It is grammatically correct the way it is, but I suppose "Since I'm keeping her hitting me quiet from my parents, you promised we could go on a date." would be a bit clearer that Isanuma is only keeping quiet in order to buy a date with the teacher.I think the wording is kind of off between Isanuma and the teacher when talking about the date. Isanuma saying "in exchange for" makes it sound like the teacher did her a favour, but in thinking about it, I'm pretty sure she did the teacher a favour by letting him keep this quiet from her parents so it won't reflect badly on him, and in return for her letting him keep quiet, she wants a date with him. But it initially sounds like he's done the favour to her, so it's confusing that he's promising a date when he's the one doing the favour.
I had to overthink that to get it to make sense, sheesh.
And finally Azuma. She's secretly been an important character since chapter 1. There was a ponytail shown when Kurumi was shoplifting. And in chapter 3 Azuma seemed very wary of Naoi. So she might've seen both Kurumi almost shoplifting and Naoi recording the whole thing. In the background we've seen her growing nervousness of Isanuma's increased animosity toward Kurumi. Her increasing isolation from her friends, like when she was left out of karaoke in chapter 8. But she still tried to be a good friend in chapter 10 by trying to stop Isanuma from doing something to get herself in trouble, even though Mine was conveniently nowhere to be seen and did nothing to help. And how Azuma has some choices to make. Mine and quite possibly Isanuma are likely mad at her for telling Sensei about Isanuma bullying Kurumi. And to make things even worse, she finds out that Mine was a manipulative liar and rumor-monger all along. And then that same liar trying to shame her into silence. Only to take yet another blow when Isanuma turns out to be a hypocrite who happily dates Sensei after treating Kurumi like absolute trash for thinking she did the same. Isanuma's animosity was out of jealousy, not because she looked down on the behavior. But there is hope. Mine doesn't realize that Azuma has a hidden Ace up her sleeve if she chooses to use it. To go to Naoi for help. After all, who better to get evidence than the person she saw filming someone shoplifting? Fight fire with fire.
Well, everyone's so used to doormat Kurumi that they didn't expect her to call everyone else out. Though things could get more interesting from here. Kurumi was basically loitering out at night in her school uniform. Possibly could be mistaken for schoolgirl prostitution. And she may have just beaten up Naoi's dad, which I'm sure he'll play the victim if so. So the teacher could be in for a world of headache. There's no way he can hide all of this.
I'm not sure what to expect of Kokoro at this point since her interactions with Akane in chapter 11. Chapter 9 already had Kokoro starting to show annoyance with Kurumi not living up to her idealized version. And then the classroom incident happens and Kokoro is forced to face the fact that Kurumi isn't the person who she thought she was. Akane reinforced this by saying that Kurumi's always been the type to bottle things up. And Kokoro really seemed to like that Akane actually paid attention to her in various ways. It's the things she wished Kurumi would do. Plus the fact that Akane will basically be glued to Kokoro all summer due to her getting a part-time job at Kokoro's family's shop. The big question is will Kokoro move on from Kurumi by the next time she appears, or if she'll try one last desperate bid to separate her from Naoi. But then there's also Kurumi's side of things. So far the stunt Kokoro did with Naoi's letter hasn't been addressed. I doubt Kurumi would like to find out that Kokoro was manipulating her into a suffocating relationship to keep her away from Naoi.It’d be fun to see Kokoro’s reaction to Naoi living with Kurumi if that happened though lmao, not that I crave the drama or anything (I absolutely do).
It being Azuma in the store in chapter 1 just feels like the easiest way to explain some things in the story. Like why Azuma reacted how she did to Naoi in chapter 3. It could also justify why Azuma would seek out Naoi's help with the current situation, since going to someone with experience in evidence gathering would prove useful. Since it feels like the leads basically have to get involved with the teacher/Isanuma plot somehow.It is good to finally have the names for the full mean girls trio; they’ve technically been in the bg since chapter 1. I’m not totally sure it’s Azuma in the store in chapter 1, just because her hair seems to be more of a side pony situation but it definitely could be her, and it would be pretty interesting if she reached out to Naoi about Mine and Isanuma. I think it’s a bit odd no one mentioned Naoi in the whole affair, since while she wasn’t directly involved, she did cuss out and shove Hotta out of the way after Kurumi popped off in the classroom, with the latter in tow. Maybe there will be repercussions for her later, but to be fair the main drama was clearly with Kurumi and Isanuma.
Lowkey would love for Kurumi and Naoi to end up planning to bust Hotta and Isanuma based on info from Azuma. It kind of makes the English title make the most sense; Kurumi’s mom’s twisted abusive ‘love’, Kokoro’s unrealistic stifling ‘love’, Isanuma’s unhealthy ‘love’ for her teacher, whatever happened in Naoi’s past… if those are the forms of ‘love’ surrounding them, I think they should get to break them! As a treat!
Summer vacation looks like it's leading to major relationship changes all around.
Kurumi's going through serious development. She's being more observant of others and their motives. She's being more assertive in her interactions with other people. And she's experiencing new feelings, like when it looked like she was tearing up when she thought that Naoi stood her up on their date. I think we're getting Naoi's backstory soon since Kurumi saw Naoi's dad abusing her. I guess he really doesn't work if he's shaking down his own daughter for money. Naoi was trying really hard to get away from him so that she could have her date with Kurumi. She was probably worried her dad destroyed her chances and that Kurumi wouldn't give her a second chance after getting stood up once. But luckily fate had other ideas, so now Kurumi shows up to deepen her relationship with Naoi.
As for the plot with Sensei and Isanuma, I'm kind of not 100% sure where it's going. Could Sensei really be dating high school girls? Maybe, but it's also possible the person he was seen with was the red-haired woman from the chapter 11 cover. Maybe she's just someone he doesn't think is socially acceptable to date, because he likes to keep up appearances. But keeping up appearances by agreeing to go on a date with Isanuma is almost certainly going to backfire on him. If the red-haired woman is his girlfriend, she'd dump him for cheating on her, even if he's only agreeing to the date to buy Isanuma's silence about her confrontation with Kurumi in chapter 10. And if they're found out, then he'd almost certainly try to push all of the blame onto Isanuma for suggesting the idea to begin with. He seemed super uncomfortable with her attention this chapter even once Kurumi was out of the room. He's a horrible teacher regardless of what's really going on with his dating life.
Isanuma almost feels like she's getting setup for heatbreak on purpose by Mine. What's Mine's motive? She might be in love with Isanuma and wants to destroy her crush on the teacher. Or maybe even Isanuma's life so that she becomes all Isanuma has left. Kurumi may have just been a convenient pawn in this plot, maybe because Isanuma was jealous of her seeming perfection already. Plus, it would give Isanuma more confidence to do something foolishly reckless by thinking Sensei would accept dating a high schooler. Mine seems to smile around Isanuma when her face is normally hidden. She blushes around her alot too. This might all be a form of twisted love.
And finally Azuma. She's secretly been an important character since chapter 1. There was a ponytail shown when Kurumi was shoplifting. And in chapter 3 Azuma seemed very wary of Naoi. So she might've seen both Kurumi almost shoplifting and Naoi recording the whole thing. In the background we've seen her growing nervousness of Isanuma's increased animosity toward Kurumi. Her increasing isolation from her friends, like when she was left out of karaoke in chapter 8. But she still tried to be a good friend in chapter 10 by trying to stop Isanuma from doing something to get herself in trouble, even though Mine was conveniently nowhere to be seen and did nothing to help. And how Azuma has some choices to make. Mine and quite possibly Isanuma are likely mad at her for telling Sensei about Isanuma bullying Kurumi. And to make things even worse, she finds out that Mine was a manipulative liar and rumor-monger all along. And then that same liar trying to shame her into silence. Only to take yet another blow when Isanuma turns out to be a hypocrite who happily dates Sensei after treating Kurumi like absolute trash for thinking she did the same. Isanuma's animosity was out of jealousy, not because she looked down on the behavior. But there is hope. Mine doesn't realize that Azuma has a hidden Ace up her sleeve if she chooses to use it. To go to Naoi for help. After all, who better to get evidence than the person she saw filming someone shoplifting? Fight fire with fire.