@FredFriendly:
Kitazawa
admits to liking Keisuke which is more than Maiko has ever done, she's
shown to care for him on multiple occasions, and is on the whole a more agreeable
person than Maiko, it'd be hard to not assume the worst.
She also has no reason not to trust Kaede. If she thought about things a little
more she might find it suspicious that Keisuke, who has insofar never shown
interest in anything other than baseball, is suddenly aiming at his club manager.
She might also question the fact that Kaede, who she knows is interested in her,
is the one to tell her that. Though I do not think that she's capable of figuring
that out right now.
Referring to the festival, it was Kaede who invited Maiko and not the other way
round. Yes, she could rebuff Kaede, be more proactive, and invite Keisuke, yet
this too doesn't seem likely at this point. Maiko has seen that Keisuke goes to
the batting centre with Kitazawa on his days off, so the assumption that he would
be training is not an unreasonable one either. Indeed, I find it impressive that
she continues to believe that Keisuke is training and not going out with Kitazawa.
I do think Maiko is responsible for her situation in many ways, her relative
inaction in the long-term and her outburst at the end of this chapter in the
short-term. Yet I think that this realisation is probably the best thing that
could happen to her at this point. It gives her the opportunity to realise that
Keisuke cares for her in his own fashion and that she needs to either step up her
game or question whether she's the right person to be beside him.
There is a chance to end this gracefully, though I doubt that will be the case.
Given your foreknowledge of the number of chapters, I expect that you've read
ahead and that Maiko and Keisuke are exonerated without either one learning what
they did wrong.