"You'd end up in the third-string." Is that a British thing? I've never heard the expression, though I can guess the meaning from the context and the picture.

First-to-third strings are sports jargon since circa 19th century, based on a more literal medieval saying about spare bow strings. Doesn't appear to be limited to a single country's English.

For social standing, it'd be sports jargon leaking through sportsmen and sport fans into colloquial use, and may be of limited spread outside their circles (not into sports myself, I don't remember encountering it before either), but it also isn't a recent fad or specifically British: urban dictionary (crude language warning), urban dictionary again, reddit examples

Thanks for providing the links, and to everyone else who explained this. I now understand that the reason I do not understand this expression is that I spend all the time I could be playing sports instead reading yuri manga.

Well, maybe. I hate team sports and yet am quite aware of the expression; I thought it was pretty common and I'm surprised to see so many people who aren't aware of it. Mind you, I'm old. Maybe it has gotten less common in recent years.

Cinnamon roll too pure for this world . . .

I don't really get what happened in the second half, did she confess? Hypnotize her? What spell is she talking about?

Yeah, she cast a spell to make Kana-chan fall in love with her. It’s not a spoiler to tell you but it’s also explained later on, so you don’t have to understand at this point; I think it’s intentionally confusing.

Oooh that's fucked up. Give me more, please.

It is definitely fucked up. I don't think I'm interested any more.

What a great girlfriend. Definitely the girlfriend she needs, if perhaps not the girlfriend she deserves.
But then, do any of us really deserve the goodness of it when we get a great significant other? Yet it would be a sad old world if none of us had one. I know I'd be sad.

I can't believe that after more than 20 years of reading manga I didn't know that info from the credits about the timing of school Cultural Festivals. How many dozen of those things have I read about without that ever coming up?

What on earth is his deal? She's so beautiful, why would he not want her? Why would he marry her if he didn't want her? I don't see how it could be some kind of bizarre thing with how he relates to her family, because her family are nobodies. There's the dynamic where some men marry a classy woman but want to do their fooling around with trashy women, but first, usually men like that are at least polite to the woman they married, and second, while she does seem to be sort of innately classy, she's not upper class in her background . . . I don't get what's going on.

Not that I ultimately care. Forget that loser and let's see these two beautiful flowers make each other happy.

I have this feeling that we're meant to think it was mind control but it was really something else. I'm definitely curious what.

I have no trust in these vague "plans to protect"--short of imprisoning the person, how would that even work? And I know the director is claiming her solution would improve things, and maybe somehow in manga universe it will, but I really don't see any mechanism for how that would work in the real world. Someone who comes back to get up on stage and give an explanation nobody believes is not further from the public eye than someone who last performed a year ago and is yesterday's news. Her best bet would actually be to just lie low again for a while.

And while she did disappear suddenly, unless I'm misinterpreting what is being said they still seem to be saying that she gave a farewell concert the first time. She just pissed off really quick AFTER it. So if the first one didn't work, why would a second one work? If anything, doing it a second time should work LESS well.

But, sure, I expect it will be declared to have improved the situation if she does it. I just still don't think it makes a lick of sense.

Is it just me or does this latest chapter not make a lick of sense? Or at least, the proposal doesn't.
"You're trying to stay out of the public eye, you've been retired for a year, but recently you were photographed by a paparazzi, and this could cause you problems. Tell you what, why don't you handle it by coming back for another farewell show, so you'll be right back in the public eye and there'll be less chance of it blowing over!"
Just how is this supposed to help?

Oh, and also--OK, I know the whole idol scene and fandom are supposed to be ridiculously dysfunctional. I know it's routine that they're supposed to not be in relationships or at least pretend really hard. But I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this, so let me get this straight:
--Girl was an idol
--Girl retired from being an idol
--A year later, girl met people she used to know who are still idols in the group she was from
--This was caught on camera
--This could get THE GIRLS CONTINUING IN THE IDOL GROUP into trouble.

What the fuck? What exactly is supposed to have been done wrong here? A girl stopped being an idol and . . . is still alive? Her old friends are failing to shun her adequately? What?! Whatever the answer here is, it is clearly beyond insane. Horrible though the whole idol scene seems to be, I'm still finding it hard to fathom the idea that this could be a real thing.

last edited at Apr 10, 2024 6:27PM

Awww, she wants MC to be an accessory to her horrific murder! Pretty forward.

I can't believe how sweet and fun this chapter was. The cute light-hearted romantic bickering with Xiaoen's adorably infuriating reversals, the art omigod the art, with those cherries and everything . . .

Once in a while I go back to the first chapter just to look at that scene with the two of them, the box on her head and the peaches scattered around them.

Thinking of peaches . . . hang on, she's allergic? I must have missed that.

So is magic a secret? It kinda seems like it is but I couldn't entirely tell.

The very first page her parents tell her to keep it a secret

Well, yes, but that still leaves potentially open the question of whether magic's actual existence is secret or if it's just that most witches are closeted about it because of bad social implications, like being shunned or burned at the stake.

So, my yuri goggles say the two teachers planning a weekend sleepover are an item. Any disagreement?

Meanwhile, Uncle is such an awesome dork. It's nice when it's a story about teens but some of the adults have actual personalities rather than just being "responsible parental figure #3".

last edited at Apr 7, 2024 2:32PM

Narita-kun, I've come to like you and what you bring to this manga a lot, but your presence is very much unwanted this time, so please leave and let the lovebirds alone at the dang festival :⁠‑⁠X

Don't be too quick to judge. Don't forget, they're amazingly useless lesbians--they might be deeply in need of a push from a wingman.

The word used is "Ikemen" which technically applies to men only (the woman equivalent would be Ikeonna). Since it echoes her line in the first page, I kept it as is.

I figured it was some kind of linguistic issue like that.

Hmmm . . . droopy eyes and a fang. I don't see that combination too often. 'Cause the droopy eyes usually kind of goes with this lethargic air, whereas the fang is the signature of the cheery energetic genki girl. It kind of works though.

Well, that's a relief. I was quite worried about the creepy cursed doll.

LMAOOOOOOOO

beyond the statement. They doubled down by referencing Bikini Kill, but most notably Rebel Girl.

For those who don't know, Rebel Girl is a lesbian anthem with such lyrics as:

"Rebel girl, rebel girl
I think I wanna take you home, I wanna try on your clothes, uh"

"When she walks, the revolution's coming
In her kiss, I taste the revolution"

"That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood
I got news for you, she is
They say she's a d***, but I know
She is my best friend, yeah"

So uh, not subtle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0oeqAQ1qE8

Oh, hey, thanks. I would have had no idea, and it's a nice addition to how that scene works.

This is surprisingly cute! The art style is odd, but it grows on you :)

Like a fungus.

It's certainly very lovely. And I like a lot of things about it.
Not too much happens per chapter, though. Mind you, somehow that fits . . . the whole thing seems like a sort of reverie.

Yup, yup, that old adage that overreach is fine and dandy as long as you are the one doing it, rather than the one it's done to. :-)

Well. On the looking at each other's phone question I guess I'm a bit of an outlier.
My wife lets me look at her phone because she has nothing to hide, doesn't do social media, and anyway whenever she needs to do something different with it or fix something or figure out if some message is phishing, I'm her tech support.
I also don't do social media and have nothing terribly important to hide, but I can't let my wife see my phone because I don't have a phone.

That twist ending, tho. O__o On a related note, how far along is that book of yours, man?

It's finished. So far not much luck publishing it though.

Well. On the looking at each other's phone question I guess I'm a bit of an outlier.
My wife lets me look at her phone because she has nothing to hide, doesn't do social media, and anyway whenever she needs to do something different with it or fix something or figure out if some message is phishing, I'm her tech support.
I also don't do social media and have nothing terribly important to hide, but I can't let my wife see my phone because I don't have a phone.

I see. Is a living wake a better idea ? Agreeing to discuss and argue for as long as the living ones want ? I've been wondering (for years, maybe a decade) how to leave in a way that it hurts as little as possible the ones that I love. Only solution I found so far was to stay alive. But it's not a solution.

I thought recording videos would be nice. But maybe it's cruel ?

Is it because people don't realize depression is a deadly disease that can't always be cured ? They believe we're not actually dying because they don't see it on our body ?

Sorry to start a painful debate. I think it's an important topic.

It's hard to know how to answer this, and it may be too late. But, frankly, I don't think there's any way to commit suicide that makes it less painful for the people left behind. They're gonna be sad, and they're gonna wish it didn't happen, and they're going to feel guilty because even if you told them different and they in some ways know different, they're still going to feel like surely there was something they could have done but failed to do that would have made you want to stay.

That's how it is. And just as they may not, in fact, be able to affect your depression, you can't really affect that.

You wanted fluffy--now that's fluffy!

Mmmm, fluffy french toast!

Man, I can't remember anything about this, read this new chapter and it looks like an annoying thing I don't want to bother going back and reading the rest of. Am I mistaken?