Spoilers!
This chapter turns our attention to Kyosuke’s relationship with his osananajimi Manami. They spend the evenings together, preparing for their exams, and Kyousuke is a regular visitor at her house—a shop selling traditional Japanese confectionery. Manami’s grandparents are always urging them to get married already, and all in all Kyousuke finds here the peaceful life he yearns for.
And yet, when asked by a classmate of his (Akagi, we’ll know more about him and his sister in volumes 4 and 5) if Kyousuke and Manami are dating, he curtly denies it. He’s never even thought of her that way—he thinks of Manami as a grandmother figure. Of course, Kyousuke is cruelly oblivious to the fact that Manami is in love with him.
One day on their way home, they meet Ayase. Kirino’s friend and Kyousuke exchange a few words, and Manami inquires about her—and notices that Kyousuke was making eyes at her. He denies it—although he isn’t going out with Manami, it would be rude of him to admit that he was ogling another girl. Manami is at least relieved: Kyousuke is interested in girls. Just like a grandmother whose grandson has reached puberty.
She is however a little jealous and asks Kyousuke if he thinks she should change her looks or something. Kyousuke tells her that the way she is he likes her more than Ayase. She doesn’t need to change. She’s really glad to hear that.
Some days later, however, Manami looks a little depressed and tells Kyousuke that she has something to do and can’t hang out with him after school. The following day, she doesn’t go to school (due to “personal reasons”) and worried, Kyousuke tries calling her on her cell phone, but it’s off. At school, Akagi mentions the possibility that Manami got a boyfriend, so it’d be a little awkward for her to continue hanging out with him. Kyousuke is appalled at this idea, because he loves being with Manami. Not in a romantic way (he insists), but because she offers him the simple life he wants—the opposite to Kirino.
Kyousuke is now truly worried and calls her house, but all he learns from her little brother is that she’s away and that she told him not to tell Kyousuke where she was. Could she be actually avoiding him? Why? Kyousuke’s peaceful, happy days may be in danger. Her brother also told him something important: when she started looking depressed, which turns out to be the day after they met Ayase. He has nobody to turn to… except maybe… Kirino? He heads for her room. After all, he helped her out the last time, she should also hear him out and give him advice.
Kirino is, as usual, very tsundere-ish but she ends up accepting to listen to what he has to say… as a favor, of course. Kirino seems to hate Manami for some reason, but she’s also strangely quick to draw a conclusion: it all happened because of the way Kyousuke looked at Ayase. Even if she hates Manami, she seems to sympathize with her. Being compared to another girl was certainly cruel. Since Kirino insists all the time that she can’t stand Kyousuke and Manami’s relationship, she speaks from her point of view. She proposes that Kyousuke give her a present, because she’d be happy if she received something from a boy she gets along so well with that they can even have a quarrel. When Kyousuke asks Kirino if that’s from her point of view, or from the point of view of a normal, plain girl like Manami, Kirino just replies “Who knows…”
The following day, Kyousuke waits for Manami outsider her house for… two hours, with a present: a pillow. It looks like as if she wanted to avoid him and he has to grab her hand so she doesn’t run away. In the end, Kyousuke learns the truth: the day after they met Ayase, Manami decided to trim her hair, but she didn’t do it very well and that meant she had actually… changed. And since Kyousuke didn’t want her to change, she had been avoiding him so he didn’t hate her. As for why she was away… it turned out a relative of hers was in hospital, but it was nothing serious—but in case the worst happened, she didn’t want Kyousuke to worry, so that’s why she told her brother not to tell Kyousuke. And why was her cell phone off? Well, she never takes her cell phone outside, in case she loses it.
In the end, what did you expect from the plainest of all girls!
Comments
Again I didn’t realize it when I first read it, but Kirino seems to sympathize with Manami because, like her, she’s jealous when Kyousuke is with another girl. She’s also speaking from her point of view, rather than Manami’s, reinforcing the idea that she has some feelings for Kyousuke. As I also mentioned in other posts, she also hates Manami, and for apparently no reason… except, of course, because she sees her as a rival. All in all, more hints about her brocon feelings!
nice article, thanks