
Actually yes. It is possible l. For XP I've had plenty of guy friends (still friends till this day. No I don't look like a dumpster truck I am average so hush.)
and spent the night just because we got shit face and there was no sex. Aaaaand let me finish, neither if us was weren't interested. There boom

I've read this story 5 times. Thought I got it
But nope
I don't get it.

I think the friend, shouko, who could swin, died. If you see on page 8, she's farther into the water than emiko. The mother being understanding of emiko's trauma caused by seeing her friend drown, tells her that little girls don't have to force themselves to swim.
The last panel, saying her red soda summer days are over may allude to shouko not being able to drink strawberry soda at emiko's house anymore (shouko asks for strawberry soda in the beginning because she has melon soda at her home?)

The art work is gorgeous and clean. And the story is cute......but...the animal aspect is very off putting.
So I have to pass on this. To me it's like Mass Effect. Great story! Great work. Awesome characters I just don't get what I am suppose to find sexy. And this isn't judging others who are it's expressing my personal opinion about it.
This artist also did some illustrations for yaoi novels.
I just moved and found a box with my old manga collection and found a couple of novles. Yes, I am that old. I was around when anime was super hard to get and we only had shounen-AI. It took sooooo much letters and phone calls, training, and traveling just to get anime's exposure spead. Then the next generation (I know we are mostly still the same) just kept it going. I don't like the cheap quality it's taken (not that all of ours were good either) but I'm glad it didn't die.
Now, if most people would stop using anime to learn social interactions then anime fans wouldn't be looked down upon. Even in Japan. Baby steps I guess. We'll get there