically and nonthreateningly at all times, but I could see someone acting that way if they're demoralized, especially if they expect to be kicked out soon anyway. Like "This is where my effort got me in the past, so why bother?

Anyway, it's chapter 3, so the story is still getting set up. If everything was clear from the start it would be a rather boring story.

I'm not commenting on the other stuff like the art. These are subjective and I don't have strong feelings, other than agreed that most of this isn't very original so far.

last edited at Nov 10, 2025 11:52AM

This is a story that deserves an adaptation. Live action, please.

Oh, she reject a girl that give her free...

"-nee"?

I’ve been waiting for Karen to say “I’ll find work” every chapter and the moment never comes bruh shes pissin me off lol

Should've let her seg one last time
I mean the least she could could do for the homie smh

last edited at Jan 6, 2026 8:47PM

jesus christ people are being harsh. we don't even know the full premise of the manga yet.

so far i really like the portrayal of how awful it is to be a doormat. like you fight for the courage to advocate for yourself, and then just. don't. you can so clearly see how exploitative the situation could be, and how bad things could get. our MC is like, incredibly vulnerable to potential abuse. and i like that they don't make karen just a plainly good person. like you really rarely see authors allow their characters to act so dislikable and still ask you to care about them. there's a whole range of the human experience that you can't access unless you can let a character be really genuinely shitty in some way or at some moment. so many cohabitation manga, it just feels like a foregone conclusion that they'll have a positive relationship with no major upsets. but living with someone else is fucking hard, especially if you are mentally ill or otherwise poorly adjusted. so far they seem to be navigating the hurdles, but there's a very clear sense that it won't necessarily go well.

i'm kind of excited to see where things go.

last edited at Jan 7, 2026 1:32AM

^Couldn't had said it better. Personally, I love this story and I'm very excited to see what's next.

In other news, I noticed only now that the "Keeping" in the title is spelled as 飼う (which is normally used for pets), so I guess either MC later on will turn really possessive, or we're getting some intense BDSM pet play.

"-nee"?

A word that literally means 'sister' but in usage is often used for a close girl older than yourself.

This one is getting interesting...especially "nee"...

last edited at Jan 11, 2026 3:48AM

I like that Karen's thinking she doesn't really want to take advantage of Nayu but can't really help herself from going in for a kiss anyway implicitly pulling Nayu in regardless.

last edited at Feb 8, 2026 10:43AM

Well, that was interesting. Now we know why she is comfortable free loading and has no skills. She tries to keep her relationships transactional as sex for housing and therefore doesn't do more than is agreed upon in order to maintain emotional distance. Why she would secure her housing this way is unclear.

With Nayu, she is getting a role reversal. Nayu is so lonely that Karen being there is already fulfilling Nayu's end. Nayu will be more like the pet that must secure Karen's presence, so Karen feels comfortable getting more emotionally invested and taking on additional roles. This could lead to growth emotionally as well as in life skills, but also to conflicts when neither has experience handling relationships in a healthy way.

That's not a bad setup for a story at all.

last edited at Feb 1, 2026 9:37PM

Nayu is such a mood every time.

Well, that was interesting. Now we know why she is comfortable free loading and has no skills. She tries to keep her relationships transactional as sex for housing and therefore doesn't do more than is agreed upon in order to maintain emotional distance. Why she would secure her housing this way is unclear.

With Nayu, she is getting a role reversal. Nayu is so lonely that Karen being there is already fulfilling Nayu's end. Nayu will be more like the pet that must secure Karen's presence, so Karen feels comfortable getting more emotionally invested and taking on additional roles. This could lead to growth emotionally as well as in life skills, but also to conflicts when neither has experience handling relationships in a healthy way.

That's not a bad setup for a story at all.

Agreed.

Uh oh uh oh no good..
The Jewel she's keeping is a player DDDDDD;

That's dangerous!
Red flag!!

Based on how this chapter went it feels more like Nayu is the jewel being kept.

last edited at Feb 5, 2026 4:57PM

I want to protect and hug Nayu so badly.