Frustrating chapter, but also frustrating comments so far, tbh.
As for the chapter, I hate the "He must be gay" line with a passion. If you're willing to establish the character as being especially arrogant or narcissistic then you can maybe pull it off, but otherwise you're missing a justification for why the character wouldn't go for the more obvious "He must not be into me" line of thought. You don't get to use character-believes-herself-to-be-hot (especially in a career where your looks are constantly called into question) or verbally acknowledges the size of her assets to be sizeable (thank goodness we didn't do this one this time) as a justification.
Then there's the part where Isshiki tells Akari that he'll come by, decides that it'd put himself and his family at risk but then doesn't let her know he won't be coming by. Extremely forced means of introducing drama. You can let him send her a message stating that he can't come, and then have her still be disappointed in him, but I guess that would make her look bad instead of Isshiki?
Then there's the comments calling Isshiki a coward for not making a clear choice between being with Akari romantically, or not. Like, if she confessed to him and then he doesn't answer, I'd get it, but she hasn't told him that she wants to be with him until she decides it won't work. He can't read minds. Like, let him know, give him some time to consider it and if he still remains mum, then you get to complain. From where I'm standing, other than not letting Akari know he's going to renege on his promise because his life is in danger, I don't see what Isshiki did wrong.
Apparently it's also very wrong that he was feeling good for helping his friend out when she was going through tough times. Like, he's supposed to be emotionless when he's helping others? Any form of altruism can be interpreted as an act of selfishness if feeling good about helping others is suspect.
It's like there's this assumption that Isshiki must have romantic feelings for Akari because... her looks? They get along? She romantically likes him? To loop things back to the first point, it feels like everyone is on the "He must be gay" wavelength or rather the "He must be a coward" wavelength, because why else wouldn't he choose to be with Akari? Maybe he just sees her as a friend. Maybe this is what he's been telling everyone all this time. Maybe, just maybe, he's just not that into her.
