Yeah that's what I mean. Out of the two of them, Komaki is definitely crushing on Wakaba, so that scene never registered as anything but misleading. That's why I was confused by the worry.
It's less worry and more that it would be frustrating. "Girl crushes on other girl but goes out with some random guy for whatever reason" is a very unfun trope (I'll not go into the details of why, as people will interpret it differently, but I feel uncomfortable every time that trope is used). And it does affect their interactions if Komaki went out with someone in the past, considering the way she behaves towards Wakaba now hits very different if she has relationship experience.
If Wakaba's interaction was correct and Komaki dated that dude, it would be nice to know that now to interpret Komaki's actions as a change of direction, rather than learn it later and repaint all the previous chapters in a negative light. And if it was misleading, that would be nice to know to see their game as an awkward first love instead of being left in the dark.
I could be misunderstanding, but that doesn't feel like a fair standard. It almost feels like you're saying either "you shouldn't date anyone before getting together with your true love" or "any amount of experience, especially if it's with a boy, means she should ..." I don't actually know how to finish that one? Know how to properly approach Wakaba? Treat her in a specific way? How exactly would Komaki going out with a guy (or even multiple guys) before finally trying to get together with Wakaba cast their current relationship in a negative light (assuming she's not currently with some guy, which would be a completely different issue)?
Maybe she did go out with that first guy, either out of curiosity or because she was somewhat attracted to him, but then she realized that either A) She didn't like him all that much and/or B) She much prefers Wakaba. That wouldn't mean she actually has much experience with romantic relationships, let alone how to start a romantic relationship with another girl, who she already has a non-relationship with, especially with their existing dynamic.
In fact, I'd go a step further. Most people seem to view Komaki as perfect, so it wouldn't surprise me if she's gotten lots of confessions (potentially from both genders), and she may or may not have accepted some of them. However, from what we've seen, she doesn't actually like being viewed in this way—she seems to find it very alienating and, possibly, unrealistic—so any relationship based on that premise probably wouldn't feel good to her and she probably doesn't want to repeat those patterns here. Going back to what you said before, it may be that Komaki has experience in [i]bad[/i] romances specifically.
Wakaba, by contrast, is one of the few people, if not the only one, who recognizes Komaki as a human and who wants her to be treated as such. That would be very appealing in a partner, but it also means Komaki probably doesn't know how to approach this kind of change in their relationship, especially if she still wants Wakaba to pull her down from the pedestal she's been forced on. After all, she can't just wait for Wakaba to confess to her (or accept a confession from her) out of deference to her perfection, not that Komaki would want her to.
The whole soda metaphor was so strange and pointless lol
That scene actually reminded me of my own experience with the band Dear Hoof. Originally, I started listening to them because they were kind-of weird and off-putting, but as I listened to them I developed a better understanding of the nuance and thought that goes into their songs and the way the different pieces come together, in unique ways, to form a compete picture. Now they're one of my favorite bands and I don't feel the original sense of off-putting discordance that originally attracted me to them.
With that said, I don't think that's quite what Komaki was going for here, since she admits that the mix tastes bad to her. Instead, I think she's more focused on the first part of my experience—that of visibly enjoying something that would be weird and uncomfortable for most people—except instead of doing it to make herself seem more sophisticated, she's doing it to seem less perfect. Rather than thinking she's perfect regardless of what she does, as Wakaba assumes, she actually wants people to be put-off and to see it as a flaw, so they realize she isn't perfect.
That's also where the metaphor about mixing "perfect" drinks, and Wakaba's addition about them being better in a pure form comes in. The former is saying that even if all of the individual components are "perfect" at their jobs, it doesn't mean the combined whole is without flaws, in much the same way as a person is not a an atomic existence and even if they have multiple capacities that might be described as "perfect" describing the overall mix as perfect is just kind of silly. That's not how composites or people work.
Wakaba's part, seems to be more about how society views people/things and hinting at Komaki's true motivation, rather than the one Wakaba assumes she has. Specifically, she's saying that society expects things to exist in simple, uncomplicated, and well known forms. It wants pure coke, tea, and what have you, both because that makes the world easier to understand and because it lets you avoid potentially uncomfortable experiences, like bad drink mixes. If we follow the metaphor back to Komaki, it's saying society wants her to be a "pure" idol, the "Perfect Savant" who can be neatly slotted into her space in their world view, without needlessly complicating things by making them question their own efforts or accomplishments. After all, she's "Perfect" so of course they don't compare, who could? Ignore the "normal girl" who consistently comes in close second to her, based on pure effort and determination. She is "not perfect" so her role is to fail to reach perfection, and how close she comes can also be ignored, even though coming in a close second on all of their challenges should still put her miles ahead of literally everyone else.
Actually, I don't think that last part has been touched on much in these comments. Sure, Wakaba keeps losing, but that's not for lack of trying. She comes incredibly close on all of her challenges and, if we take Komaki's performance as the benchmark for a perfect success, then consistently coming within inches of perfection [i]in all of her endeavors[/i] still makes Wakaba an amazing person. In fact, I'd wager that someone with her record would normally be viewed as some sort of perfect and untouchable school idol, but here Komaki's presence shields her from that moniker and the isolation it brings. Maybe things would be different if one of them was a man—or if Japan was more accepting of homosexual relationships—and they could be seen as some sort of "Perfect Power Couple", but as things stand Komaki being put on a pedestal means Wakaba gets to enjoy a normal life. In many ways, Wakaba is probably leading the life Komaki wants for her self. She's a highly competent and well respected person, but she's also allowed to be a flawed human being who doesn't need to succeed at everything, on her first try and with no apparent effort.
Orrr maybe I'm just reading too much into things and overanalyzing a simple comedy manga. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
