yeah kinda shocking. Maybe I suddenly became illiterate but this chapter made little sense. Hard read.
Was the entire purpose of Aoi’s reveal just to be a plot device for Hanami to confront her feelings??
I feel like it was such a terrible way to write the work-acquaintance/recently-revealed ex-roommate - who is in relationships with multiple partners. As a work-related acquaintance, and previous roommate + close friend of Kae, Aoi had (kind of) planned in advance to invite Nanami to a hotel then assault her for her own selfish reasons. And this is after she had invited her on two dates prior despite not only having the feeling she might have deeper feelings for Kaede, but also taking advantage of both the fact that Nanami doesn’t realise she’s also(?) attracted to women, considering Nanami still recently had marriage with a man as a life goal, and that Nanami doesn’t know she swings two ways. Aoi was just outright being a sexual opportunist. The meaning of this chapter was lost on me.
Not to mention the annoying (though arguably realistic and valid) way Nanami kept her meetings hidden from Kae beforehand, but then still hid how Aoi made weird advances on her under the guise of being friends. And after all this, Aoi is suddenly ‘officially’ married and acknowledges Nanami to be an (attempted) last fling that is okay in Aoi’s mind because she wasn’t legally registered as married. To which Nanami rightly points out the terrible logic. Crazy.
The only rationale I could see is that this is just in line with how ambiguously the manga has been this whole time, or that it is just Nanami’s characterisation as a naïve person who doesn’t have a lot of experience and, in reality, hasn’t figured herself out - basically written as a victim to her own naïvety with moving to Tokyo for basically the hell of it and all, and expecting her family and friends to go along with it.
Not to mention again how the kiss was glossed over by Nanami …yikes. How is Aoi and the writing of this chapter defensible. This chapter alone would be worth tagging this manga as Drama had the mangaka chosen to actually have this glaring plot point be addressed, no? I feel like this is setting up for a lot of drama to come.
I might be overreacting here with how much I wrote but just opinion. I hope someone can tell me what went over my head because I can’t believe what I read this volume-ending chapter.