yeah if I'm being serious then this does seem like the story is shaping up to be about a first relationship going horribly off the rails due to general romantic inexperience setting high hopes and not realizing that meeting them is not a fact of being in love but a simple effort that needs to be put in on all sides.

Certainly an interesting read

Yeah this is a lot like some of the relationships that quite a few of my friends went through in high school. Getting way too busy and obsessed with school stuff at the expense of the gf/bf. Honestly 6 months is pretty impressive most of my friends lasted weeks to maybe 2 months.

Sheesh, even Garth, who has known Elsa for all of 20 minutes, immediately sees it, and Evie is still willfully blind to her feelings.

Honestly to me after reading the novel as well it feels more like she is purposefully ignoring it because as far as she believes she is in a hetero dating game so there is no chance that Elsa means what she acts like. Sure just needs to be so unambiguous that Evie has to admit the story has completely changed. It also doesn't help that she has a system that pushes her to on some occasions actively harm her.

I love this manga. The way the author conducts the flow of time, the way the narrative pace enfolds the inner monologue of the mc are so nice.

That's like Aoto Hibiki's signature move, isn't it?

He's the author of A Collar? Do you know other mangas by him?

My favorite is I'll cheer on my Yuri onee-chan. It's pretty funny and just shows the younger brother going full wing man for his shy sister.

The ending felt a bit rushed but I felt like what we got fit the characters as they were portrayed. As for them living as neighbors instead of roommates it could be a number of things. Maybe Yuriko or Matoi like to have a space to themselves however going by the hints given in the last chapter and the one before they seem to spend time together often and share things. This is kind of a cool look at another type of relationship then is normally shown.

Matoi seems to be gray-ace, seeing as she can enjoy physical contact, she just doesn't really prefer it. Her romantic orientation is somewhere around allo but more of a "chill" kind.
Yuriko... is a mystery, I don't think she herself has figured out what she would use as a label, given she was like "??? ok" when Matoi called her aroace

She might not even be ace at all lmao I freak out when faced with physical contact even with people I trust wholeheartedly

Thanks for the explanation. Yeah Yuriko is the one that is really confusing me. She seems to really enjoy the attention and affection that Matoi is giving her but is pretty sure she does not have the same feelings at all. She also doesn't seem to think she is capable of it. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Signed up solely to make sure I am understanding everything so please correct me. So Matoi has romantic feelings for Yuriko but doesn't seem to have any sexual interest that she has shown but doesn't seem to mind physical contact if asked. So she would be romantic asexual? Yuriko does not seem to have romantic or sexual feelings at all. Also she seems to find physical contact mostly unpleasant especially in a sexual sense. So she would be both aromantic and asexual? Though she does seem to enjoy being with Matoi in some sense and has even initiated physical contact with her which might indicate she is very comfortable around her.