@Carletti11: uptil this chapter yeah it really had this strong Aku no Hana feeling to it, with Mitani seemingly taking interest in Kei when competition came around the corner.
Now I'm not so sure, as far as mapping the roles from one manga to the other goes : the presumably socially "normal" and "desirable" female char. just plotted with the "weird" female char. against the idealist and naive male char. Perhaps this time around it's him who'll be left behind, the way Saeki was then.
Anyways, I hope the author's gonna blow our minds with unexpected twists and turns, and more personnally I wouldn't mind if he completely broke apart traditional mating norms and tropes, as the behaviour of Kei may suggest he'll do.