Thanks for the chapter, Mylene Scans.
Agreed, I've had similar fights with my SO. Having more tact and being older I'm not as blunt or cold, but this shit did hit home for me. To me showing these moments adds texture to their relationship and makes it closer to reading a book than a manga. It also gives the fluff more meaning. Him wanting to change colleges is pretty doompilled I agree, but also is in line with his character and shows that while he's growing, he hasn't "grown up" yet. Confidence is built over time and Akari is helping him build his.
That being said this is a MONTHLY Manga not a book so yeah I'm mad too lmao. I'm tempted to go on hiatus for this Manga until it's done because this pace is agonizing.
On one hand, I can understand that he's stressed. Not only that, but calling it a fight was actually Akari's emotions magnifying the level of opposition in Jirou's stance: he was stating his disagreement with her position matter-of-factly--and nothing more. Tired as he was (and even if he wasn't), there likely wasn't much more to say. This refutation probably came across as scolding to Akari, and thus caused her report to Sachi. Akari probably took Jirou's apology and admission of a lesser (indeed) spirit than hers as proof of her own unjustly pressuring him while he was already under much pressure (scholastic and societal).
On the other hand, Akari wasn't wrong--and what she said came purely from her concern for him as someone on his side and close thereto. I agree: while he's made major strides in becoming better than what he was, he's still got a way to go; currently, he appears to be on track to becoming an ovine Japanese societal cog--i.e., the kind that believes merely going against the grain, in itself, is wrong (which is not a concept foreign to Japanese culture). It shows in his rigidly (but lightly) decrying Akari's refusal to obey the dress code as "wrong" without qualification; that's the act of someone who'd go along with a rule because it is one, even if it serves no purpose or is actually harmful--while Akari appears to be the type who would not, society be damned. Judging by her support of him against those he was altering his personal plans for, there's a moral component to her willfulness. It's this that Jirou has to learn from, or else society will shape him (back) into a sheep before long--the evil kind of sheep that does not care whom it wrongs as long as the herd it belongs to accepts it. (You could say it's the fate he avoided by escaping Shiori's cage, except writ large--to a societal level--and slightly different.) Akari really is helping him to become a strong man--but he has to accept that help, first.
Jirou also failed to properly acknowledge her support--his reply was pretty curt for a response to a
lover's concern: it's one thing if it came from a mere friend, but Akari is his beloved girlfriend--her emotions are owed more care than the average person's. (This is the reason for Sachi's hard--but quickly-deleted--reply.) Had he not been so curt and focused inward, he probably would not have committed that faux pas. That said, he realized that he'd been too much of a stone wall--which would be painfully hard, relatively speaking, to an Akari that had become completely soft with him--and resolved to apologize in the morning, which is more proof that it wasn't the hostile conflict anyone thought it was, but something natural that was resolved healthily.
Or, rather, is in the process of being resolved healthily. Let's hope no one causes the apology to be delayed to make space for drama.