I had that a bit as well, maybe due to the huge wall of texts, or just the slow development overall. I do hope that book 2 is a bit more interesting (at least, the end of book 1/start of book 2 has some more excitement so far)
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that derailed a bit
I have no clue what you are talking about. Also, Natsumi is a total ally of Yamato AND she has been super helpful with Yuiji’s situation too. Why would she be a villain all of a sudden? 
I don’t understand what immaturity means in this context.
That also applies to gay women, but it’s not really something you have control over.
In the context of the other person being compatible? Yes, so much so that I don’t think straight people ever think about it. At the very least, as a bi person, I never worry about the sexuality of someone in the case of straight relationships and always in the case of gay ones (or, more specifically, I tend to give up from the start, hence “hopelessness”)
Much easier when you are straight, though.
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I only just saw this. I will be reading along, but I decided I’m pausing all my other reads until I finish 若草物語 | L39?? - which is probably gonna take me a week or two… So I’ll just lurk, and look forward to catching up when I’m done
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I went ahead bc wasn’t all that worried about your ability to catch up seeing as you read at least twice as fast as I do 
or maybe you read twice as long as I do?
Either way you read more than I do
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we don't need rails
I don’t mean she is a villain per say… only meant it felt like it fit into the trope that I see a lot…there is often some female char trying to get in the way of the two main leads chasing after the gay boy and if she can’t have him then she goes all trouble … (I might watch too many thai bl series 
)
I’d have to go back and try to reread to find what lead me to think that… maybe i mis parsed or misunderstood something too… (cuz that never happens 
) … anyway doesn’t matter just kind of the feeling that came to mind when I read that section
emotional iq… older more responsible, less panicky… seeing the world differently when you are in your 40s vs 20s… (just my opinion) really wish everyone could find their lid or pot or the whole cabinet of pans whatever makes people happy
well not with that attitude 
j/k
interesting…never thought about it like this… life is definitely messy
haha I have an awful lot of straight friends that would very much disagree with that one 
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We don't even need roads where we're going
Since the rails are off (sorry for everyone else)
I only know about that community through watching people reacting to memes on Youtube, but it seems to have a strong straight component too, I just see more gay stuff. Not sure if it’s a community bias (i.e. more gay people in the community), posting bias (i.e. regardless of community composition, the ones posting are more often gay), or Youtuber bias (i.e. the person reacting is mostly picking the gay stuff).
Ah, I see what you mean now. She isn’t giving me that vibe at all, though.
Hmmm, I still don’t see the connection to what I was saying, but that’s fine.
It might not feel like it for them, but just the fact that they are working with an order of magnitude more potential partners is already a huge boost. Plus, the potential consequences of rejection are much lower, they can safely hold hands in public, …
Having dated both men and women, I can tell you (or, them I guess) that straight relationships are easy mode.
Edit: Ah, also it’s funny that I have been enjoying the conversation in this thread much more than reading the book itself 
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me too… been fun!!! sorry everyone for derailing haha
and we hold hands in public… going on 27 years soon 
- so screw 'em! 
and… happy pride month everyone!!!
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No rails for us! 
Seeing that I literally went on a date with a girl once and didn’t realize that it probably wasn’t entirely the haha joke that we said that it was (I’m sorry!!! I was 18, I didn’t think anyone would be attracted to me, regardless of gender, and she knew I liked one of our coworkers, but ugh, looking back I feel so bad!! What’s funny is that I ended up dating the guy but I probably had more in common with her and in retrospect…but it would be at least 15 years before I came to that realization )… I’d agree that it’s waaaaaaay easier to date straight, even if you strike out a lot.
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look at this bl world - bringing everyone together 
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It’s week 6!
| Week | Chapter | Pages | Page count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 6 | 6 | 47 - 100 | 53 |
Mostly a reminder to myself that next week we voted to have a other poll over of we will have a break again between weeks 8 and 9.
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I’ll be caught up tomorrow probably or Friday at latest
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General thoughts - book 2 is certainly off to a pretty excited start! It’s been interesting coming back with a fresh perspective. It still feels a bit わかりにくい to me, and I’ve realized this is mainly: 1. Same face syndrome 2. 男らしい speech style 3. Trouble with speaker identification. It’s not so bad, but I can’t just fast read it. Overall though I’m enjoying it right now, though I’d also love for the shitty NPCs to go away already. Also thank you for the name chart in the beginning 
ch 5 thoughts
It was interesting seeing Yamato & Sakura chilling at Yamato’s place. I was really shocked when Yamato just slammed him onto the floor like that… like that was pretty messed up
The dynamic with the straight cram school kid is pretty interesting - the way Yamato has to walk the tight rope of keeping him distant, but including him, and in doing so run the risk of outing Sakura… which the whole point of keeping him distant is to avoid… I imagine they’ll end up getting outed in the next chapter tho anyway. Hopefully he turns out alright
I can understand why Yamato let Sakura go with the cousin that first time (obviously I also wanted him to do the right/heroic thing). Even if he had explicitly recognized the abuse, it’s believable he wouldn’t know how to handle that situation correctly. I also felt bad to see Sakura try to cover it up both times… and I totally get that behavior
That thought definitely occurred to me as well
Oh that’s what that all was? (I got the gyst but not the specifics). And yeah, I also had the “somehow I doubt you’re straight” thought… But also he’s a PoS and I don’t care
You have no many times I looked at this during the chapter, just to sanity check
Going off the rails on a crazy train
Sorry that’s been stuck in my head every time I see the rails stuff
I mean straight dating sucks/has its issues too (acc to stories I’ve heard), but yeah it’s definitely playing on easy mode (preaching to the choir here, I know)
Aww, two bad y’all didn’t realize it back then… I didn’t realize most of my stuff till years later as well 
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There's never been rails! You need to stop with this talk of rails!
I think she realized it, and I very much didn’t.
Anyway with many many years between then and now and the knowledge of hindsight, I would have definitely actually gone on a for realsies date with her, but I don’t think 18 yo me was even close to that kind of clarity
She used to pick me up from school so I didn’t have to take transit home. She lived kinda halfway between my school and our work, so she definitely was going out of her way to pick me up. I continue to feel bad about this. And I sometimes wonder if there was anyone else. I was apparently oblivious to a lot of men also who liked me bc they told me after we became friends and/or told me friends about it after it was useful information
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halfway through ch2.....
it got kind of slow again ugh… and more immature stuff oh well…
very much agree that it’s just so hard to read it normally for me - so slow and so hard to care about the characters again… need some more investment
feels like right now someones or both are gonna get hurt screwing around with this semi fake for someone else trying stuff out … but im only on page 81 …will see
it's only the 3rd rail you gotta watch out for....
Timing is so important when meeting people no matter what, all parties have to be into each other and some sort of same place mentally…it’s amazing to me anyone gets together at all … practically a miracle!!!
When younger many missed opportunities, too much caution…but then again that’s part of being young…
youth really is wasted on the young
but then if you had wisdom you wouldn’t do the stupid stuff when young that made it fun … so coin flip
with the internet could always look up the old friend…never know…could revive a friendship or more
haha I’m such a romantic sap
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week 6
I kinda liked the resolution of last time’s confrontation. That being said Yamato and Akito suck at being stealthy… but the end result was all right.
Not a fan at all of the hand holding and blushing and whatnot. Please don’t go that direction author. They are perfectly fine as friends.
I thought the mother is really trying her best. Honestly, it’s not her fault for starting with biases. As far as we can see, she’s been navigating them pretty well (too bad for the overheard conversation, but, based on what we’ve seen, there’s no reason to think she won’t grow from there; Akito could certainly help with the process if he wasn’t a dumb teenager, but again, the brain of teenagers hasn’t fully developed yet, can’t blame him too much either).
Aaaand we also get not just one but two extra causes of dread this week. The meeting with Mayu AND the picture. Great. I’m sure both will go swimmingly /sarcasm.
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Ok so despite some dragging earlier on, and still feeling a little explain-y, Ch 6 was my favorite chapter so far!
Ch 6
なにそれ 簡単すぎ…
Yeah that’s also how I felt about that resolution
Don’t agree about Akiyama being the same type as Yuiji, except I guess they can both be a bit どストレート with their reactions. It was cool seeing Akiyama react in real time - that at least felt realistic in some ways
Was intrigued when Yuiji later on specified that he doesn’t know if he’s 100% accepting
話があるんだけ from the gf - ah so that’s the breakup conv, isn’t it?
Earlier on, the chapter very 調子が狂う, and also a bit like we were listening to everyone’s therapy sessions - ちょっとつまんない
俺の彼女？！？！
I totally get why he put it that way, cuz it would have been way more confusing if he said 彼氏but 
Also it was cool how Yuiji called Sakura on his scheme afterwards
Guess it’s safe to say Yamato has moved on from Kyousuke, and I’m sure he’ll realize his feels for Yuiji soon enough
Hand holding, so lewd!!
I appreciated the portrayal of the mother’s 建前 vs 本音 wrt accepting Sakura. And also oof on the “he’ll turn back to normal if he dates a girl, right?” stuff.
Yamato & Yuiji aren’t particularly convincing me that they’re a couple in this scene
ただ嫌いじゃないだけどよー
Ok Sakura, so what you’re saying is you’re about to set up a messy love triangle… totally expected that tbh
That cheek touch!!! 
Was amused at Yamato then getting the same treatment from Sakura… But the vibe felt very different… especially since Sakura’s already been shown to be bad about boundaries.
Also Yuiji saying Yamato is kinda dangerously un-self conscious afterwards… So he’s having an effect on you then? 
It looks like gf changed her mind about the breakup call there, at the end
And now I’m having a very bad feeling about Kyousuke…
Seems like it could go either way at this point
I wonder if there’s a JP equivalent of PFLAG - maybe she was on the phone with something like that? Otoh he’s not actively making it worse, and they don’t appear to have damaged their relationship. It easily could have turned for the worse after that overheard conversation
I had a sense of relief with that at first, and it seems like they’re both coming to realize that it’s not a relationship that’s gonna work - so better to end it. But I assume now it will drag out a bit longer, and Yuiji will start fully catching feels for Yamato in the meantime… Tho it’s not the only possibility for how that could play out
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week 6 cont.
That didn’t cross my mind, but that would be nice (I guess? I don’t know what PFLAG is). I thought she was on the phone with his father.
Repeatedly running from home is not helping. Also, the fact that she asked his cousin to look for him means she doesn’t know how much the cousin is bad.
Yes, but end it how. I don’t think Yuiji has the communication skills and maturity to handle it well. They have been friends for a while before dating (and, arguably, were still friends then, even though their relationship deteriorated). A bad breakup would mean an end to even that. That’s pretty sad.
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ch 6
That’s why I linked it . It stands for “parents & friends of lesbians & gays” (tho it includes other LGBT in practice). Basically a support/resource group for those ppl. Has lots of explanatory information you can give them. Was useful for me when I came out to my mom, years ago - since it meant she could figure all that stuff out on her own time, without putting the burden on me.
Father would make sense. Good point
Ok, fair… Tho it seems like she suspected something with the cousin when they were making lots of noise
Ok fair - plus breakups often affect friends groups (picking sides and all that). Considering he’s the one who’s gonna get broken up with, I think it probably won’t be so bad. I’d be more worried if he were doing the breakup
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