Ohitorisama ni wa Naremashita node.: Kon'yakusha Houchi-chuu! - Ch. 15 - If That's Love

[frubam]

Claude stocks went from bad to worse. I hope his fiancé isn't stuck chasing him eternally or trapped in a one-sided marriage.

I've seen enough hints that I don't think Nicole needs to end up in a relationship to close her arc. If she chooses to take a job and not focus on marriage that's a good ending.

I take it that the current situation with Claude and his fiance will have him acknowledging her in a way that Keios has not with Nicole, and that will put Claude+Melia together. I also feel that (if) it will have that ending, it is more likely Nicole will not fall back in love with Keios before this is all over, and will be a independent woman trying to achieve her goals.

 

[UdenEmpati]

People make mistakes all the time, as a girl, I hurt my exes unintentionally before. I don't think there is anyone who are free of guilt, never hurt a single soul ever in their life. If someone believes so, it's just they weren't aware of their own actions. If the ML put into effort and try to redeem himself, I think it's fine to forgive him, since forgiveness is a good virtue to have. Our modern society is full of people who always try to judge others so hard. One red flag and you're the unforgivable scum who deserve to never be happy again. This cancel culture is quite toxic, it also promotes the idea that people are replaceable, one mistake and you will get discarded, because there are plenty of fishes in the sea. It's sad to see this in the comment section here, as I believe the whole point of this story is about forgiveness and redemption. That's why there isn't a second male lead yet, the author really wants a redemption arc from our MLS.

wait - what about this story makes you think that "forgiveness and redemption" are the key themes?

I see them as "empowerment and agency", if anything.
Since the start, Nicole has only shown actual emotion and happiness, or a sense of fulfillment, when she was not dealing with Keios, and was instead pursuing whatever she thought interesting or promised opportunity for herself, but in the short-term and the long.

Keios hasn't made "a mistake", or even "several mistakes" here. He spent literal years completely ignoring his fiance for another woman, and has only "come around" to his bullheadedness upon realizing that his future marriage was in jeopardy due to who and how he is as a person, and that was only after he had to be repeated smacked upside the head, figuratively and literally, by both his peers and his parents.
Even now, he can't bridge the gap and treat Nicole as a person, and is instead still only thinking about himself and their marriage as it pertains to his own situation and convenience, while currently thinking himself superior to another man whose behavior reflects a Keios from not nearly long enough ago.

Forgiveness is all well and good, but it has to be earned, and Keios has come nowhere near close to that mark.
Simply going "oh Nicole should forgive Keios and all the readers condemning him are being toxic" is ignoring everything the plot has shown us up to this point, simply to accommodate your own views.

 

[HaxtonFale]

It's good (?) to have confirmation that Nicole's parents are actually as useless as they appeared to be before; zero regard for what she must have been going through, just "she must be confused" lol.

 

[spiffinn]

thanks for the update(s)! i agree that the pacing is weird, this would work for something that's like 100 chapters long but I doubt we'll get there

 

[Psychronia]

I changed my mind. Fuck Claude.

The funniest development from here is if Nicole instills her new way of thinking in Metia so that Claude becomes the new Keios after Nicole leaves.

 

[ponta666]

wait - what about this story makes you think that "forgiveness and redemption" are the key themes?

I see them as "empowerment and agency", if anything.
Since the start, Nicole has only shown actual emotion and happiness, or a sense of fulfillment, when she was not dealing with Keios, and was instead pursuing whatever she thought interesting or promised opportunity for herself, but in the short-term and the long.

Keios hasn't made "a mistake", or even "several mistakes" here. He spent literal years completely ignoring his fiance for another woman, and has only "come around" to his bullheadedness upon realizing that his future marriage was in jeopardy due to who and how he is as a person, and that was only after he had to be repeated smacked upside the head, figuratively and literally, by both his peers and his parents.
Even now, he can't bridge the gap and treat Nicole as a person, and is instead still only thinking about himself and their marriage as it pertains to his own situation and convenience, while currently thinking himself superior to another man whose behavior reflects a Keios from not nearly long enough ago.

Forgiveness is all well and good, but it has to be earned, and Keios has come nowhere near close to that mark.
Simply going "oh Nicole should forgive Keios and all the readers condemning him are being toxic" is ignoring everything the plot has shown us up to this point, simply to accommodate your own views.

First of all, forgiveness and redemption can exist together with empowering and agency. Why do I think this story is that theme, well, cuz the author still let Keios hanging around and try to get her back duh. I read lots of stories in this genre about woman empowered and as always, whether the ML already paid his price and gone for good, while FL being alone or with a new ML, this story is nothing like that. Keios is still here trying. I'm not on his side, and I never said the FL must forgive the ML and come back to him now. I just simply stated what is happening with this story. It's crazy that we are reading the same story and you guys couldn't see the author intentions. If you want a story of revenge, or empowering women, maybe go pick up something else, there's like hundreds of manga and manhwa with that theme where the MLs are unredeemable and would suffer in hell by now. In this manga, people already questioned "where's the new ML", "why Keios is still hanging around, can our FL move on"? Isn't those questions enough to see the author's direction for this story? If this isn't for you, go read something else. Author can't even read your comments here. Like seriously?? It's like you are eating a steak and complain why there's no sound 😅

 

[UdenEmpati]

First of all, forgiveness and redemption can exist together with empowering and agency. Why do I think this story is that theme, well, cuz the author still let Keios hanging around and try to get her back duh. I read lots of stories in this genre about woman empowered and as always, whether the ML already paid his price and gone for good, while FL being alone or with a new ML, this story is nothing like that. Keios is still here trying. I'm not on his side, and I never said the FL must forgive the ML and come back to him now. I just simply stated what is happening with this story. It's crazy that we are reading the same story and you guys couldn't see the author intentions. If you want a story of revenge, or empowering women, maybe go pick up something else, there's like hundreds of manga and manhwa with that theme where the MLs are unredeemable and would suffer in hell by now. In this manga, people already questioned "where's the new ML", "why Keios is still hanging around, can our FL move on"? Isn't those questions enough to see the author's direction for this story? If this isn't for you, go read something else. Author can't even read your comments here. Like seriously?? It's like you are eating a steak and complain why there's no sound 😅

So your argument is "this story will have Keios and Nicole get together, because that's how these stories go"?

I didn't say that "forgiveness and redemption" can't exist together with empowerment and agency. I realize they're not mutually exclusive - which is why I said that I don't believe that "forgiveness and redemption" are the actual themes.

Because looking at what's actually happening, Keios hasn't actually managed to make any headway with Nicole, because he's spending all his time worrying about all the mistakes he's made, and not understanding Nicole's side of things. He's more concerned with his image and with how all of this affects him, and as time passes and he continues to miss the point, I do not see this working out in his favor with any sort of "getting back together" with the protagonist of the story.

I never said anything about this being a revenge manga, or made and claims as to whether or not this had to follow a specific genre formula. The only one making an appeal to "well the tropes say X so X must be true" is you.
You say you're going off "the author's intentions", but the author's actual written work shows that Nicole wants nothing to do with her fiance and is still gunning for Iliegale and the study program - and Keios is even managing to stand in the way of that, as of this chapter. Unless this series is less than halfway done, I don't think readers are meant to believe that Nicole getting back together with Keios is the actual move, regardless of whether or not there's "a second ML" or not. (Not even sure why you brought that up with me specifically; I don't remember making that point whatsoever in the first place.)