Our dreams have come true best chapter of the of Citrus Plus so far.
The thing between Harumi and Matsuri has been brewing for a long time. It's really interesting seeing how similar the both of them are. For example Harumi's tendency to remove herself out of situation where she might get hurt & Matsuri has a tendency to get involved with situations that don't directly involve her, plus they both don't like to talk about their feelings & both are stubborn, but still manage to be strong for their friends & family,
The character development was really good for them & chapter shows that Matsuri's the kind of person that never wants to admit when something is bothers them, but when confronted about it, tries to use mental gymnastics & turn the whole situation around with skillful wordplay & questionable actions. Harumi's pretty much right about her, nobody is going to know she is struggle with something if she keeps acting like this. Even the kiss was partly to try & show that what Harumi said didn't bother her when it in fact did. It also shows that Harumi does care about her a lot more than she may want to admit or even realize, but she also wants Matsuri to stop lying to herself about her troubles & acting like nothing's wrong because her tendency to act coy about her personal life & reactions to people questioning it ultimately does nothing but cause everyone close to her to worried.
Side Note
I think we can all agree that they have feelings for each other, I mean Saburo Uta has been giving a lot of hints that she been planning on having Harumi & Matsuri ending up together as a couple. And Harumi's lack of reaction to the kiss is in fact, a huge factor for HaruMatsu to become real since previously, Harumi had rejected all of Matsuri's teases & advances with clear annoyance. And the kiss happened in a moment where Matsuri wasn't lashing out so isn't like Harumi was cutting her some slack so at the very least her perception of Matsuri has shifted for the better a bit.
And let's be honest there should be more official couples than just the main pair in the series.
You really captured the image of the two characters well. I like to add something, there has always been this untold side of Harumi the author alludes to since the first chapter of citrus+, and so far Matsuri is the only one aware of this but neither of them actually address this, so when Harumi says that she is comfortable in her current position Matsuri replies with "you're funny after all"...….! Similarly for Matsuri, she too alludes that her past was a bit of a mess, and we can actually refer to her past behavior from the chapters which introduce Matsuri in Citrus, but the author doesn't continue with that aspect of Matsuri as to why she behaved that way...…! Basically the relationship between the two is still unknown to its full extent to us as the readers and Harumi and Matsuri are the only ones who have an inkling of what the other person is feeling, so that's why Matsuri asks why Harumi showed up even though they both knew Matsuri's situation and Matsuri, enquires "was it for 'everybody' "...........so far both of them are connected to each other because of Yuzu, and that either one doesn't want to reveal a side of them to Yuzu so that's why they keep alluding to each other and avoid actually addressing their feelings...…and even Matsuri kissing Harumi so that she won't speak about it to Yuzu. This sequel to Citrus actually focuses on what was left unsaid in the Original Series while adding in some new characters to act as a catalyst!