Spoilers should always be hidden using spoiler blur.
When discussing a specific section, please mention where you are in the book, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting, but please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week.
If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That’s a welcome part of the discussion too, and other readers will be happy to help.
I love how afterwards when Aoi tells him how amazing his deductions were, he goes like “no actually I deduced it from something different than what I said” acting like that makes it any less amazing
Omg when I wrote that I hadn’t read the last three or so pages of the chapter yet. Could this guy be any hotter?? I think it might be impossible 「京男…いいかも」I totally agree, 葵さん, I do. At least about this one
Thanks for expanding my vocabulary… Please let me join your club I clearly belong
You mean the part with the 西行法師 poem?
I felt that part was particularly difficult. Poems already take careful consideration to understand, and then of course it’s in Japanese and old… I just kind of skimmed that conversation.
Just finished section 3, will probably read 4 tomorrow.
Story comment
How did the father ever expect the son to figure that one out I get that there is pride involved and what not, but was this really better than just… using words? I can see older people act this way irl, which makes it kind of depressing. The son misunderstood at first, thinking it was to celebrate his “success”. Thank god our smiley detective is here to save the day
question
…… だけど、行ったことがなかったりする。
I get what it means, that she has never gone to the 仁和寺, but what is with the なかったりする?
Disclaimer: I haven’t gotten a chance to start the book yet, so I may be wrong. But on first glance I’m reading this as a usage of the たり grammar structure; that page has some good details on it.
I know right. Just say what you want to say using words.
While on some level I get the father, for me it was open to way too much interpretation. Who knows, maybe Holmes got it wrong and it was meant to celebrate the success (doubtful but not 100% impossible). And it’s not like the father is around to clear up any misunderstandings. Really, if you want to convey something indirectly like that you ought to also write a letter explaining your intentions in your will or something.
I’m not completely sure either but I think it’s just a way to make it sound softer. “However, I’ve never been there or anything” instead of “However, I’ve never been there”.
I haven’t read that section yet as I am behind on some other book, but the typical use case I see is when someone is trying to say that “there are many reasons for (thing)”, possibly as a bad excuse (they couldn’t think of anything) but not necessarily. So, here, it would be “there are many reasons for (thing), one of which being that I never went to the temple”, “thing” being missing from your exert.
Edit: as @Thubanshee said, it also make it sounds softer, as it implies more reasons (so it’s not just because of that).
Edit2: that was just at the beginning of the section, so I just saw it. Yes, it just implies that there are more things she could possibly have done (e.g. looking it up online), but didn’t particularly do anything (probably never really thought about it either)
Thanks @eefara@Thubanshee@Naphthalene ! I usually find the grammar I am looking for relatively quickly, but didn’t see it explained like this.
On section 4
He still feels a bit unapproachable to me, but I really like him too I wonder how much romance we are going to get. There are already 23 volumes in this series, surely it will happen eventually 葵 at least seems interested
Same, I marked that section so I can reread it later… Though I might also just skip that
I read through the book blurbs yesterday and for book 5 it mentioned something about her feelings towards him. And on the book jacket of one of the later books they’re *gasp* touching! So I think it’s safe to assume some romance will be happening (once she‘s at least 18 lol)
I think right now she’s still very hung up on her ex, and it’s more that she’s not blind to other guys (read: ホームズ because apparently he‘s a veritable Adonis (also confirmed by other people in next week‘s section)) than real feelings imo. But we see many scenes where ホームズ is being very kind and considerate towards her, and who doesn’t like that : D
The whole thing from where she called him イジワル to the end of the chapter, if it was me I’d be like, I’m sorry, which ex boyfriend are you referring to?
I finished this section just in time.
I do remember reading about 花 defaulting to cherry blossom in (old) poetry, probably from the book I read explaining the 百人一首.
About ホームズ, I’m going to agree with everyone that he is sounding pretty niiiiice. At the same time, his uncanny ability to basically read people minds would get me worried that he is really manipulative.
ボキャ貧クラブ 
「京男…いいかも」I totally agree, 葵さん, I do. At least about this one 
I get that there is pride involved and what not, but was this really better than just… using words? I can see older people act this way irl, which makes it kind of depressing. The son misunderstood at first, thinking it was to celebrate his “success”. Thank god our smiley detective is here to save the day 
I wonder how much romance we are going to get. There are already 23 volumes in this series, surely it will happen eventually 
葵 at least seems interested 
