also everyone hating on yuki should gtfo hes a critical compenent to the story and seriously i think it would be worse if mafuyu just went off w ueyama and right off the bat moved on from yuki so fast since after all they were not only lovers, but also, childhood friends who felt an inexplicably deeper bond together with each other - and the way he died was so unsettling.
i think the fact that mayfuyu sees parts of yuki in ueyama is slightly unnerving for people who simply just wnat the main couple to set off and im like that too (the angst is killing me and the idea that ueyama is being used as an replacement is tearing out my heart and soul so i dont want to believe it - but i do want to say one thing and that is that i think mayfuyu needs more time to move on before his relationship with ueyama futhur develops, ueyama provided him a new road- he was living he the past without ever confronting his emotions and ueyama was the one who brought him forward to confront those emotions - theres still plently left to be said but i can tell that the attachement that mayfuyu has for yuki is so deep that im sure it cant be blown over- i think one thing i do like about given is that it has this realistic aspect to it, so many times i see the mc and ml get together so fast and there is no time spent in the past which i think it is terribly unrealistic when you think of how much humans tend to dwell on past events- especially in this case, this event of yukis death literally SHATTERED a part of him - anyway im concluding on the note that i am not okay if mayfuyu is using ueyama as a replacement i will actually be so triggered- i can only hope and pray but i need more hints uwu
OOOOOOH given is so good yikes guys clearly i dont think hiiragi was ever in love with 'yuki' romantically but i think he did hold emotions that were similar to romantic love because it happens when one idolizes a person too much, like for example - akhitko w usegi like his talent drew him towards obssession to that talent, i remember when it syas that hiiragi wants to be forgiven probably because i can guess why- its so ocmplex and this is merely just my perspective but i think hiiragi wants to be forgiven for the fact he took yuki away to music, there is a fine line between obssession and love and it can be blinding, i think since shizu watches hirragi so closely- he noticed that hiiragi had a strange obsession towards yuk (not explicity but seriously its there like they mentioned that theres always someone who is the center of attention, arrogant and pompous but their characater is built in such a way that you cant help but love them) you cant rule out the fact that hiiragi did not hold any romantic love for yuki but i think it was more of an obsession towards his passion and shizu probably misunderstood that obsession as 'love'
this author is really good at implementing sensitive themes in their work and i find it really sad that people give it a poor rating because of the fact that its incest instead of judging the overall story content - like theres so much disturbing literature out there that have won prizes and awards but the fact that ppl hate on this manga just cuz it has the theme of incest withoutactually looking at the details of the story makes me really sad... this author created given and naturally, i have to admit im biased because i personally loved given, but i just want to address that the author in their mangas is really attentive to the storyline as evident in their other works
the ratings are so low im- i dont understand like i get it is incest yikes but at the same time this is much better than the stories without depth and are just pure smut like seriously i see stories with 9.2 ratings n literally all the characters do are smash from chapter one and no plot like tbh i prefer reading this over some garbage smut like theres actually depth to the story which might be distrubing for some but it doesnt mean that you should give it a bad rating because of the sensitive topic...
also i wrote this three times about like 3 chapters buti think i gotta write it again lol the duke seems to b sus af the killer is probably someone who is pinning after the mc cuz theres so many hints like all the victims look similar to the mc except the fact they are female aka probably someone is looking for a replacement of the mc and is killing ppl that have similar traits to him aka obsessive love depending on who the ml is its probably going to be the second ml so probably the duke is my guess
of course there could also be a loophole and this could be a guess too, another option is that its not the second ml but its someone who likes the second ml and found out second ml likes the mc so they are killing ppl that look similar to him for revenge type of story i have a wild imagination but yup ive read so many bls i can try to guess the scenarios (also not a spoiler merely conjecture)







waiting for second ml like ლ(´ڡ`ლ)