Alabaster no Kisetsu - Vol. 2 Ch. 12.2 - Close friend, distant friend (Second part)

[beep_repair]

Maki's last shot straight up looks like a ShindoL work

Larry's linework is tighter

 

[Roadwarior2]

Yep, that's the fun part with age-gap stories, lots of people want to read them, they're pulled in by these stories like we are, but they have a very narrow range of what they end up finding acceptable, so it's always a bit amusing/disappointing to see their reaction.

Bit of a necrobump but yeah any relationship with a significant age gap naturally walks a very fine line between morally/ethically acceptable and completely detestable (whether they’re technically legal or not), which is what I often find really compelling about them, especially when I see/participate in arguments for/against each individual case, and regardless if I personally approve of them or not.

Like I’m pretty partial to the “half-your-age-plus-7” rule for the lowest acceptable limit for one’s sexual partner, and so for this series, I note that Sakura’s age isn’t stated but I get the strong sense that she’s in her early twenties, maybe 25 at most since she’s still a sub and not tenured. Meanwhile our boy Gin’s like 16-18 which isn’t really a huge difference in age all considered.

Plus Gin and Sakura are in a reciprocal relationship driven by both mutual lust and passion, which is in sharp contrast to Okuda who is a man likely well into his 30s soliciting sex from a clearly vulnerable teenaged girl.

Admittedly I’m not totally immune to the usual double standard, as I vividly remember being a hormone fuelled teenaged boy and knowing damn well that I would’ve gladly jumped an attractive woman of any age like a hungry tiger given the opportunity.

 

[Panino]

If not Okada, who else?
Of course it had to be her.

Well that is something new I haven't seen before: A teacher paying a student to have sex.

I think it was "natural".
Okada is that sort of guy, and Maki is that sort of girl.
Makes me think, if maybe her decision to sell her body is in part influenced by her friendship with Yukari. Maybe Maki's family is poor, and being friends and spending so much time on Yukari's house made her with for money. Maybe her hypothetical poverty is a reason why granny gives money to her.
So, Mari wished for money, not to ear money, but to have it.
How could a girl like her on a small island get that money? That are few options available, one of them was Okuda. And Okuda, as bad as he is, probably isn't the type to force himself on anyone, instead he just looks for girls and woman that are willing and Maki was one of them. It's sort of a business relationship, each one gets what they want.

The real test to how bad Okuka is, IMO, is if he will discover that Sakura was posing nude to Gin and use this information to blackmail her into having a sexual relationship with him.


I think in the end it will all be resolved by Kuroki's action when he starts to see what's going on.