ngl, at this point i kinda wish we(author included) all agreed that the whole childhood friend premise was a bad call and just pretended Mai didn't exist. I can't even say i like or dislike Mai since she's barely a character in the first place, hell she's more of a plot device at this point, and the worst part, she's a terrible one too, her existence kneecaps the manga as a whole and severely restricts the scope of the manga, we wouldn't be here setting up a cute romance with an actual character and development if the author didn't want write this, but the looming threat of Mai makes this whole arc and future ones simply frustrating and pointless.