OMG the whole interaction with the friend was infuriating. Hiromi was incorrectly blaming himself for everything and the friend did nothing but pile on without even suggesting that Lili had done things wrong as well. If this was the person who was around Hiromi when he was dumped by his cheating ex it’s no surprise that his self esteem is so bad
Yeah, I was upset about that too. When his friend said, "How many times did you mess up?" I was like, hold on — don’t put that all on him. Sure, Hiromi made some mistakes, but let’s not pretend Lili didn’t have a hand in this too.
For everything Hiromi went through, no normal person would’ve had the resolve he did to hold back. Most people would’ve flipped out. But instead, he tries to give her the benefit of the doubt, still shows up to support her at her art exhibit — and then he has to hear everyone saying her male best friend, Hodaka, is a better fit for her than he is.
He can’t even tell everyone they’re in a relationship, but her friends knew. They knew Hiromi was her boyfriend, they knew she was taken, and they still said that. So yeah, I was immediately upset.
This is one area where I’ll have to disagree with you a bit. I couldn’t even believe it when she told her friends they were “never dating in the first place”, because that’s simply not true, they were in a committed relationship, and she’s trying to minimize it to reduce her own guilt.
She acknowledged that she messed up, but she did not take accountability. The things she told her friends about what she did wrong should have been said to Hiromi. He deserved and needed to hear that. Hiromi owned up to his mistakes directly and apologized, which is what Lili should have done. Instead, she told (what I believe) is a hurtful lie.
You know what? You’re right. Lili did say, "They were never in a relationship." And then she didn’t correct her friends when they said, "Well, he thought you were cheating." Hiromi never said that. He never even accused her of cheating.
Yeah, his emotions got the best of him. Yeah, he was jealous. But she never tried to reassure him that nothing was going on. Instead, she spent the night at Hodaka’s house, and her phone died — but she could’ve used Hodaka’s phone to call him or called the house to let them know she was okay. She didn’t do that. So when her friends said all that, I thought it was really messed up that she just let it slide.
She even said, "Maybe I turned him into that." But why do you feel that way? What reason do you have to feel that way? She doesn’t even elaborate. Instead, she lets her friends keep believing it was all Hiromi’s fault.
And honestly, I just think that was blatantly messed up.
This was the lie. It meant that the strong feelings were one-sided on Hiromi’s part and that she doesn’t feel that way about him (at least not anymore). That’s a tough pill to swallow and probably makes him question everything. He thought they were a real couple, but she’s denied it. If this was true she wouldn’t have been crying all night about it in her room. She did have strong feelings for Hiromi but decided to run away instead of doing the work.
Even if it was a lie, that’s something Lili should’ve never said. If she truly sees a future where she and Hiromi could be a family one day, saying the complete opposite is heartbreaking. She doesn’t seem to realize how traumatizing that could be for someone she just broke up with. And honestly, now that she said it, the damage is done.
That should’ve been Hiromi’s cue to back away — to just let it be. He should’ve said, "Hey, we can be friends one day, but right now, we can’t." There’s no going back to a relationship after something like that. To me, that moment solidified that Lili wasn’t emotionally ready for a relationship like that. And honestly, Hiromi should’ve taken it as a sign that maybe he wasn’t ready either. After all, he had just come out of two failed relationships only weeks apart. That should’ve been his wake-up call to do some soul searching.
It’s good that, by the end of the chapter, he goes to Wakayama to visit his grandparents — or at least that’s what it seems like. But we need more than that. We need to see him go a while without rushing into another relationship. And honestly, I wouldn’t even call it dating. It’s okay to humor the idea of dating again, but that should only happen once he’s fully healed or at least close to a full recovery. Otherwise, he’s just going to keep jumping into relationships and watching them fail because he never took the time to fix himself.
