Kono Koi wo Hoshi ni wa Negawanai - Vol. 5 Ch. 22

[Rafalga]

Eri doesn't really deserve having people running to her does she? It's like doing absolutely nothing and still winning just because you are at the receiving end of a confession. Also i'm with the "Eri is straight as an arrow" camp. There has been literally zero indicator to suggest otherwise. Her suddenly turning gay (though its weirdly normal in yuri for some reaosn) would be a little jarring. Specially if it carries signs of it being entirely about keeping Fubuki around and i can see that happening since she is kinda obsessive with the No.1 thing.

 

[Baffled]

Absolute yap-fest of a chapter 🥱

 

[AnnieAturday]

You're correct about the first kiss, but the main issue remains unchanged. Even that kiss from Eri followed a significant buildup centered on how her two friends were concealing things and acting on her throughout the manga, leaving her constantly scrambling. At that point, because she'd been kept in the dark, she ended up stumbling into things while trying to wrap her head around these sudden changes and keep Fuyuki close to her. Then Fuyuki, understanding what happened, added on to the issue with her sudden second kiss days later.

Firstly it wasn't days later, but literally the next morning. They talk about 'last night.' It wasn't Eri's fault that she stumbled into it, at all - in her head Fuyuki was dating Kisaki, she made Fuyuki into a cheater, while thinking that Kisaki was the person that Fuyuki really loved. Its not her fault that it happened, and there was no way she would have forseen it coming (since she lacks foresight often) but it was absolutely not random or delayed.

And I also think Eri is straight, hence why I am interested to see what she does in the next chapter, in terms of what she's willing/prepared to do if she intends to try and keep Fuyuki innher life like I suspect is her overall aim.

As an aside about the "Eri is straight" conversation, using this comment as the jumper just because it was the first one that I saw, like half of the point of her story is that after turning down a girl she saw a friend and the reaction to her she never once turned down anyone until 'the last one' before Kyou [Chp 1, 4, 5], and she just straight up says that she never even loved them from the start, only to "fall in love later" [Chp 4] which while a generally decent representation of how most people fall in love, feels more like it was done on purpose for storytelling and pushing hints. It's likely she never loved them at all [all the way through to even the current chapter its been obvious she had no romantic feelings towards kyou]. She seems highly detached from every relationship in her life, romantic or otherwise, except for specifically fuyuki.

Like she doesn't just have one childhood friend, does she? Everyone - even herself - points out that she puts way too much stock in 'platonic childhood friends' [Chp14/15 is the big one, but its repeated throughout] but, like, does she? She wasn't getting broken up with because there 'was another guy she was always hanging around' and Kyou himself says he confessed, in part, because he felt like she didn't appreciate him as much as she did to Fuyuki [Chp 14.] Its not that she puts too much stock into friendship, or the concept of childhood friends. It's specifically about Fuyuki. It's always been specifically about Fuyuki. No one else has ever, or will ever take up more space in her mind palace than specifically Fuyuki.

Is that to say there's romantic feelings there? Not really, but stamping "straight" onto her forehead and calling it a day feels similarly incorrect. She's likely closer to aro/ace spectrum and saying yes to guys because that's just 'what she's supposed to do.' having sex with them because 'that's what she's supposed to do.' and so on, always ending up seperating with them because she prioritizes Fuyuki - the thing 'that's not what she's supposed to do.' but she won't budge on it.

Sexuality in general is far more complex than gay, straight, and throwing 'homoromantic, biromantic, heteroromantic' alone isn't enough to scratch the surface. Everything up to this point has pointed to Eri, in particular's, sexuality to simply be "more complicated than that" rather than just slamming a label on her.

 

[MaskedRealityCheck]

Firstly it wasn't days later, but literally the next morning. They talk about 'last night.' It wasn't Eri's fault that she stumbled into it, at all - in her head Fuyuki was dating Kisaki, she made Fuyuki into a cheater, while thinking that Kisaki was the person that Fuyuki really loved. Its not her fault that it happened, and there was no way she would have forseen it coming (since she lacks foresight often) but it was absolutely not random or delayed.






As an aside about the "Eri is straight" conversation, using this comment as the jumper just because it was the first one that I saw, like half of the point of her story is that after turning down a girl she saw a friend and the reaction to her she never once turned down anyone until 'the last one' before Kyou [Chp 1, 4, 5], and she just straight up says that she never even loved them from the start, only to "fall in love later" [Chp 4] which while a generally decent representation of how most people fall in love, feels more like it was done on purpose for storytelling and pushing hints. It's likely she never loved them at all [all the way through to even the current chapter its been obvious she had no romantic feelings towards kyou]. She seems highly detached from every relationship in her life, romantic or otherwise, except for specifically fuyuki.

Like she doesn't just have one childhood friend, does she? Everyone - even herself - points out that she puts way too much stock in 'platonic childhood friends' [Chp14/15 is the big one, but its repeated throughout] but, like, does she? She wasn't getting broken up with because there 'was another guy she was always hanging around' and Kyou himself says he confessed, in part, because he felt like she didn't appreciate him as much as she did to Fuyuki [Chp 14.] Its not that she puts too much stock into friendship, or the concept of childhood friends. It's specifically about Fuyuki. It's always been specifically about Fuyuki. No one else has ever, or will ever take up more space in her mind palace than specifically Fuyuki.

Is that to say there's romantic feelings there? Not really, but stamping "straight" onto her forehead and calling it a day feels similarly incorrect. She's likely closer to aro/ace spectrum and saying yes to guys because that's just 'what she's supposed to do.' having sex with them because 'that's what she's supposed to do.' and so on, always ending up seperating with them because she prioritizes Fuyuki - the thing 'that's not what she's supposed to do.' but she won't budge on it.

Sexuality in general is far more complex than gay, straight, and throwing 'homoromantic, biromantic, heteroromantic' alone isn't enough to scratch the surface. Everything up to this point has pointed to Eri, in particular's, sexuality to simply be "more complicated than that" rather than just slamming a label on her.

THIS. Saying Eri is simply straight because she has only dated guys doesn't make sense at all. It also has never been about friendship being number one to her, it's always been about Fuyuki being number one to her.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Firstly it wasn't days later, but literally the next morning. They talk about 'last night.' It wasn't Eri's fault that she stumbled into it, at all - in her head Fuyuki was dating Kisaki, she made Fuyuki into a cheater, while thinking that Kisaki was the person that Fuyuki really loved. Its not her fault that it happened, and there was no way she would have forseen it coming (since she lacks foresight often) but it was absolutely not random or delayed.






As an aside about the "Eri is straight" conversation, using this comment as the jumper just because it was the first one that I saw, like half of the point of her story is that after turning down a girl she saw a friend and the reaction to her she never once turned down anyone until 'the last one' before Kyou [Chp 1, 4, 5], and she just straight up says that she never even loved them from the start, only to "fall in love later" [Chp 4] which while a generally decent representation of how most people fall in love, feels more like it was done on purpose for storytelling and pushing hints. It's likely she never loved them at all [all the way through to even the current chapter its been obvious she had no romantic feelings towards kyou]. She seems highly detached from every relationship in her life, romantic or otherwise, except for specifically fuyuki.

Like she doesn't just have one childhood friend, does she? Everyone - even herself - points out that she puts way too much stock in 'platonic childhood friends' [Chp14/15 is the big one, but its repeated throughout] but, like, does she? She wasn't getting broken up with because there 'was another guy she was always hanging around' and Kyou himself says he confessed, in part, because he felt like she didn't appreciate him as much as she did to Fuyuki [Chp 14.] Its not that she puts too much stock into friendship, or the concept of childhood friends. It's specifically about Fuyuki. It's always been specifically about Fuyuki. No one else has ever, or will ever take up more space in her mind palace than specifically Fuyuki.

Is that to say there's romantic feelings there? Not really, but stamping "straight" onto her forehead and calling it a day feels similarly incorrect. She's likely closer to aro/ace spectrum and saying yes to guys because that's just 'what she's supposed to do.' having sex with them because 'that's what she's supposed to do.' and so on, always ending up seperating with them because she prioritizes Fuyuki - the thing 'that's not what she's supposed to do.' but she won't budge on it.

Sexuality in general is far more complex than gay, straight, and throwing 'homoromantic, biromantic, heteroromantic' alone isn't enough to scratch the surface. Everything up to this point has pointed to Eri, in particular's, sexuality to simply be "more complicated than that" rather than just slamming a label on her.

Yeah - it's too late to go back editing that comment of mine, but even after I first made it I realized trying to box her in like that was unnecessary because it didn't serve a point in Eri's case.

You've articulated why I felt that way, so I won't just rehash what you've already expressed in different words - though thinking more on Eri's relationship with & towards Fuyuki in light of what you've laid out, I could see all her relationships being "hints" of what might go down during Their Talk.

Since you mentioned the ch. 4 portion where she "fell in love later", maybe that is indeed a hint toward what might happen with Fuyuki.
I think you're entirely correct that for Eri, Fuyuki is different. I really do think that she will do whatever it takes to keep Fuyuki in her life, because the two of them together has been a constant--even during their time apart this past several chapters, they're interacting with others through the lens of needing to see one another, and what they'll say to one another.

And so I suspect that even if Eri doesn't know if she can romantically love Fuyuki, I think she might try. I also think she will "confess" to Fuyuki, which (unless I'm mistaken) would be the first time for her, as she had always been confessed to/asked out into a relationship. But with Fuyuki...it's different, as you said. And I believe she's important enough to Eri that just letting her go isn't an option.

Thinking about it now, I kinda predict that Eri will ask Fuyuki to be her girlfriend. She might say she loves her, intending to fake it until the romantic feelings develop for real over time. Or she might be up front about that being her plan/hope, and ask that Fuyuki bear with her while it happens, but that they'll "be together" the whole way through. But letting her walk out of Eri's life seems so counter to Eri's character motivations that I just can't really picture it. So I retract my "Eri will ask to remain friends" guess from earlier, because that seems more likely to result in Fuyuki walking away, being unable to quash her feelings for Eri and refusing to continue being hurt in that way, and go with "Eri will confess, and learn romantic love later if necessary".

Whatever Fuyuki says in response...I don't want to try and predict that far out. I know what I want to believe, but I also don't wanna get my hopes up for a happy ending lol

I'll settle for hoping for a well-written one, at least.

 

[MaskedRealityCheck]

Eri doesn't really deserve having people running to her does she? It's like doing absolutely nothing and still winning just because you are at the receiving end of a confession. Also i'm with the "Eri is straight as an arrow" camp. There has been literally zero indicator to suggest otherwise. Her suddenly turning gay (though its weirdly normal in yuri for some reaosn) would be a little jarring. Specially if it carries signs of it being entirely about keeping Fubuki around and i can see that happening since she is kinda obsessive with the No.1 thing.

I'm very curious to know what makes you qualified to have "people running to you" or not. We don't know anything about Eri

Spoiler

(- yet, since next chapter will apparently show a little more of her past).

We've hardly seen a fraction of her past and how their friendship used to be before (chapter 5).

From what we can deduce, not know for sure, Fuyuki made the decision to hide things/problems from Eri and to not rely on her in that sense.
(Not saying that she doesn't, but from what we saw she prefers to either bottle things up or tell Senpai about it.)


On some scenes from chapter 5, we can see that little Fuyuki always relied on Eri for everything and little Eri never used to cry or show any kind of weaknesses in front of her. After the promise 'incident' happened, Eri still told Fuyuki to tell her everything and that she would deal with it. If Fuyuki made the willing decision to not depend on her that's her choice and should also be respected.
Weren't 22 chapters enough to see that Eri would do anything for Fuyuki?

As for her being straight, there's no way to know yet. But I guess some people really don't know the concept of compulsory heterosexuality (known as simply "comphet"). We never saw Eri truly showing interest on a man. She got confessed to, accepted the confession (that could also be tied to her trauma of rejecting a confession and have everyone turn on her), and did what was expected of her. If she truly is straight, great, just reject Fuyuki and everyone can move on.

But in my own opinion (and I could very much be wrong and you be right, or the contrary) literally being jealous of Fuyuki's girlfriend and kissing her must at least indicate something, right?

"But she only did that because she's scared of not being Fuyuki's number 1 anymo-" EXACTLY. That is not normal. The codependency they have on each other is NOT normal.

I think they pretty much have an homoerotic friendship (most common definition: a close relationship between two people of the same gender where romantic or sexual feelings exist, but are not explicitly acknowledged or expressed), which is also heavily associated with comphet. They are often very unhealthy friendships with excessive jealousy or codependency.

TL/DR: I'm not here to make you change your mind or something. But saying that she "doesn't deserve" people running to her kinda prompted me to write all this because she's NOT the bad friend who's never done anything for her friends as people like to portray her.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Spoiler

(- yet, since next chapter will apparently show a little more of her past).

Spoiler: now you got me wondering

regarding that - I wonder how many chapters we'll have inside the Planetarium now. I can't imagine we'll get a 90-page super run or something, as much as I'd love to not have to wait multiple months for the conclusion of Their Talk haha

 

[MaskedRealityCheck]

Spoiler

I really doubt we will even see their talk next chapter

 

[SrNevik]

Spoiler: now you got me wondering

regarding that - I wonder how many chapters we'll have inside the Planetarium now. I can't imagine we'll get a 90-page super run or something, as much as I'd love to not have to wait multiple months for the conclusion of Their Talk haha

Each volume is about 5 chapters. We're coming to the third chapter of this volume. I could see their discussion lasting for a chapter or two (with flashbacks, etc involved). I don't personally see this series continuing beyond this volume. Unless there is a large narrative and thematic pivot, it feels as though most of what its had to say is culminating now. We'll see, though.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Each volume is about 5 chapters. We're coming to the third chapter of this volume. I could see their discussion lasting for a chapter or two (with flashbacks, etc involved). I don't personally see this series continuing beyond this volume. Unless there is a large narrative and thematic pivot, it feels as though most of what its had to say is culminating now. We'll see, though.

Ah, I see. So if ch. 23 is #3 of this volume, then perhaps - 1 chapter is Eri history, 1 chapter is Talk/Decision, 1 chapter is conclusion/epilogue (timeskip to the first chapter, I assume). Maybe a bit of blending of stuff between the three, as is found best for flow of story.

I imagine it could all be wrapped up like that; the author spaces out the dialogue of each chapter, but there's not really any "filler", either - lots of efficiency and everything pared down to the essence that needs to be conveyed.

Seeing the story end this year is kind of bittersweet in that case, but I look forward to what the conclusion holds.

 

[TheLostLight]

I need to go back and re-read to confirm, but -

Fuyuki states here that she never confessed because she was afraid of being rejected and screwing up their friendship. But was she also influenced by watching Eri reject a confession from another girl and seeming "put off" by the idea of girls in romantic relationships?

...

This is a really warped recollection of what happened against Eri. A friend asks her out and Eri turns her down saying, "I only see you as a friend." The other girls in their class start spreading rumours that Eri is homophobic, and Fuyuki says, "I know Eri would never look down on someone like that." The other girls continue bullying Eri over her private love matters, just as the girls in Eri's life (sans Fuyuki) always have.

When Fuyuki comes out to Eri and Kyou, and tells them that she's dating her senpai, Eri says, "I'll always be your friend. I'm rooting you on, and on your side."

Fuyuki has always known that Eri wouldn't think less of her for being attracted to women. Fuyuki is being honest and accurate in this chapter when she says that she didn't tell Eri simply because she didn't want to be rejected.

Edit: Oops, sorry. I should've been more patient and finished reading through the thread before posting my comment. Somebody already brought this up, and my comment is very redundant

 

[TheLostLight]

Anyways, I'm in the camp that Eri is not straight. In fact, I think she's been in love with Fuyuki for a long time and has suffered from extreme comphet. Thinking, "If you were going to start dating someone it should've been me" and being overcome with emotion and kissing your friend on sight isn't exactly straight behaviour.

To me, it looks pretty clear where this talk is heading, and I think that's to the very first page of this entire manga.

 

[UdenEmpati]

This is a really warped recollection of what happened against Eri. A friend asks her out and Eri turns her down saying, "I only see you as a friend." The other girls in their class start spreading rumours that Eri is homophobic, and Fuyuki says, "I know Eri would never look down on someone like that." The other girls continue bullying Eri over her private love matters, just as the girls in Eri's life (sans Fuyuki) always have.

When Fuyuki comes out to Eri and Kyou, and tells them that she's dating her senpai, Eri says, "I'll always be your friend. I'm rooting you on, and on your side."

Fuyuki has always known that Eri wouldn't think less of her for being attracted to women. Fuyuki is being honest and accurate in this chapter when she says that she didn't tell Eri simply because she didn't want to be rejected.

Edit: Oops, sorry. I should've been more patient and finished reading through the thread before posting my comment. Somebody already brought this up, and my comment is very redundant

Then I won't repeat what I already wrote in response since that's also further along in the thread.

 

[ScherryNights]

Just commenting to let others know I read from chapter 1-22, in a day!

Stayed up till 1am. Left for work, came back home, then straight to reading, again! That’s how deep this emotional rollercoaster of a journey had me in its grip.

Can’t wait for ch 23!

 

[Airis8]

En fin, creo que Eri no es heterosexual. De hecho, creo que lleva mucho tiempo enamorada de Fuyuki y ha sufrido de una competencia extrema. Pensar: «Si ibas a salir con alguien, debería haber sido yo» y dejarse llevar por la emoción y besar a tu amiga nada más verla no es precisamente un comportamiento heterosexual.

Para mí, parece bastante claro hacia dónde se dirige esta charla, y creo que es hasta la primera página de todo el manga.

I think the exact same as you hahaha, I don't know why mostly everyone hate eri? I mean she's not a bad person, just dance asf, even in the manga everyone knows that the only way for her to know things is saying directly to her. And to be honest the only person she care about is fuyuki.. in so many levels. Even after the kiss, she only apologies to fuyuki because she thought that fuyuki would gets mad at her bc she kissed her knowing she has a gf.