Houkago Kitaku Biyori - Ch. 56 - Let's Make a Charm

[arcosapphire]

I like a complication or two in my romcom. But I know I’m in the minority here. My first thought at the end of the chapter was “Oh, they won’t like that!” 😂

I don't think the complaints are about complications. I think people welcome complications, because figuring out the complicated bits is what makes a relationship work.

I think people just prefer complications to come out of legitimate conflicts--things that people aren't aligned about, and they have to figure out how to make the relationship work anyway. A miscommunication isn't that kind of legitimate conflict, because someone is trying to resolve against an action that they think the other person is taking, but which in fact they are not taking. Tilting at windmills as it were. That's why it feels unsatisfactory for readers: at the end, they haven't overcome a challenge, someone just realizes they have been wasting their effort on something that was never a problem.

The reason it's likely okay here is that the resolution won't be "oh, so you weren't interested in another girl after all! Teehee!" Instead, it will probably be more like, "that aside, I realized I need to clear something up with you..." And something real will come out of the fake problem.

In a typical rom-com, it's literally just a story extender. It's just a speed bump for the protagonist, and that's annoying. I don't think that's how it's going to go here though.