Always be careful with those side characters in yuri manga. Take your eyes off them for 5 minutes, and they'll fall in love with a girl out of nowhere.

... so make sure you give them those 5 minutes.

Alright Mei-chan, you're the third girl introduced and a childhood friend to one of the MCs. Getting them together falls on your shoulders now.

I don't see why it has to be taken so negatively. Of course the current situation is straining for Koto, but she has been unhappy and ashamed with her own helplessness from the start. Even if it's difficult, actually changing, with someone who keeps pushing her past her (very low) limits, goes in the direction she has always been wishing for ever since she cut ties with Mariya.

There is also the fact that none of what Koto is forcing herself to do right now is actually excessive in any way. Making an effort to go against her lazy nature and do normal things isn't bad.

With enough time and opportunities (such as the cultural festival mentioned at the end of the chapter), Koto might eventually be able to do things proactively without it being such an effort that she needs someone to keep her in check.

I was expecting / hoping that we'd be continuing Yuki's plot line until we move it to the point where she gives up on Tae. I have no idea how this new character fits in, but I hope we're still doing that and not starting a new plot line or, worse, adding a third girl with a crush on Tae.

I always thought this had a real ominous ending... until you realise she's upset, went to bed and sulk

Because it's a one-shot it feels bad, with the ending being very "final" hence why the default assumption is that she either died or left. But realistically speaking there are plenty of ways for them to make up, fortunately. We're just left to imagine them~

Although I'm not going to pretend that I won't immediately go read something that shows a happy couple.

Damn. Even though the whole thing was frustrating, it's the last page that makes it downright unrecoverable (as in, we'll have to ignore how shitty the characters were and move on, because no amount of plot can retroactively justify this).

I can imagine that Kase would want to avoid turning pretty much all of her friends against her at the same time by just telling them to shut up and that moving is her decision. I can also understand that she doesn't want to reveal her relationship with Yamada like this. And I would have trusted her to ignore the results of the race, and, if she loses, just tell them that she's not going to be bound by the unilateral bet because they didn't know how important that decision was to her.

Albeit it's not necessary, I would have been fine with that amount of drama, as it's making things awkward and uncomfortable but doesn't go against their plans or the established personality of Kase.

But her texting Yamada and telling her to delay just breaks that line of speculation completely. The delay would be completely unnecessary if she didn't actually consider cancelling the move, and that alone would already completely destroy any chance to progress the story if we couldn't just, you know, just pretend that it's okay (which is what I suspect will happen for the story to move forward). It also shows that Kase doesn't take the responsibility of moving very seriously, giving more importance to her friends getting all worked up than to life-changing plans. And finally, she'd rather do something that will undoubtedly hurt Yamada a lot than say no.

All in all, I feel like I can almost understand what the chapter tried to do, but a single panel throws the scale and proportions completely off. This is definitely not something you can read as a serious romance story, at this point, it's just the same stuff you'd typically see in high school romcoms.

inb4 it turns out we're starting a break-up arc because Yamada realizes that Kase just isn't that serious about their relationship.

What the hell is wrong with her friend's choices of mixer participants ? Is she recruiting them on some shady website or something ? She should really, really leave the planning to someone else.

Now we just need to have the heroine falling in love with the maid (probably through some misunderstanding that makes it looks she was saved), and the circle will be complete.

are yuri otakus even a real thing

No. Cease your investigations.

Not on this Family Friendly Christian website they aren't.

Praise the lord!

May our faith in the yuri goddess protect our morals.

Maybe in a One-Shot version. "Hey Step-Sis I like your pseudo-incest comics!", followed by the response of "Oh yeah? Wanna fuck?", and then they fucked. Roll credits.

I'd read that. Then feel down that it wasn't longer.

Wow. WOW. I so much wish those four pages were added at the end of the last chapter, instead of as an extra coming out a week later. To me, this is exactly what was missing for a satisfying ending, showing them as a couple instead of ending things abruptly immediately after the confession.

I thought Rio's focus on "part-timers" was more "maybe I should be less of a leech" rather than "let's spend time with the baker".

That's just the in-universe explanation. Readers know what's up.

Although more seriously, the way Rio is behaving, doing chores, and generally being helpful, to Ruriko's surprise, makes it very clear that seeing the normal couple life of Kurumi and Ruriko has given her some inspiration to do something more with her life. Looking for a part-time job, in a bakery that sells cutely-shaped bread, seems like a good step in that direction that mixes some amount of responsibility and still doing something fun.

Or have a typical romance, again for the satisfaction of the reader, when that typical expectation isn't Asahi's primary interest?

Why would they end up together as a couple, for the satisfaction of the reader ? This is a romance story. Do the character end up as a couple ? The answer is yes, but the manga failed to depict that properly. The ending is so abrupt that we're never shown them as a couple; at best, we are told (through the confession) that they love each other. But due to the ending being so abrupt, it doesn't really tell much, or anything.

The appeal to realism argument would mean that they can equally have decided to never take their relationship further and act as platonic friends for the rest of their lives, and that the reader doesn't have a right to feel cheated by such an ending. I don't personally agree -- such an ending would certainly be "realistic" but it would be pretty poor, narratively, as the culmination of a romance story, and would be a waste of the interactions the characters had with each other. And, even for people who would be happy to see such an ending, the relationship the characters settle on should still be depicted properly.

After following the story until the end and the evolution of the characters, I feel that the readers "deserve" (if I may use such a word) to see how it ends. There are many ways this could have been shown : they might be going on a date, moving together, one might call the other their lover, partner, or whatever word feels right in front of others, or anything else that strikes the author's fancy. None of those is necessary because every couple can feel comfortable with different things, yet any of those would have shown them as a proper couple, rather than this vague ending. Kissing (along with marriage) happens to be one of the simplest, most unambiguous things to depict characters as a couple, and generally serves that purpose when used in the ending, but it's not the only option.

I feel that this ending correctly addresses the evolution of the characters in being able to properly express their feelings (as shown from the fact that they both confessed), but fails to provide a satisfying conclusion to their relationship and interactions towards each other.

Bit of a downer ending. Even if they're not interested in kissing, we could at least have had a flashforward of them as a couple. The ending happens to be a confession, but then there's no kiss, no romantic date, and no plans together for the future. For a romance manga, this is a bit disappointing as an ending. Anything that would cement them as a romantic couple, beyond a few words that have often been misused in yuri manga, would have made this more satisfying.

Hinori should get a medal for keeping her cool around the walking disaster that is Minami. Trying to get her to talk with Yuzu looks like an epic-level quest.

The last part also took me a bit by surprise until I went back to the previous chapters. I guess Nitori feels that Minami is trying to pair Yuzu and Hitori to get more alone time with Kosame ? ... If she's as negative as Minami, they are totally going to hype each other on their incorrect pairings, aren't they ?

"Why is my heart thumping ? Is this... the satisfaction of a job worth doing ?"

Okay, that's a new one.

Really looking forward to how this develops. Lapis' past, her relationship with Natori, and the direction Diana will take are all intriguing to me.