I don't get why such a simple light hearted premise of a slow burn romantic slice of life veered into weird super serious drama. It didn't really make the series interesting, especially since veering from comedy/slice of life to drama requires taking a bit more time to establish the dynamic of the characters during the comedic period for the drama to be effective. It should have made us used to the lives of Francesca and Yuji so that when that routine is shattered, it is more shocking.
As it is, it did it way too fast. While Kaya's introduction in chapter 8 was mild and still under the lens of comedy, by the next chapter it got weirdly serious and lasted for a while. I thought we got a break when Yuji rejected her and the chapters returned to being about the two, but it was short lived.
This turn to drama is even more exhausting because the chapters are so short so the arcs are stretched even longer than they would be in any other manga.
It's really just tiring instead of compelling because the Drama(tm) content surpasses the slice-of-life content, making for an unbalanced meal. I'm not saying I don't want drama at all, but I would have preferred if it had been drama from the start or took more time to set it up properly.
As for the chapter itself, just a few chapters ago MC was in PTSD mode over the fact that he can't live with his paintings, but now that he's given the opportunity, yet more drama? Why?