brother, the side stories are literally at 17 right now and theyre not finished
Honestly I think they just labeled it "side story" and called it a day. The end of the "main story" was so cut off and then they just suddenly said the continuation is a side when it should've been part of the main plot.
i might be wrong but i think its bc initially author intended to end it at ch 16 and since they already marked it as complete they couldnt just "open it up" again so they saw how ppl didnt like the ending and decided to make side stories
If im not wrong the author wanted a sad ending, but a lot of people were mad about it so they wrote up a "side story" to satisfy the angry readers
with how long the side stories are they could have literally just made this into 2 seasons easily