Saeko really is very different from her oneshot counterpart, thank God.
This chapter hit all the right notes imo you can really see how much Saeko was struggling with her past, and that's with her being so cheerful and outgoing, a lesser person would be fucked, some people just can't handle criticism like that.
Still I'd think most people would be like Mikkun "oh, uh and ?" most regular people are too worried about their own shit to start caring about that sort of stuff, of course useless assholes will start shit, and even more so in something like middle school if someone starts going hard on something different like that mob mentality follows ... sigh it was quite sad seeing the cheerful Saeko so sad and worried about it and quite a touching moment that mikkuns words hit her so deep.