12 pages? Triple the content, triple the fun!
And what a big, thematic chapter it was. "Connections" are being formed even when our leads are apart. Something really neat is how the panel design adds meaning to the story. Arai is very very good at panelling. I love how the last panel shows Shu and Rinko, diagonal in the same subway car, sharing the pensive sigh. They've both had moments of personal growth, spurred on by our lead characters. They have a connection between them, unknown to them. They find themselves in the same place, literally and figuratively. Parallel structures, parallel themes. Stuff like this is why this is the number one all-time OtakuXGyaru romance story.
Some more art wins from this chapter: The "throb" sfx spreading across the pages where Shu appears, like a persistent fly nagging at her. The transition from Aya handing Shu a drink, separating the page top and bottom, into Rinko's dilemma with two drinks. Then the transition on page 7, with Koga's hands playing guitar/the band beginning to play, to bring us back to Shu and Aya, repeating the same visual device from the drink handoff. On pages 10-11 we get twin scenes of Rinko/Koga and Shu-Aya looking at each other after their personal revelations. All these parallel moments showing their connections- so good.
If we are setting up a big messy love quadrilateral, then it's being done well. Life can get messy and confusing, just like the web of connections in this chapter. But I don't think it will go there. At least not into true NTR or cheating or anything beyond one-sided crushes. Right now, I think of Shu and Rinko more as yuri kouhais under mentors Aya and Mitsuki. It's interesting to think of what would happen if Shu and Rinko ever met. Would they be like cat and dog, fighting over whose mentor is cooler, before realizing that their mentors are a couple? That would be fun.
