Fuufu Ijou, Koibito Miman. - Vol. 11 Ch. 60

[Giga]

This might just be completely incorrect when the next chapter comes out but I think what happened was:
MC confessed his love to CF (childhood friend), CF even though also loves him, for some reason didn't accept (probably because she was too shy or smt), MC probably thought that CF didn't like him and then said something along the line of "my feeling will never change, I will be next to you and wait until you accept me." or something and then she probably just nodded her head instead of saying something.
So over the next few years leading to the manga begining, MC still thinks that CF doesn't like him and but sticking around cause he believes that the nod she gave in the past might give him a chance. Meanwhile, CF now having the "my feeling will never change" insurance, and has gather some courage (probably by becoming the smart, beautiful, angelic girl that everyone in school loves) also just wait around for MC to confess again, not realizing that to MC, his confession has already been said and he is just waiting for her answer.
So basically, MC waits for to CF gives her answer for the confession he gave in the past, while CF waits for MC to give her a new confession, and neither of them know what the other thinks or tell the other anything.
And then the manga started.

This is my theory, this might be completely bullshits, but it seems plausible with the infomations we have been given, plausible to me at least.

In this chapter--and I don't remember, correct me if I'm wrong--Jirou was talking about a more recent time that they discussed romantic feelings. If you're talking about Jirou's first confession, then you're off the mark by a lot: Shiori didn't even give him a chance to confess before they went their separate ways years before the manga began, and that was probably what she was referencing on page 20 (mangaka thought she's slick, making it unclear who was saying what). Evidently, Shiori thought she could have her cake and eat it too: she shut Jirou's confession down, secured his friendship, and then continued showing no signs of romantic interest--until she came back and found Akari had come along.

That aside, I'm going to save my reaction for the next chapter--just to make sure that the mangaka doesn't kill 98% of her neurons and save Shiori from the consequences of her own actions. What I will say is this:

You wanted him to be your friend--right, Shiori? Well, congratulations--he was, and nothing changed, in accordance with the only thing you allowed him to say that day. You're friends--forever.

Or, at least, you should be.

 

[GuestUser1990]

I FEEL SO BAD FOR SHIORI 😭 but girl you took too long 😔

 

[ziant]

oh no you don't get to cry in front of Jirou. time to get over him and let him have his happiness with akari.

 

[Shinigamisama]

Well you had your chance in the past, I think it's fair to let Akari realize her feelings without being a hindrance to them. If they're your friends, support them instead.

 

[BlizzardVeil93]

Childhood friends never win

That's tough.

 

[BlizzardVeil93]

No

Well you had your chance in the past, I think it's fair to let Akari realize her feelings without being a hindrance to them. If they're your friends, support them instead.

No 💀

 

[BlizzardVeil93]

Am I a bad person for being happy that Shiori keeps taking massive Ls? Experiencing "heartbreak" (if you could even call it that, since she and Jirou have never been a thing) twice feels genuinely deserved, considering she's had practically negative agency.

Yes, yes you are

 

[lauermeer]

She really thought Jirou was going to remain the same forever, after she didn’t do anything. For god’s sake, she annoys me.

 

[chusetto]

Oh, you go F yourself, young lady... The dumb MC belongs to the Superior Gal

 

[Ragerfan]

Man, all parties in a love triangle would be satifised if they just had a threesome. When will we get an ending like that in a romance manga?

Kanojo mo kanojo

 

[TsunKingFenris]

She really thought Jirou was going to remain the same forever, after she didn’t do anything. For god’s sake, she annoys me.

This is the childhood friend character arc, never seal the deal, just make him an orbiting simp, and then panik when a girl realizes he's a catch and raises every flag in succession. It's why I hate the trope of a childhood friend.

 

[Giga]

This is the childhood friend character arc, never seal the deal, just make him an orbiting simp, and then panik when a girl realizes he's a catch and raises every flag in succession. It's why I hate the trope of a childhood friend.

You shouldn't--the reason why is related to what people here have been saying about childhood friends never winning. Female childhood friends frequently lose, indeed--but what these posters leave out are the details. There are actually plenty of lovable girls that are childhood friends out there: untouchable in every way, from looks to personality--and that's why they don't win. They don't win because there's always some loli/flatchest, masculinized girl, or girl with a personality no healthy male in his right mind would consider attractive ready to somehow clear the donkan fog from the MC's mind and win him over (e.g., the violent, 98% tsun tsundere). The female childhood friend has no chance whatsoever because the MC is always too dumb to understand anything she says--or does, no matter how obviously overt--that specifically involves romance.

In such cases, the good childhood friends are specifically designed and included in stories just to lose to girls like those I described above--likely to improve the standing of the latter by comparison.

 

[Legionary_Hunter]

Best girl is on the cover love, you never had a chance.

 

[Vergift]

That was...100% Shiori's fault. It's not like she's not good enough. She always wasted the chance to say it to Jirou. First, she ran away when Jirou wants to confess when they were in middle school and eventually left a scar for Jirou. Second, she always kept her distance from Jirou and barely spends her time with him.

It's no wonder that Jirou ended up move on from Shiori and ended up fall for Akari, since he knew, that Akari actually care for him.

 

[J-Yin]

Am I a bad person for being happy that Shiori keeps taking massive Ls? Experiencing "heartbreak" (if you could even call it that, since she and Jirou have never been a thing) twice feels genuinely deserved, considering she's had practically negative agency.

It’s literally so funny she keeps setting herself up for failure with Jirou

 

[LeonsamaX]

She got comfortable and slept on it for too long. I really hope he's straight with her and just gets this over with soon. Also, isn't the teacher still there???

 

[Candymon]

It's not that you're not good enough, it's that now there's someone better.

Hopefully she can move on and grow from this. There's still so much life ahead of her.

 

[Seinvolf]

Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…

 

[Coldlight]

Time for Jirou to show his resolve. Reject her gently but clearly like the way Minami rejected Akari and get this over with. Bonus if they also clear up his misunderstanding from middle school.

While I feel a little bad for Shiori, resolving love triangles will always hurt at least one person. She wasted time not acting on her feelings and kept shooting herself in the foot all this time. Is she herself not good enough? While Jirou will be the judge of that, I'd say her effort was not good enough. Akari didn't get this far by passively waiting for answers. How many times has Shiori called Jirou on the phone just because she wanted to talk?

inb4 Jirou makes an inexplicably disappointing decision dodging this situation... Please, don't.

 

[AnotherDuck]

He told her that nothing would change. But she's the one who changed. If you make someone promise not to change as friends, that's what you get. A friend. He didn't change how he interacted with her.

childhood friends do win, when they're the FMC

Another reason why it's seen that they don't win is that it's maybe the most common character archetype to throw into a romance or harem series. There's always a childhood friend, and since as long as the average number of girls is more than two, CF will lose more often than not.

It's also a function for how plots work. Most of the time, the premise of the series is something interesting happening to the MC. Usually that's tied to the FMC, but not always. The CF is often a symbol of stability, which is where the MC is moving away from. As such, the premise of the story goes against the CF winning. Although sometimes she wins as the comfort against all chaos that's happening, to ground the MC into reality.

Personally speaking, the main reason I don't like the CF trope is that they much too often come across as entitled to the MC for the sole reason of meeting him before the other girls. If that's all you have going for you, get lost. That's not Shiori, though. She's just too suffering from acting too little, too late.

oh no you don't get to cry in front of Jirou. time to get over him and let him have his happiness with akari.

She does get to. Regardless of all relationship drama, they are close friends. While she's made mistakes, she hasn't done anything wrong.

That was...100% Shiori's fault. It's not like she's not good enough.

Yeah. She wasn't brave enough to go forward. And while you could say that's "not good enough", that's not the meaning used here.