Kanojo, Okarishimasu - Vol. 20 Ch. 168 - The Boyfriend and Ordinary Life

[WhisCalifa69]

@Nihilist1 at this rate, i can see Kazuya being a real (unintentional) scumbag to Ruka and will suffer some consequences for his current behavior soon. Reasons? Few, but heavy ones.

Next chapter is about "A woman's heart", so, there's high chances that, instead of Ruka doing melodramatic telenovela-esque memefaces and arguments about why Kazuya should pay attention to her instead of Chizuru, the Ruka's illness will come to play in this arc, and Kazuya will be in a serious emotional disadvantage... but whatever the thing that happens in those damned hotsprings, Kazuya will do something really scummy to the annoying girl, and her physical (or emotional) reaction will be a really nasty thing to see. If it's physical, Kazuya will feel guilty for sure and the guilt will haunt him for several chapters. If it's emotional, then shit will hit the fan to the point it's gonna become NSFW and he'll have to face the consequences.

Besides, this chapter reminds us that Chizuru+Kazuya's mutual lie is becoming more and more fragile. With the world moving forward, and the new created bonds (such as Mini-Kuri (Kazuya's secret keeper), Nagomi-Mami-Kibe (Mami is a vindictove ex and Kibe is a motormouth who can't keep secrets) and Kibe's friend-Chizuru's friend) while Kazuya and Chizuru were oblivious to said fact, the chances of them being exposed have inceased in an exponential way.

Seriously, the chapter might seem filler-ish, but the introspective moments from Kazuya and the end notes from the editor have kind of established the dire situation Kazuya's heading to.

 

[Bestgirl_Ruka]

@ronysilver

Shut up and kiss me
😘

 

[cozboyy_mello]

Man I feel like we're always 1 chapter forward then 10 chapters back.

 

[cjyniz]

I want to drop this so bad, but I've also been reading it for a long time that I want to see it through to the end.

Exactly how I felt with Domestic Girlfriend. Anyone wanna bet whether this will have a dumpster fire ending too?

 

[satoneh]

@cjyniz agreed

 

[SenpaiDaisuki17]

What's the story about again?

 

[goarachnidlaser]

i'm just reading this for the comments, frankly.

 

[gimmick92]

She's his girlfriend of not, why is he saying I want a girlfriend, when he has one. Why does she likes him in the first place he's just ignoring her all the time. I don't understand this manga.

 

[Daphine]

Isn't that just life? The person you want don't want you and vice versa!

 

[Sekijou23]

@WhisCalifa69 how is he a scumbag to ruka? He's never done anything to harm her beyond not being obligated to date her

 

[Sekijou23]

Ruka isn't as naive as people seem to think she is. How Ruka knows exactly where she stands with Kazuya, and why people who portray her as a victim are mistaken.

So Ruka's coming back into the story, and that brings Ruka fans bubbling to the surface. And with them come many of the old arguments.

"Ruka's just doing her part as a girlfriend! Kazuya's the dick here! Ruka's in love, she can't be blamed for what she does!"

To hear some people tell it, Ruka's a doe-eyed dreamer who is just so gosh-darn in love, while Kazuya's lack of a spine is just running her in circles and leaving her alone and confused.

I'm gonna come right out and say it: That's bullshit. As with Chizuru, some people try to waifu-fy Ruka, to make her into a demure princess and scrub away any uncomfortable character qualities. But Ruka's astute. She knows what the score is.

Let's look at a line from the current chapter (in Japanese)

だってこのままじゃ千鶴さんとの距離は縮まる一方だし！

彼女としてそれくらいのチャンスは与えられて然るべきでしょう！

It's fairly explanatory in our release I think (translated as "At this rate, you're just going to keep getting closer to Chizuru-san! // I think it's only right you give me this chance, as your girlfriend!") but it's always worth dealing with the original.

In the first line, a couple things stick out to me. このまま, "as things are like this", and 一方, (literally like, "one side") in this case means "will keep on, will just keep, continuously"

This is not the usual line she gives. Usually Ruka says "You'll never get any closer! You're just a client and she's just a rental!" Some people have interpreted this as Ruka just being real with him, trying to get him to see the truth, but I've always interpreted this as "the lady doth protest too much," and it's never been clearer than this chapter.

Ruka knows Kazuya and Chizuru are getting closer, and she wants it to stop. But further, she gaslights him into thinking it's impossible. Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment. (This is a fucked up thing to do.) This is sort of even more messed up because she's targeting one of Kazuya's biggest hangups: That he's just a client to Chizuru. She's seized on his weakness like a predator.

Now let's look at the second line. The word that jumps out in neon letters is "chance" (same word in the Japanese, and same basic meaning, it's a loanword from English. An opening, an opportunity.)

Ruka's argument isn't "come with me because we're a couple and it's sweet." She views it as a chance. Fair play. Her opportunity to play keep-up against her opponent.

Ruka has no illusions that Kazuya loves her, or even likes her. She views her relationship as a race against Chizuru for a prize she wants. She's made references in the past to being "ahead" of Chizuru. Remember the birthday present? She took her "present" and ran straight to Chizuru to rub it in her face, to say "Look, I'm in the lead!"

Speaking of her birthday, let's look at chapter 140.

This is my chance to close the distance between us, once and for all.

This is followed by her asking him to touch her all over her body. Ruka's long used sex as a weapon (The kiss, trying to sleep at his house and feed him aphrodisiacs), and we can see it stated explicitly here. She wants to use her body to close in on him.

She even mentions earlier that she's always the one touching him, and wants to use the obligation of her birthday to make him touch her. This is another sign of overt, intentional emotional manipulation. "You said you'd do whatever I ask, so touch my body, even though I know you don't want to."

Then there's the "truce". It's more like "ceasefire" in the Japanese, and I think that's telling. She sees this as a war for Kazuya, a war she's waging explicitly with Chizuru (despite her continued gaslighting of Kazuya that nothing will ever happen with Chizuru).

Taken in summary, what do we see? Someone who is willing to use every trick in the book to get what she wants, the boy she likes. Let's not forget blackmail to get him to go out with her.

People often say "She's his girlfriend! Kazuya's her boyfriend! She's just behaving like a girlfriend should!" but that assumes "dating" is some contractual bargain by which Kazuya is tied. Does Ruka act like a girlfriend? Or does she act like an extremely aggressive courter who uses "I'm your girlfriend" as one of her many bargaining chips?

Ruka is not being led around by Kazuya. She is not innocent, or naive. She's sharp, to the point of readily using emotional abuse to get what she wants. Yes, she does it because she loves Kazuya (I don't even think it's that, I think she thinks she loves him) but Ruka knows she isn't even on his radar. If they weren't dating, it wouldn't matter. I question if him saying "I'm not interested" would actually do the job either. She knows he's not interested, that's why she behaves so desperately.

When you portray Ruka as this innocent child being led around by Kazuya, you both lessen her agency as a character, and rationalize emotional abuse as a regular part of relationships.

 

[etriuswimbleton]

@sekijou23 thanks for bringing the Ruka Character to light. Im not much of a Ruka fan but she does have those good points albeit fruitless. personally I still find her annoying unless her actions help push Chizuru's romantic feelings, then it feels almost like a filler just watching her do her roundabout thing with Kazuya.

Anyways we getting a Kuri x Yaemori ship? Would be interesting. When they were talking about "doing that" do they mean masturbating? talking about that with a girl, if that's not close I don't know what is!

@caitsith you know you want it

 

[WhisCalifa69]

@Sekijou23 how would i put it?
In the moment he has to do the duty to tell her the decisive "no", AKA, the trial is over and they're done for good, she'll think Kazuya's words as of being scummy to her. Don't forget she's underage and behaves like an elementary school 5th grader in many topics despite of being in... high school's last year?, so her reaction might not be a mature one if she gets told off.

Most of us are really wary of the danger to Chizuya's lie Mami is, but we tend to overlook the fact that the Ruka is a tyke bomb on her own terms.

And i know she's not delusional, but a sharp psychobitch by her own terms. That's why i think a rejection from Kazuya's part will be taken as a scummy action from his part by her, but as something he should have done before by him. She ain't the type of people who can take the L with grace. That's it.

Btw, i never took side in favor of the Ruka's case, i just put an opinion based on how characters might react to rejection, the Ruka in this case. Kazuya's problem here is that he can't find the courage to act on his feelings and say a straight no, because he fears how would the interlocutor react to his words. He ain't the type of guy who wants to end on bad terms with people because he wants different things,but i think that, if he wants to progress with Chizuru, he should start to take the risk of ending on bad terms with certain people and take responsibility for the consequences of said risks. Only time, and the eventual last chapters will tell if he did the right thing, how much did he lose to get what he wanted and if time makes the losing parties reflect and sink into them the idea of actually never having a chance with Kazuya.

 

[Angelsxmz]

Uuhhh another 200 chapters to go 😃

 

[RentalBoyfriend]

*rolls eyes so hard i'm blind*. I like the Ruka Rem thing they did even though im blind from this chapter.

 

[Toumakamijou2018]

Kazuya: "I wish I had a girlfirend"

Ruka: am I a joke to you

 

[spekhz]

Maybe things won't be moving forward after all

 

[ADende]

If he really did like the other girl, he wouldn't be bothering with going along with her whims and letting her down straight up.

 

[Windi-kun]

Damn I just want to jump into the future and be able to Google "Rental Girlfriend Filler" and filter all these chapters out like with Naturos Anime...

But well I guess he had to slow down momentum or he would have had to end the Manga anytime soon.

But Ruka cosplaying rem is appreciated!

 

[NGOtaku]

really didnt have to see my mans bulge first page