super depressing ending although i def saw it coming, the whole arc at the end where they run away from home had a really somber undertone to it as it slowly became more and more clear that they had basically dug themselves in a hole so deep that a happy ending was pretty much impossible. there was just such a painful sense of dread that kept building up seeing airi first realize that her old life will never make her happy and refuse to go home, then realize that a life on the run will never make her happy either and refuse to let hina work, and finally realize that even death won't make her happy and refuse to die. and the ways they ultimately ended up dying felt almost poetic in a very messed up way, with airi being choked to death by someone who she physically tormented for her own pleasure and hina leaving herself in the snow to die because she can't live without someone who she emotionally manipulated into being completely dependent on her. i don't know if i've ever read anything that has made me feel so guilty for hoping the protagonists would get a happy ending lol, they're both such messed up people who do such messed up things to eachother but at the same time they're just kids who need therapy not death.
it's overall just a really thought provoking ending and it makes me wonder how much of the tragedy that ended up happening was due to circumstance and how much of it was an inevitability. like was hina herself the cause of airi becoming a sadist or did airi just realize she had always been a sadist because of hina, if the two of them never met would airi have ended up a normal highschooler or would she just be tormenting a different girl in hina's place? and how much different would things have been if the photos had never gotten leaked? would airi still have ended up loving hina and become equally dependent on her or would their relationship have stayed fairly one sided the entire time? would they have eventually just broken up regularly instead of choosing death over separation? i find it all super interesting to think about and this story will 100% be living rent free in my head for the next few weeks. some parts of it were pretty hard to read but i appreciate having a romance manga that doesn't try to make things like sadism and codependency and emotional manipulation seem hot or quirky or romantic, it aims to tell the story of a relationship that is clearly fucked up and succeeds in doing so.