"It should be fine if I lie to him a bit"
Emotional manipulation is never cool or smart. Feigning a break up to rile up somebody is not "lie to him a bit". Worse, the way she said it implied that she cheated on him briefly before dumping him "we matched, so we're dating now (but at that point in time she was still dating Yuuta...)"; So she inadvertently, confidently declared that she's a two-timing, two-faced bitch (even if it isn't true).
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Good job sinking your own ship. Delicious schadenfreude. 🍿
I hope she doesn't actually get redeemed back into a love interest so easily as if she did nothing wrong. She hurt him, so at the very least she has to clear up the lie and apologize... but even then I don't believe manipulative people like her can even be good love interests anyway. Although the protagonist will be the judge of that, not me.
To be fair, the guy is far from perfect and is too kind for his own good. He admits he doesn't deny anyone, so he's the perfect doormat for abusive people. At the very least, I'd like to see him develop into a guy who's still kind but also someone who can say no and push back when he needs to. Alright, so except the "still kind" part he did that the moment I started typing this... good(?). Nah, I'm sure he'll still have things to work on. It would be dumb to make him perfectly developed in chapter 1.
I'm hoping for another girl who's not one of these three to be his love interest. But I don't feel confident about that; based on the title and synopsis this seems to be going the reconciliation route later rather than the Nyanta to Pomeko route of never looking back even if they all chase after him, because he already found a far better girl who loves him and who is truly worthy of love.
"I'm going to be free."
Bold words, but I doubt it. A softie like him doesn't grow a complete spine overnight. Though I'd love to be proven wrong...
