Imasara desu ga, Osananajimi o Suki ni Natte Shimaimashita - Ch. 41 - Everything, Falling Apart

[GennArc]

I missed the senpai part yeah. This is after she realized her feelings for Yuu right?

Yes, that's HS 2nd year.

 

[story645]

So even though in fact she didn't reject him, his perception of it as a rejection isn't wrong either.

Maruto is explicitly writing this as a character flaw for Yuu. That he decides things are impossible and so barely tries. Like even if you think he was right to assume Hikari would reject him, his assume rather than ask attitude also hurts his relationship with Aya.

 

[Catbowl]

Based on that Maruto comment, im guessing the main story is back in 2 weeks then?
If thats the case then i am a bit shocked that these Yuu POV doesnt cover the whole cultural festival stuff. Does Maruto think his POV after his confession to Hikari was enough? Because i certainly dont think so lol

Maybe he deemed that part juicy enough to save for use in the main story.

 

[HellJester]

Uggg where to begin. It's killing me that we see into Yuu's head for everything but the most important part: After all this time why EXACTLY did he confess to Hikari when he did? He's been an absolute coward for years, constantly talking about how he doesn't have the courage to tell Hikari how he feels. He even says near the end of this chapter: "I swore I’d never… no, that I wouldn’t fall in love a fourth time. But maybe someone weak-willed like me—who could never confess to the girl I’d always loved—was never going to be able to keep such a painful vow." How does he go from saying he'd never confess to the girl he'd always loved to somehow mustering up the courage to confess at the worst possible time. He decides to confess after finding out that Yami is Hikari's best friend and somehow doesn't see any conflict of interest there.

We get chapter after chapter of his wishy washy, namby pamby internal dialogue and I just can't sympathize anymore except for how Yami fucked him over. Yuu comes off as way too pathetic. No matter what happens he's all "I don't know what to do oh woe is me...does Hikari like me...does she only think of me as a childhood friend...oh no..."

He's got his mom lobbing up soft balls to him: Mrs. Takamura: “Oh, this boy is just so shy. If you keep that up, Hikari-chan’s going to get stolen away by some other boy, you know?” He's got Hikari (in her extremely late bloomer fashion) throwing hints at him: "It felt… not quite like she was seeing me as just a childhood friend." She's constantly finding excuses to hang out with him. He thinks: "lately… it feels like the distance between us is getting closer and closer." She literally comes out and says: "Things aren't the same as back then." and he's all "I dunno man...does she like me, maybe she's Canadian."

Instead we get: "I didn’t have the courage to just give in to that impulse. No, it’s not like I’ve ever had that kind of courage, not since we were kids. That’s exactly why things with Hikari have always stayed the same, never moving forward. But then, there were the two times I’d been rejected by her. And then, the huge—truly huge—heartbreak I suffered with my first, with Yami-senpai, who wasn’t her. Those experiences made me even more cowardly now than I was back then." JFC, now he's even more cowardly?!

Insight:

Yeah, my main takeaway from this Yuu side story is the same as what I thought in the main story: Yuu kinda sucks. The only decent trait he has is that he’s self-aware about just how much he sucks.

It also pisses me off how he keeps acting like Hikari broke his heart, when in reality she didn’t do anything. He’s the one who broke his own heart. The only real heartbreak he’s had so far was with Yami. That’s it.

I hate how he blames Hikari when all she did was checks notes exist. I don't give a shit if Hikari admitted internally to herself that she most likely would have rejected Yuu back in middle school. Yuu doesn't know that. He suspects it but doesn't know. He'll never know unless he asks and he's never going to ask. He's just going to pine away and break his own heart. It's like I said previously....it's like Yuu is dreaming about winning the lottery but never buys a ticket and then gets his heart broken when the money doesn't come his way.

To be fair, Maruto is doing Yuu no favors in these POV chapters.

He puts Hikari impossibly out of reach and then decides she's out of his reach. It's borderline tragic how much it's a problem of his own making.
(He does the same w/ Aya - assuming she's not that serious w/o talking to her).

And Aya, man like I wanna know why he feels so heartbroken when like the 3 pieces of info here are he doesn't know much about her, she was his first, and she's not Hikari. Chap 4 also wasn't much better in this regard 🤦‍♀️

Preach! He sets Hikari up as this thing to be desired but not acquired and then gets all butt-hurt when his one attempt (failing to get into her high school) didn't work.

And he calls out that the heartbreak Aya gave him was bigger than the heartbreaks Hikari gave him. That coupled with a throwaway line earlier when Hikari compares him to Aya-chan "Yuu: “…Thanks. Tell your friend, ‘Looks like we’re kindred spirits.’”" makes the conspiracy theorist inside me think this is Maruto's way of subtly hinting that Yuu/Yami is the end goal.

I'm now legit wondering what is Maruto expecting from readers exactly? Cheering for a pairing of their own choice? Why would anyone do that? How are you gonna salvage someone like Yuu who had zero growth and still clinging to his failed first love with his wishy washy feelings? And why would a shoujo reject like Hikari needs to wait for someone like him to get better?

Now that i think about it, why is there no other suitors for Hikari who is supposedly this beaming light of virtue and loveliness? Is Murato too afraid to introduce some rival to Yuu because everyone will instantly ignore his self insert?

Honestly, I'd love a spin-off of Hikari's two other friends. They seem nice and are a breath of fresh air.

As to Hikari's other suiters, other posters in here have said where they're mentioned so I won't bother. I will say that I'm sure the reasons why no one appears is two-fold. 1) This is primarily a story about the love triangle with Yami, Yuu and Hikari and Maruto wants to keep it that way. 2) A lot of readers, not just the Japanese, get really weird about a female main character's purity/chastity/whatever term you want to use. It's one thing to show that Hikari had a bunch of suitors that she rejected instantly. It'd be another to single one out that manages to persist as now Hikari is "tainted" (I threw up in my mouth a little just typing that) because she's not 100% pure in her love for Yuu...she's got a love interest other than him. It's a horrible double-standard that exists in manga and unfortunately the real world. Also, just about any potential suitor would be leaps and bounds better than Yuu just for the minor fact that they actually voiced their feelings out loud to Hikari.

She already said she would reject him previously so it was already confirmed in the past. Yuu's decision (more like his gut feeling) to not confess during middle school was not wrong.

Again, I dislike this argument that people are making because only we and Hikari know about it, not Yuu. Yuu suspected but never confirmed it. It's easy for people to say Yuu made the right decision but that's like watching a Poker game on TV and seeing everyone's cards and going "It's a good thing Hellmuth folded that pair of 7s since Ivey flopped an Ace to make it three Aces." Hellmuth might suspect Ivey has him beat but there's no way to know with certainty.

I know that part but;

*All at middleschool graduation and nothing before hand. Also nothing during the 2 year of highschool as well. That means she didn't receive any for 5 years straight and when she did (all in the same day too and lets be honest, they are just "don't want to have any regrets" type of shit. You %90 won't see them again in your life), she had the convenient "highschool entrance hype!" distraction. I think it's just Maruto trying to keep her shoujo FMC "pure". But this fact is clashing with her social status so it doesn't make much sense.

Your math is a bit off. It's mentioned she got confessed to at the end of middle school i.e. 9th grade in Japan. She's currently in her second year of high school i.e. 11th grade. So it's been less than two years since she got all those confessions. It's likely she got confessed to during middle school, it's just not shown or mentioned as it's not terribly relevant to the plot. It's already been established that she didn't think about romance until very recently so it's not necessary to list every time she shot down a confession.

 

[Litreara]

And he calls out that the heartbreak Aya gave him was bigger than the heartbreaks Hikari gave him. That coupled with a throwaway line earlier when Hikari compares him to Aya-chan "Yuu: “…Thanks. Tell your friend, ‘Looks like we’re kindred spirits.’”" makes the conspiracy theorist inside me think this is Maruto's way of subtly hinting that Yuu/Yami is the end goal.

I mean, I'm kinda fine with Yami and Yuu ending up together since Yuu sucks and Yami is an absolute terrible person. The thing is, if this is what Maruto is going to do, it has to be realistic, and by that I mean that Hikari shouldn't be friends with them anymore. And there is one thing that I absolutely don't want to happen: Hikari endorsing Yuu and Yami’s relationship and being the one that helped them get together. This would absolutely suck and would make Hikari’s character, who is already too good and rightful to be in this story, totally unrealistic to the point of surrealism.

 

[story645]

makes the conspiracy theorist inside me think this is Maruto's way of subtly hinting that Yuu/Yami is the end goal.

I go back and forth - I also think it's likely end game but also most of their reminiscing about each other is how they were good distractions so like I'm not convinced it's supposed to be a happy ending.

Hikari endorsing Yuu and Yami’s relationship and being the one that helped them get together.

So my alternate read of "kindred spirits" is that Maruto is trying to lampshade that they're kindred spirits in needing Hikari's help to move forward. Which like that's sorta what's happening so far - Hikari is pushing both of them to be honest, which like they don't get to being back together without.

I just can't sympathize anymore except for how Yami fucked him over.

I struggle to even sympathize w/ this b/c, as I've been arguing for months? now, it always read to me like he put the bare minimum into that relationship. Hell, even in these flashbacks he walks back from doing the one thing she explicitly wanted (look for her where they met) b/c he saw Hikari. Like ghosting is bad and all but what she's mostly guilty of is the same thing as Yuu - assuming he'd get over it quickly (based on their relationship to that point) rather than having a conversation w/ him about feelings.

Yuu doesn't know that. He suspects it but doesn't know.

This! Making decisions for people w/o talking to them is a categorically bad thing in this manga. It's the root of most of the trash fire communication between Yuu and Yami and it's how we get to the things fall apart climax where Hikari is being so absurdly understanding that it's clear that they could have gone and talked to her.

 

[story645]

And he calls out that the heartbreak Aya gave him was bigger than the heartbreaks Hikari gave him.

Given that it was the only actual rejection, wonder if putting Hikari's assumed rejections on the same level would be a bridge too far even for Maruto.

 

[GennArc]

How does he go from saying he'd never confess to the girl he'd always loved to somehow mustering up the courage to confess at the worst possible time.

He could never, not he would never.

She literally comes out and says: "Things aren't the same as back then." and he's all "I dunno man...does she like me, maybe she's Canadian."

This was covered in the previous chapter, he got so disillusioned by previous misfortunes that he got extra wary about this type of stuff.

I don't give a shit if Hikari admitted internally to herself that she most likely would have rejected Yuu back in middle school. Yuu doesn't know that. He suspects it but doesn't know. He'll never know unless he asks and he's never going to ask. He's just going to pine away and break his own heart. It's like I said previously....it's like Yuu is dreaming about winning the lottery but never buys a ticket and then gets his heart broken when the money doesn't come his way.

Hikari isn't a black box or a lottery. She was around him every day. I'm tired of repeating it, but usually you can tell if the person isn't interested in you romantically at all if you talk a lot. And she clearly wasn't. And he could tell that. And she made it obvious several times, which is what these chapters were about.
This isn't a damn job hunting, "just send them your CV, you won't know if they hire you unless you try". He is risking his relationship with the closest friend and crush, and she is sending him signals that he has no chances.

 

[story645]

but usually you can tell if the person isn't interested in you romantically at all if you talk a lot.

Hikari's narrative is that she can't tell if Yuu likes her but she's still risking it all by putting herself out there to make Yuu aware that she likes him and is being obvious enough that it's even getting through Yuu's insecurity. Unlike Yuu, whose only attempt to get Hikari to see him differently is the one he hid from her. That's what's being critiqued here, not even the explicit lack of a confession.

ETA: And Hikari's behavior during the confession/crash out chapters makes it clear she loves him (as a friend) and deeply values the relationship so it's not like she doesn't care about being friends.

 

[awtystic]

I mean, I'm kinda fine with Yami and Yuu ending up together since Yuu sucks and Yami is an absolute terrible person. The thing is, if this is what Maruto is going to do, it has to be realistic, and by that I mean that Hikari shouldn't be friends with them anymore. And there is one thing that I absolutely don't want to happen: Hikari endorsing Yuu and Yami’s relationship and being the one that helped them get together. This would absolutely suck and would make Hikari’s character, who is already too good and rightful to be in this story, totally unrealistic to the point of surrealism.

I still think hikari and yuu are endgame maybe after all three of them finally confront with each other's demons and finally open up maybe then it's hard to predict with these kind of
Authors what their direction will be I mean from where we left off hikari pushed yuu and confronted Yami and Yami crashed out from all yuu's chapter so far we haven't really receive any extra information except the childhood one and all his heartbreaks i think maruto wrote this additional also to just show yuu's heartbreak but not really any satisfying info about him except him being weak willed and cowardice i wish he released more important chapts of this additional to show his train of thought during his confession chapts including the summer festival

 

[story645]

I still think hikari and yuu are endgame

There's the one bit where Hikari thinks hanging with Aya is probably more important than her new crush on Yuu that I sorta take as foreshadowing that Hikari will (try to?) choose Aya over a romantic relationship with Yuu if she has to choose.

https://mangadex.org/chapter/522e6df2-4798-43bd-96c0-2edcfd581dd7/7

 

[GennArc]

Hikari's narrative is that she can't tell if Yuu likes her

There is a huge gap between "can't tell if the person likes you" and "can tell that the person isn't interested in you". That's why I didn't say "it's easy to tell if the person likes you or not", that would be a lie, but the lack of interest is usually very transparent.

 

[story645]

"can't tell if the person likes you" and "can tell that the person isn't interested in you"

Ok let me rephrase - Hikari thinks Yuu is not romantically interested in her at the start of this manga:

She thinks he doesn't feel anything when she touches him and that he doesn't notice her:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/d38c6c44-dfe9-4a33-83e0-644399a70a9d/3
She thinks he doesn't feel embarrassed about doing stuff for her
https://mangadex.org/chapter/1cb3d019-258b-4b44-87c2-b0ea85b74994/4
She thinks he's not conscious of her as a girl:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/a1bee715-049d-47ba-9b9c-ae66ade200fc/4
She very strongly believes he's talking about someone else here:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/8f961dda-b2fe-49d3-8ff0-eb6163991fee/5
https://mangadex.org/chapter/22ce1df1-4d11-4d0b-9c8d-213bd5587b65/1

She just doesn't take it all as insta rejection b/c she doesn't have Yuu's personality.

 

[GennArc]

Ok let me rephrase - Hikari thinks Yuu is not romantically interested in her at the start of this manga:

She thinks he doesn't feel anything when she touches him and that he doesn't notice her:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/d38c6c44-dfe9-4a33-83e0-644399a70a9d/3
She thinks he doesn't feel embarrassed about doing stuff for her
https://mangadex.org/chapter/1cb3d019-258b-4b44-87c2-b0ea85b74994/4
She thinks he's not conscious of her as a girl:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/a1bee715-049d-47ba-9b9c-ae66ade200fc/4
She very strongly believes he's talking about someone else here:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/8f961dda-b2fe-49d3-8ff0-eb6163991fee/5
https://mangadex.org/chapter/22ce1df1-4d11-4d0b-9c8d-213bd5587b65/1

She just doesn't take it all as insta rejection b/c she doesn't have Yuu's personality.

I'm sorry, but this is not even close to what I'm talking about.
Lack of interest is when they ask you to introduce them to your friend, lack of interest is when they start fidgeting with a phone while you're talking to them, lack of interest is when they just show that something extremely important to you doesn't matter to them.
All you give are examples of when she is unsure if he likes her or not. Hell, the last two examples are actually her strongly believing that he might very well be talking about her:

Spoiler

It's partly because of this rain, but also...

Yuu: "Yeah, I... I do have someone I like."
Yuu: "But... it's not someone I just started liking or anything."

That confession of his that I accidentally overheard a few days ago.

Who is he talking about...?
And since when has he liked her...?

If I were one of those super delusional childhood friends (and, just to be clear, I'm not), or maybe the overconfident kind (again, not me!), I'd probably be all, W-wait, does he mean... me?!

But, well, since I'm more of a self-doubting, kinda mellow, and, yeah, maybe a bit negative childhood friend (and please, let's not dwell on how cringey that sounds), hearing something like that just... feels like my options are shrinking, you know?

Until now, I could at least dream of three possibilities:

=> "He likes me."
=> "He likes someone else."
=> "He doesn't like anyone."

But now it's down to just two:

=> "He likes me."
=> "He likes someone else."

So, yeah... sure, my chances of success went up from 33% to 50%, but so did my chances of getting rejected.
To put it a little more clearly:

Sure, the odds of, Wait, what?! He likes me too? Could life actually be this amazing?! have gone up...

...but so have the chances of, No, I can't give up! I'll make him notice me, no matter what! -- and that feels like a much bigger challenge now.

 

[story645]

I'm sorry, but this is not even close to what I'm talking about. Lack of interest is ...

To you personally sure, but "he doesn't think of me as a girl" is generally a strong belief in a lack of interest.

Yuu thinks Hikari isn't interested in him b/c she doesn't think of him as a boy - the various examples are what he takes as evidence of that belief, just like Hikari thinks his distance and lack of embarrassment is evidence he's not into her. ETA: Whether either of them is correct is immaterial here, this is a question of perception.

The bit you quoted also makes very clear that she also thinks her chances of getting rejected have increased and therefore making a move is now even scarier:

So, yeah... sure, my chances of success went up from 33% to 50%, but so did my chances of getting rejected.
To put it a little more clearly:

Sure, the odds of, Wait, what?! He likes me too? Could life actually be this amazing?! have gone up...

...but so have the chances of, No, I can't give up! I'll make him notice me, no matter what! -- and that feels like a much bigger challenge now.

lack of interest is when they start fidgeting with a phone while you're talking to them

Just personally, I 100% fidget with my phone when I'm into a guy cause I'm nervous.

 

[HellJester]

Ok let me rephrase - Hikari thinks Yuu is not romantically interested in her at the start of this manga:

She thinks he doesn't feel anything when she touches him and that he doesn't notice her:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/d38c6c44-dfe9-4a33-83e0-644399a70a9d/3
She thinks he doesn't feel embarrassed about doing stuff for her
https://mangadex.org/chapter/1cb3d019-258b-4b44-87c2-b0ea85b74994/4
She thinks he's not conscious of her as a girl:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/a1bee715-049d-47ba-9b9c-ae66ade200fc/4
She very strongly believes he's talking about someone else here:
https://mangadex.org/chapter/8f961dda-b2fe-49d3-8ff0-eb6163991fee/5
https://mangadex.org/chapter/22ce1df1-4d11-4d0b-9c8d-213bd5587b65/1

She just doesn't take it all as insta rejection b/c she doesn't have Yuu's personality.

It comes down to fundamental differences in who Hikari and Yuu are as people.

Hikari has always worked hard and strived for things she wanted. You can see that in her dialogue to Yuu when they were discussing what high schools they were going to. Hikari was saying things about how it was her first choice all along. In other chapters it's revealed how Hikari is smart and works hard. It's obvious she cares deeply for her future and takes steps early on to secure it. Bottom line: Hikari is making active, concentrated effort to get Yuu to like her and see her as a romantic option even if some of her efforts are baffling. Keep in mind she's a very late bloomer.

Which brings me to Yuu. He coasts...a lot. He seems to only attempt to lock in when it's either too late or almost too late. He started studying to get into Hikari's high school with only a few months left. He admits it's too late but he has to try anyway. He's a little over one year from graduating high school and has apparently never thought about college until Hikari brings it up in this latest chapter. Yuu makes a comment about them only being in their second year of high school when questioned about if he's started thinking about college yet. His effort to get Hikari to see him as a romantic option was to secretly try to get into her high school knowing he was almost certain to fail and then didn't bother to say anything to her until it was revealed by others over a year later.

Both characters start off with the assumption that the other is not romantically interested in them. However, Hikari is the only one making more than a token effort.

 

[Litreara]

There's the one bit where Hikari thinks hanging with Aya is probably more important than her new crush on Yuu that I sorta take as foreshadowing that Hikari will (try to?) choose Aya over a romantic relationship with Yuu if she has to choose.

https://mangadex.org/chapter/522e6df2-4798-43bd-96c0-2edcfd581dd7/7

I've been thinking about this, and I have a question for you: Despite Hikari stating that she greatly values her bond with Yami, do you think the story actually showed us why she values it so much?

From Yami's perspective, it's easy to understand. Her life is miserable, and Hikari is a beam of light. Yami is basically a moth attracted to the light.

But from Hikari's perspective, I simply can't see it. If we weigh what was shown, the bad things Yami did to Hikari far outweigh the positive ones. In their first interaction, Yami is an asshole to her. Later, at the train station, Yami takes a photo of Hikari, creates a profile on a sugar dating app, deceives Hikari, and sets up a 'date' with a pedophile. At their school festival, knowing that Hikari had planned to confess to Yuu, Yami kisses Yuu while fully aware that Hikari is watching.

Also, when confronted by Hikari after the festival, Yami's thoughts are selfish. She just doesn't want to be alone again. It doesn't feel like she is concerned about Hikari's well-being.

So yeah, to me, it feels like Hikari values her bond with Yami because Maruto is telling us she does, not because it was shown why she does, which kind of sucks.

 

[story645]

do you think the story actually showed us why she values it so much?

Seems like a bad case of I can fix it? like Aya is the stray cat she's adopted and nursed back to health. Which would explain why Hikari is still pushing so hard post crash out - Aya is her project dammit & she's gonna see her project through.

It's a kinda similar dynamic with Yuu, where he idolizes her for sticking up for him & she protects him like a good big sister would. ETA: like feels like she starts liking him romantically when their dynamic shifts more to being peers.

 

[HellJester]

I've been thinking about this, and I have a question for you: Despite Hikari stating that she greatly values her bond with Yami, do you think the story actually showed us why she values it so much?

From Yami's perspective, it's easy to understand. Her life is miserable, and Hikari is a beam of light. Yami is basically a moth attracted to the light.

But from Hikari's perspective, I simply can't see it. If we weigh what was shown, the bad things Yami did to Hikari far outweigh the positive ones. In their first interaction, Yami is an asshole to her. Later, at the train station, Yami takes a photo of Hikari, creates a profile on a sugar dating app, deceives Hikari, and sets up a 'date' with a pedophile. At their school festival, knowing that Hikari had planned to confess to Yuu, Yami kisses Yuu while fully aware that Hikari is watching.

Also, when confronted by Hikari after the festival, Yami's thoughts are selfish. She just doesn't want to be alone again. It doesn't feel like she is concerned about Hikari's well-being.

So yeah, to me, it feels like Hikari values her bond with Yami because Maruto is telling us she does, not because it was shown why she does, which kind of sucks.

This illustrates one of the problems I have with this manga in that we're told things much more often than we're shown them which I find ironic considering manga could be considered more about the visuals than the text. Though, we are getting a web novel at the same time as a manga adaptation so it could also be argued that telling more than showing is the way to go.

Consider Yami and Hikari's relationship: We're shown the start of it, get random slice of life snippets and then the big crash out at the school festival. Based on what we're shown, it doesn't seem rational that Hikari would like Yami as much as she does. Instead we're just told on occasion that Hikari greatly values her bond with Yami and we are supposed to just accept that.

I understand that there's probably dozens if not hundreds of little instances in their relationship that are not shown due to time and page constraints but it would have been helpful in getting the audience where Maruto wants them to be if we're shown something more than Yami teasing Hikari. Maybe a true heart to heart where Yami doesn't crack a joke or make light of something Hikari said/did. Maybe Yami opening up about her family situation and Hikari just bonding with her.

There's the one bit where Hikari thinks hanging with Aya is probably more important than her new crush on Yuu that I sorta take as foreshadowing that Hikari will (try to?) choose Aya over a romantic relationship with Yuu if she has to choose.

https://mangadex.org/chapter/522e6df2-4798-43bd-96c0-2edcfd581dd7/7

I wonder if Maruto did this more to make Yami's betrayal even more impactful rather than hint toward anything else. By the time we're reading chapter 21.5 it's been several months since we saw the initial Yami/Yuu kiss so reading about Hikari talking about how important Yami is to her and how she potentially views her as more important than her crush on Yuu is just another knife to the reader's heart since we already have foreknowledge of what's to come. Of course, to latecomers who are reading the chapters in numerical order rather than release schedule, it could be seen another way. It will be interesting to see what order these side story manga chapters will appear in the official release.

Seems like a bad case of I can fix it? like Aya is the stray cat she's adopted and nursed back to health. Which would explain why Hikari is still pushing so hard post crash out - Aya is her project dammit & she's gonna see her project through.

It's a kinda similar dynamic with Yuu, where he idolizes her for sticking up for him & she protects him like a good big sister would. ETA: like feels like she starts liking him romantically when their dynamic shifts more to being peers.

I think at first Hikari saw Yami as a project only because she was a class rep and had that responsibility asked of her by a lazy teacher who didn't want to do their job (who was also probably pretty tired of putting up with Yami after holding her back a year). Hikari isn't shallow enough to continue with that viewpoint once she gets to know a person.

Same thing with Hikari's view on Yuu. He might have started out as a type of project (my new neighbor who I hurt with my careless remark about his chicken pox spots so now I'll overcorrect and become his protector) but I feel that Hikari is a decent enough person (we've been told this and shown this) that she'd quickly go from his protector to his friend.

 

[story645]

Hikari isn't shallow enough to continue with that viewpoint once she gets to know a person.

Yeah, like I was being flippant but I think it's more that this is how she's heroine coded. Just about every shoujo heroine (& many a shounen hero) has that one person they rehab through the power of love. Tohru from Fruits Basket has a house full.

she'd quickly go from his protector to his friend.

Yeah agree, was more a comment on how she's served similar "savior" roles to Yuu and Aya.