I think Runako still deserves to win. She's smart, beautiful, good at cooking, basically an ideal partner and not indecisive. Seeing Shio who almost won but she was indecisive and looked for reasons that made her progress become 0 again, and I was a bit annoyed. Runako is the most effort of all.
If this happens again in the next chapter, maybe MC will ask what's wrong. And the girl didn't give any reason, she just said she forgot. And it will continue like this until the MC checks it himself.
I don't know what happened to Japanese publishers letting manga like this go. I know Japan is having a birth crisis, but not with a story like this. What the heck is government-sanctioned adultery? Is infidelity normal there? It's like koi no uso but a married and more brutal version.
We can see at the end of this chapter, he turns on the light. It's like a change from darkness to light, something similar to A Silent Voice when Ishida comes out of the dark tunnel. I hope this is a change. You don't need to forgive the bully, just respond with your own kindness.