side note! i’ve noticed this plenty a time lol but i feel like whenever a story has even a tiny bit of conflict people always want to shove all the blame on one person lol and sometimes there is a clear aggressor but i feel like that’s such a boring (and often lacking) way to view conflict! oftentimes there isn’t actually a person who should be taking the brunt of the blame. things tend to most often pile up and snowball and even if someone did something to hurt someone else, it might have been caused by what the other person did, etc etc. life doesn’t always draw a line between Aggressor and Victim because so much of life’s conflict isn’t that severe or clearly defined so seeing people always try to box it up like that when reading something is a little funny to me.
for real relationships aren’t that simple where only one person is the “bad guy” and that should apply for fiction as well
you worded all my thoughts perfectly! this author knows how to write miscommunication in an angsty , not-forced-way because it's realistic. it has you taking sides because they intentionally leave beihind the pov of the ML. Even now, when they agree to be friends, there's hidden pain because they're not on the same wavelength! MC wants ML to be sad, he doesn't believe they can go back to being friends, while ML is just happy they're on talking terms again.
It makes me think author has been through the relationship ringer..... who hurt you Mitsuko san....
i really liked one side in room & the communication barriers it portrayed, so as soon as i recognised the art style of this one i felt my expectations for this story increase lol and so far it is meeting them! it’s kind of wild seeing people debating back and forth who’s truly at fault or who’s more to blame or whatever in the comments though because the answer is (as others have previously pointed out already) both of them. it’s both. the point is that they got to this point because they weren’t able to communicate their feelings effectively. one expected gestures & flowers and more time spent together, but he wasn’t able to express it verbally because he felt let down & so he started expecting his partner to read between the lines and began resenting their relationship when he didn’t, and the other seemed entirely content to just be together but his being content was easily misreadable as him losing interest. even though we only have one perspective and a relatively unreliable narrator through it, they both have already-clear issues with how they’ve approached their relationship.
and that’s the point of the story! sometimes love isn’t enough and relationships require effort & meeting your partner in the middle, which these two kind of fumbled doing and need to relearn their approach if they want to be together. and i look forward to seeing them do it!