Naoi had a lot on her plate this chapter. Most likely her mom or sister reaching out to her, presumably by a proxy dropping off the phone number at the restaurant. Then her dad beat her up again, which might've been because he somehow found out about them reaching out to her. Then Kurumi calls her and informs her that Kudou's in their class now. And when she finally shows up to class, likely to see Kurumi for some comfort, she sees Kurumi sitting with Kudou. And Kurumi seemingly having fun with the classmates who like to ignore Naoi's very existence. Though the end of the chapter seemed to imply the major reason that Naoi attacked Kudou, was that Kudou could out their history together to Kurumi.
Anyone else remember Kimura from chapter 5.5? Kimura's appearance in the main story makes me suspect that Naoi might get close to her somehow this volume while things are on the rocks with Kurumi. Not necessarily that Naoi will have a crush on her, but maybe someone who's more laidback than Kurumi that Naoi can get along with. Though Kurumi is also very guilty of co-dependency, since volume 4 had her react negatively to thinking that Naoi had a friend other than her. So, it's hard to say exactly how Kurumi might react to this.
Some of my friends were guessing who was going to mess up their school festival, and everyone unanimously said Kurumi. Because that's likely when things will boil over with Kudou.
As for the cover page, Naoi doesn't need a red string, since Kurumi holding onto her counts as her binding, I assume. Anyone with a binding to Kudou in that image is likely in trouble, except for maybe Kokoro, who could end up struggling with doing the right thing and aiding Kurumi and Naoi's relationship by warning Kurumi that Kudou's trying to split them up. Azuma being set up with Kokoro was also funny. She's likely just as tall as Kokoro, if not taller. And she's an athlete, so she might be the physically strongest girl in the series. Really curious how all of this will go down. Though Naoi's reputation seems like it'll be hard to salvage now that she attacked the class' Queen Bee, seemingly unprovoked, unless Kudou tries to play that off as some kind of misunderstanding to try to get in Naoi's good graces.
I'm also wondering how sincere the classmates were with Kurumi. They were trying to get Kudou to avoid Kurumi at first, due to being wary of her. But relented when Kudou insisted on it. But is that what they really think? Or were they just saying what sounded socially acceptable at the time? Could they possibly be caught talking about Kurumi behind her back at a later point? This chapter was so full of social dynamics. Isanuma is no better off socially than Kurumi at this point. Actually, Isanuma is likely doing worse socially at this point.
I can't wait to see where all of this goes.