At first I thought the flashback panel wasn't Maria naked but rather that the collarbone area was the top of her shirt, but checking back from the previous chapter it's clearly her collarbone, and she doesn't have the straps of her dress showing, so she's gotta be at least topless.

Maybe this is a way to have them have sex while keeping it just on the suggestive side for a younger audience?

Y'all, I'm aware of the premise, I didn't just pop into the 40th chapter randomly. I know she's inexperienced, I still don't think inexperience equates to just assuming love from every physical encounter. Plus, she doesn't need to have experienced it herself, by college you would be aware of other people's relationships, people dating and breaking up, and also hookup culture. Like, I can fully believe that she is personally inexperienced, I have a friend that didn't date until after college. But that's different than being naive to the point of assuming love in every physical encounter.

This is a comedy yuri harem manga. I feel like you're looking way too deep into this. You're also not taking cultures into account. Not every person is brought up the same. Different cultures play a big part of how people grow up.

I mean, we're on a forum for manga, looking way too deep into things is par for the course. I feel like that's unintentionally putting down comedy as a genre as well. As far as cultures, I don't necessarily disagree but I'm not sure how this applies to this situation. Are you talking about the "culture" of Mei or the author's experience?

To be clear, I don't dislike the manga. I think a lot of the interactions are fun. I don't see why thinking the main character is unrealistically, and to me distractingly, naive is not taking account of the culture, rather than expressing a flaw I find in something I like.

Y'all, I'm aware of the premise, I didn't just pop into the 40th chapter randomly. I know she's inexperienced, I still don't think inexperience equates to just assuming love from every physical encounter. Plus, she doesn't need to have experienced it herself, by college you would be aware of other people's relationships, people dating and breaking up, and also hookup culture. Like, I can fully believe that she is personally inexperienced, I have a friend that didn't date until after college. But that's different than being naive to the point of assuming love in every physical encounter.

Mei is discovering who she is through love good for her good for her. Watch her reject everyone and get with some actual random girl who showed up out of nowhere at the end

Mei discovering herself is great. Thinking you love everyone you kiss is not so great. It feels like a really shallow use of love which in a high school aged character I think I'd be more ready to believe or ignore.

Someone on Dex mentioned this, but Mitsuki had her shirt unbuttoned coming into the dance but buttoned up coming out of the room with Aya, so....you know....

So many thoughts.
3) Hoping this means Sumiko gets more serialized work. I really want a continuation of My Female Friend Comes Home to Me Every Now and Again.

and i wanna see a full translation of "We are addicted to her", no matter what you hater say

Not sure why I was called a hater, unless there was a mistype?

So many thoughts.
1) Happiness that we got here.
2) Thinking back to all those that thought this would remain as bait or subtext or wouldn't go there cause of the music deals.
3) Hoping this means Sumiko gets more serialized work. I really want a continuation of My Female Friend Comes Home to Me Every Now and Again.
4) It'll be fine if it ends soon, but I would much, much rather have another 100 chapters of awkward fumbling as they try to figure out what dating looks like for them.

I feel like this extra should come at the end of a volume when we know who these people are, rather than before the first chapter is even out.

The story Mari recommended was specifically Class S… Mari knows what’s up.

Mari's known since the beginning.

last edited at Feb 13, 2025 4:33AM

Sasameki Koto is definitely all over the place, but at least it has real gravitas, and is pretty artful in some of its direction. The chapter with the books (you know the one) was kind of perfect. And it actually tried to tackle what casual and persistent homophobia looks like. Is it perfect? No, it's a tonal mess, but by the time we get to really dramatic parts I was really invested.

I have nothing positive to say about this one other than it being cute. The confession happening in the last chapter is disappointing, but not its biggest negative. It's the pointless and poorly thought out misunderstandings that make this bad. A few times can be entertaining, but at a certain point it becomes boring and annoying.

And I agree with you that there are worse stories, but stories have to be evaluated based on ambition and intention. What was this trying to achieve, and did it achieve it? Clearly it was trying to be a cute childhood friend romance, the type that makes the reader feel fluffy and want to root for them. Instead, I felt aggravated, so of course my rating is going to be harsh. I'm not comparing this to Bloom Into You or Kill Me Now. I'm rating it against things like I Want To Be Liked By That Shy Girl or Our Yuri Started With Me Getting Rejected in a Dream.

we'll agree to disagree there i guess. the filler in sasameki koto wore me out so bad i couldn't even bring myself to care about the main couple anymore, or any of the characters at all. there are slowburn classic yuri that are very good, but i wouldn't call that one (personally).

misunderstandings are a common romance trope in all romance, definitely not yuri exclusive. if you replaced yuzu here with a guy, it'd be an average shoujo manga. i'm not saying you shouldn't criticize it. like, by all means do! but critique it based on what it set out to be, as you described. meet it on its merits and terms. Rejected in a Dream was one i personally dropped for being boring, so it's all personal taste anyway. there's no such thing as a story everyone enjoys!

after reflecting, i realized a better comparison for my part might be citrus. that was another manga with way too many "you thought there was progress? ha! sucker!" moments and out-of-left-field drama that i resented for it. this manga however was a pleasant surprise? it was silly at many times, but it never (for me) crossed the line of "kind of dumb" into actually annoying. i think because the leads clearly cared about each other and were both slowly coming undone, so even when it was status quo it never felt like they went backwards. i appreciated that

I agree that there's no such thing as a story everyone enjoys, we all have our own tastes, and yours and mine clearly don't align. But you started off by saying "yall are grossly exaggerating". No, we're not exaggerating this type of story just irks. And yes it irks me when non-yuri stories do it too.

But also, I want to know why you think chapter 25 didn't cross the line into "kind of dumb". How does "I want you" and then trying to kiss Yuzu translate as a normal thing to misunderstand from Yuzu's perspective? Genuinely, I want to know what you think about that whole sequence.

i... honestly kind of liked it? i agree the ending was rushed, but if anything i thought yuzu was very sympathetic. she was just missing (or didn't trust her ability to read) all the social cues, and tbh felt very autistic. with a better conclusion this could have been a solid work, and i was surprised how much i liked all the side characters by the end too. reminded me of girl friends (morinaga milk) in many ways, but i guess that's why? like, this is more "classic" in terms of yuri writing, and if you ignore the art style etc it could've easily been a 00s work.

yes it doesn't reinvent the wheel, but imo it was cute and a fun enough read. i've read stories waaaay worse than this and yall are grossly exaggerating. like, has anyone here ever tried to read sasameki koto? shit is 99% filler, it's downright painful. i'm someone who generally does not like childhood friends in yuri at all, and will even root for the ship that isn't that in a love triangle. it's kind of overused and rarely done well. but when it's cute and i like the characters involved, it's not bad. i'd rate this a 7/10, personally. it was better than i expected. i'd like to see more from the author as they refine their craft

Sasameki Koto is definitely all over the place, but at least it has real gravitas, and is pretty artful in some of its direction. The chapter with the books (you know the one) was kind of perfect. And it actually tried to tackle what casual and persistent homophobia looks like. Is it perfect? No, it's a tonal mess, but by the time we get to really dramatic parts I was really invested.

I have nothing positive to say about this one other than it being cute. The confession happening in the last chapter is disappointing, but not its biggest negative. It's the pointless and poorly thought out misunderstandings that make this bad. A few times can be entertaining, but at a certain point it becomes boring and annoying.

And I agree with you that there are worse stories, but stories have to be evaluated based on ambition and intention. What was this trying to achieve, and did it achieve it? Clearly it was trying to be a cute childhood friend romance, the type that makes the reader feel fluffy and want to root for them. Instead, I felt aggravated, so of course my rating is going to be harsh. I'm not comparing this to Bloom Into You or Kill Me Now. I'm rating it against things like I Want To Be Liked By That Shy Girl or Our Yuri Started With Me Getting Rejected in a Dream.

It just feels so antiquated. And it's not just the confession at the end, the entire "hijinks" aspect of delaying them figuring out their feelings for each other feels so old to me now. Like, how does this still sell? How are there still audiences for this?

I mean, are you sure that it did sell? This whole final volume has had "whoops we just got axed" written all over it.

I'm using sell loosely here. I mean in the sense that the author and editor at some point have agreed that they have to delay this as much as possible, which at some point is a decision about what will sell, even if it ultimately did not end up working.

It just feels so antiquated. And it's not just the confession at the end, the entire "hijinks" aspect of delaying them figuring out their feelings for each other feels so old to me now. Like, how does this still sell? How are there still audiences for this?

There's a lot of melodrama, but I dig the vibe of the early chapters where they're basically on casual dates together. Yuka's blushing feels like it's pointing to her being a bit more aware of her super gay feelings, while Mitsuki is oblivious, which is a dynamic I like.

I don't really want to get involved in this whole argument, but I do want to address this part. These are monsters that the prince was fighting on his own (with knights to watch out for him) at the age of 12. He is currently 15. Presumably, it would be like a trained hunter being faced with a boar, but also he's not alone. He has his knights, and Almelia is there who he knows has killed one by herself before.

We're not talking monsters in the way they would be treated in a much darker manga, and the prince isn't powerless. His magic is really strong. If it's something he could done at the age of 12, then it stands to reason that he vastly overreacted not 3 years later. If it is panic, panic from insecurity seems much more likely than panic from fear.

Yes, that's totally fair. No one's denied that he acted wrongly.
The fighting is essentially about what this whole incident tells us about him rather than if that thing he did was wrong, because even he himself admits he did wrong.

The conflict here is about how some people think this solidifies him as a complete scumbag and I don't agree that it does at this point, for various reasons elaborated on in previous posts.

Well I would say there are two competing aspects to this for me. On the one hand, it's hard for me to think of any 15 year old in this situation as a complete scumbag.

On the other, he is literally the prince of the nation. He treats his fiancée terribly, in public as well were it not for reminders from his staff. He treats commoners and lower nobles terribly. He really has no sense of responsibility and duty as far as what we've seen. He kind of just sucks.

Like the comparison here should be the other characters in the story, and Sylvester, Almelia's brother, comes out looking the best. Almelia realistically would also probably suck were it not for Serina to make her better, and she really only has Serina. Everyone else in her life has kind of treated her terribly. The prince has so many more advantages in his life and he's way worse than Almelia at her worst. What good is there to say of him?

Even if we treat it under the idea of he made mistakes and he can grow from them, well that's fine but at the moment he hasn't done any growing from any of the issues we've seen him tackle.

last edited at Jan 8, 2025 9:53PM

As I already discussed and was emphasized by the maid this chapter, no he was not in a life or death situation, his guards had it under control, not to mention Almelia. You do not start thinking about your wounded pride like he did if you are about to die, you think about your impending death. His disproportionate response was all about proving himself strong and capable.

I didn't say he was in a life-or-death situation, I said he had a life-or-death panic, which is not the same thing.
He saw a giant monster show up out of nowhere right in front of him and had a perfectly normal fight-response to a perceived threat against his person and the people around him.

I don't really want to get involved in this whole argument, but I do want to address this part. These are monsters that the prince was fighting on his own (with knights to watch out for him) at the age of 12. He is currently 15. Presumably, it would be like a trained hunter being faced with a boar, but also he's not alone. He has his knights, and Almelia is there who he knows has killed one by herself before.

We're not talking monsters in the way they would be treated in a much darker manga, and the prince isn't powerless. His magic is really strong. If it's something he could done at the age of 12, then it stands to reason that he vastly overreacted not 3 years later. If it is panic, panic from insecurity seems much more likely than panic from fear.

You know, it's pretty impressive that in 10 chapters a bunch of misunderstandings have been fixed. Like, if they wanted to milk this Almelia could have been under the mistaken impression that Serina was hitting on her for much longer, and Serina could have thought the engagement would make Almelia happy for much longer as well, but we kind of got through all of that quickly. Really, unless a new barrier comes, it's just about whether Serina realizes that Almelia has romantic feelings for her at this point.

Ugh, I'm scared my poor little gyaru baby is gonna have her heart broken.

the only 'terrible thing' erika did in the past was make a wish that someone they are jealous of/angry at disappears lol. What angsty teen hasn't wished someone would disappear.

Yeah. Typical "What angsty teen hasn't done or said something" defense lol.
I can understand as a immature teen couldn't help her thought like"My life would have been much better without that fucker". But actually act on it, especially when "that fucker" is one of your best friends, for the stupidest reason ever like "oh, she steal my crush who l like first even though she has no way of knowing it cause my cowardice", is a totally different story.

Please be explicit. What do you mean by act on it? Beyond making a wish at Tanabata which no one would reasonably expect to be literally actualized, what did she do?

Well, well, well. Another Erika's defender showing up yelling "She has done nothing wrong" is indeed one of my enjoyment now lol.

Look. She not only has the thought of wishing someone disappear, she actually writes it on tanzaku and hangs it up on bamboo. The hint in https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/how_to_break_a_triangle_ch17#34 is very obvious. She also apparently had a fight with poor Aya, who sincerely takes Erika as her best friend and has no way of knowing Erika's secret love. Considering Aya's good character, it must have been Erika's one side argument. Like hysterically screaming at Aya "l like her first", "Koto would eventually love me back if not for you", "You are just a stone between us", "l never consider you as my friend", "Why wouldn't you disappear?".
Yeah. What did she do? Ofc goddess Erika did nothing wrong ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

I wouldn't count myself as an Erika defender, but having read your posts from the last 5 pages I'm just trying to understand your logic. She had an argument with Aya and she wrote something on the the tanzaku. That seems like an entirely normal thing. All your quotes are just guesses at what she could have said, so I'm really not sure where your confidence is coming from.

And again, writing a wish on a tanzaku is like throwing a coin in a wishing well or blowing out your candles on your birthday, no one actually expects the thing being wished for to literally happen. I don't understand the leap from "wrote something on tanzaku" to "committed violence upon someone".

I don't remember the early chapters that well, but this felt like a really explicit showing of Yoshiko's romantic interest in Hanayo. I thought it might have been more ambiguous before, but maybe I don't remember it that well.

Also, the professor made me cry.

the only 'terrible thing' erika did in the past was make a wish that someone they are jealous of/angry at disappears lol. What angsty teen hasn't wished someone would disappear.

Yeah. Typical "What angsty teen hasn't done or said something" defense lol.
I can understand as a immature teen couldn't help her thought like"My life would have been much better without that fucker". But actually act on it, especially when "that fucker" is one of your best friends, for the stupidest reason ever like "oh, she steal my crush who l like first even though she has no way of knowing it cause my cowardice", is a totally different story.

Please be explicit. What do you mean by act on it? Beyond making a wish at Tanabata which no one would reasonably expect to be literally actualized, what did she do?

Yeah... it's a bit hard when one person wants to move abroad and the other has responsibilities in their home country.
I think maybe Joe didn't want to uproot Mitsuki when she had just lost her parents (I think she did, right?) and move her to the US with Kanna
On the other hand I have no idea what Kanna is doing in the US. Is she a musician? What does she do? Lol a musician could realistically move between countries idk. I don't think it makes sense for her to decide to stay just because Joe went to the airport but it might be a nice gesture to see her off.
I definitely think the Joe/Kanna plot is a parallel to Mitsuki/Aya though it gets a bit tiring at times because we aren't binge reading this lol. But for sure Mitsuki is thinking she doesn't want to treat Aya the same way Joe treated Kanna, which I think in general they both have a tendency to react passively to their circumstances without thinking what the other person wants, though I can see that Aya isn't communicating properly either.

She mentioned she's a hair stylist. But there's really no more detail than that. Like, she could be a high end hair stylist who is really in demand, for example, otherwise I'm not sure why she needs to be a hair stylist in the US. There really doesn't seem to be an implication that she's ever done music.

Sakura's hands on page 14 are kind of freaky.

To be fair, we don't know that the family gathering is a lie. It might be a lie, but it kind of doesn't matter since if she wanted to go to prom Aya would skip it even if it were true.

As for the rest, I think we're coming up against a disagreement here because Mitsuki never asked Aya about her intentions. She didn't ask if Aya wanted to go, just if she was going. Aya said she wasn't going, not that she didn't want to go.

I agree that Aya is fudging the truth here a bit with implications, but I also can't say I'm super into how Mitsuki just assumes Aya will be her date without asking her or expressing herself. She doesn't say, "Too bad about your family gathering, I'd rather have gone to prom with you than this music event", she just keeps it to her self. And then this chapter she just straight up says "You didn't want to go with me?" as if she had asked Aya and was rejected.

Mitsuki is doing the same thing Joe is doing, assuming that things will just go her way without being explicit. Aya is doing the opposite, assuming things will not go her way which makes her not try. Aya has her own problems to deal with, but let's not discount Mitsuki again not expressing herself.

I generally agree with the last paragraph. I would say though that your "best friend" who you do everything with suddenly going to a large event without telling or inviting you would make most people feel some kind of way.

That's also why Mitsuki doesn't need to ask whether Aya would be going with her. It's an understanding between the two of them already, and we know Aya did indeed plan to go with Mitsuki and no one else.

Mitsuki asking if Aya is going to the prom is Mitsuki asking if they're both going. Aya understands that implication. That understanding is why Aya reacts as she does, pretending she can't and never intended to go, so Mitsuki feels no burden. She knows Mitsuki and her are a two-person deal.

There's an argument for taking someone for granted but these two aren't a couple and we don't even know Mitsuki's romantic feelings, so it's all very muddled. That's part of the issue though. Too much of their relationship is left to assumptions and silent understanding between themselves and to the reader. It's long been time to be more direct between themselves and narratively.

I don't like the idea that Mitsuki doesn't need to ask Aya because it's an understanding between them. To some extent that's been the case so far, but it leads to situations like Joe's and Kanna's.

Looking back at some of their major events:
ch 37 and 38 - RHCP fight
ch 51 - Aya to Mitsuki "You don't talk to me at all, Koga-san. I think that one day, you'll end up going away without telling me. That's how I feel sometimes." Instead of answering, Mitsuki takes her finger in hers.
ch 79 - Mitsuki to Aya "I'm sorry. I mean...this was supposed to be a secret between you and me..." referring to the tattoos and piercings.
ch 97 - After not hearing from her for a week, Mitsuki comes back and actually thanks Aya for getting angry on her behalf.
ch 100 - "The safest place for me...should have been next to you, Oosawa-san." Mitsuki thinks, but doesn't actually say to Aya.
ch 107 - Mitsuki decides to tell Aya about the music industry party invitation, Aya says she's not going to the prom

They do talk sometimes, like they have a moment in ch97 when Mitsuki comes back to school. But largely speaking Mitsuki never really directly addresses the things that Aya says to her, and keeps inside of her how she feels about everything. Even the prom situation. Rather than asking Aya what her prom plans are, she tells her about the music industry party invite first. How could Aya not see that as the primary thing she wants to do, if it's the first thing she brought up?

And Aya doesn't assume they'll go together, she just wants to go with her. Her saying "I'm not going either" doesn't imply they would have gone together, it just says, "don't worry about being the only one to miss out on the prom". If she assumed they would go together, she wouldn't have first asked Narita and she wouldn't have been worried about messing up the timing.

Not sure why people are saying that Aya lied. At the time she told Mitsuki she wasn't going to prom she actually wasn't planning to go. She changed her mind after talking to Kanna.

That's not what happened, though. The relevant chapters are back to back. She finds out about the prom, excitedly says she's going, tries to find Aya, then immediately sees the Kouhai asking about the music event.

Aya then wants to talk about it in the following chapter. Mitsuki says they don't even need to worry about prom because she's not going anyway. She says she has a family Christmas gathering, implying she was never planning to go. We know this is a lie because of the previous chapter. We saw that she did want to to go and was planning to go until the Kouhai issue.

It's not a big deal anyway. She did it to help Aya and didn't want Aya to feel guilty by making it seem like Mitsuki had to change plans--which she did. She deliberately down played the whole thing for Aya's sake, pretending the prom wasn't a big deal. This is why Aya is upset now and will be what they probably talk about soon. The whole lie is the reason this is a contentious point in this chapter.

I think your "Aya"s and "Mitsuki"s are switched.

Are you saying the lie is downplaying that she wanted to go? All I was saying is at the time it came up Aya was genuinely not planning to go. Downplaying that she wanted to go, sure, I guess that's a lie. But whether she would be there or not? That wasn't a lie at the time.

Thanks, I'll update! It felt wrong but I didn't double check. She also lied about having a family gathering. She made it seem like going to the prom was never in the plans because she would always be with her family that day.

That was a lie, as she had been planning to go. Then, she continued to downplay her intentions, etc. Mitsuki will be upset once she finds out Aya was not being truthful about her plans and desire to be at the prom. None of that tension works without understanding that Aya hasn't being upfront and truthful with Mitsuki. There will almost definitely be a scene where Aya finally admits that.

To be fair, we don't know that the family gathering is a lie. It might be a lie, but it kind of doesn't matter since if she wanted to go to prom Aya would skip it even if it were true.

As for the rest, I think we're coming up against a disagreement here because Mitsuki never asked Aya about her intentions. She didn't ask if Aya wanted to go, just if she was going. Aya said she wasn't going, not that she didn't want to go.

I agree that Aya is fudging the truth here a bit with implications, but I also can't say I'm super into how Mitsuki just assumes Aya will be her date without asking her or expressing herself. She doesn't say, "Too bad about your family gathering, I'd rather have gone to prom with you than this music event", she just keeps it to her self. And then this chapter she just straight up says "You didn't want to go with me?" as if she had asked Aya and was rejected.

Mitsuki is doing the same thing Joe is doing, assuming that things will just go her way without being explicit. Aya is doing the opposite, assuming things will not go her way which makes her not try. Aya has her own problems to deal with, but let's not discount Mitsuki again not expressing herself.