Welcome to the open beta (#2) of the Speed Run Book Club!
Heartily plagiarized from shitsurei’s original Speed Run Club, thank you shitsurei-senpai.
Based on a crazy idea thought up in the IMC thread, we will aim to read some of the 3 currently available free to read volumes before the time limit is over on November 9, 2025.
The free to read volumes can be found at Bookwalker, and possibly other places as well. Below you will find the Bookwalker links. Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3
This manga has been praised for its healthy relationship development, twists and turns, strong secondary characters, and general sweet and wholesome atmosphere.
The only schedule that this club has is that the book will no longer be free to read at 2025-11-09T14:59:00Z. Feel free to continue to use the threads after this date if you’re reading this in the future. Also, hi from the past!
Will you be joining us?
Yes!
I’m just here for the discussion.
I’m joining after the club has ended.
No..
0voters
Please use this thread for volume 3. All spoilers should go behind blurred spoiler tags or in the a hide details drop down.
Thanks for organizing this! According to my MAL, I read the first two volumes of this in English at some point and then stopped. Maybe I thought I’d just watch the anime instead, but then it ended up getting a less-than-positive reception and I never bothered. This is a good excuse to continue, at least for one more volume
ch 9 thoughts
I actually don’t remember much about the first two volumes, but everything about Hananoi’s whole vibe is coming back to me now…
Okay, this is a pretty good shock face on Hananoi, too.
And indeed, the bookstore comes back into play!
I actually assumed from the name of the next chapter that it was going to be their first time eating roasted mochi together. Or I guess it could be jealousy… We’ll just have to keep reading to find out …
Aww, I liked this chapter. I guess it did something I hadn’t anticipated multiple times with regards to the relationships. And things I did anticipate were also enjoyable. I liked how Hotaru kind of blurted out the “wrong” thing to Hananoi-kun (aren’t you coming around here too much?) but they both just kind of moved on from that quite quickly. I liked that she sensed the difference between a positive kind of wanting to be around her versus a negative one, and that she did “charging” the way Hananoi did in a previous chapter.
Only took one screenshot, but it was a page with a good Hotaru face and a good dog face!
My final comments on volume 3 are still to come, but in the meantime I created a thread for volume 4 in case anyone else is also planning on continuing!
I love that they decide to bake the cake together. And their “people who aren’t good at cooking conversation” is pretty funny. Speaking of baking cakes together, that is totally the way to do it! I had a great time baking my birthday cake with my partner one time. Reading this chapter made me want to bake a chocolate cake.
THEY ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER AHHHHH!!! And and and, isn’t he handsome with glasses?? I didn’t like his haircut but glasses really make him much more handsome. I wish he’d always wear them!!
I have to admit I was so confused by how the long line to exchange get-to-know-me cards with Yao led to him and Hotaru losing touch for so long that I checked out the English translation to see what it said. And after looking at the English translation, I still do not understand. (ETA: I guess it’s because the cards were supposed to be the way for the kids to exchange contact info before graduation?) But it reminded me that the English version of this manga has a really wholesome, “aw, shucks” vibe to it that I don’t really sense in the Japanese version. Not sure whether that’s because of the English translation making different choices from the Japanese, or whether I just don’t have a well-calibrated way of sensing vibes when I’m reading something in Japanese yet…
My favorite aspect of this chapter in terms of character writing was that Hotaru chose not to make chocolate (because it would be too hard, or because she couldn’t decide what kind to make, or because she was spooked by Yao’s comments about it, or all of the above), but Hananoi chose to do it. And then it put him in this vulnerable position where Hotaru could see him messing up and being frazzled, which he’d wanted to avoid, but it actually ended up helping Hotaru put words to her feelings for him and strengthening their relationship. Very sweet to see them growing through showing their true selves to one another.
I was bummed that at some point between putting the cake in the oven and taking it out, he loses the glasses. IMO, more shoujo love interests should wear glasses
I love reading your comments! I’m excited for you to read chapter 12. I think maybe I read it really fast or late at night? Cause I can’t actually remember very well what happens (already!) So I’m extra curious to hear what stands out to you!
Shot of 花野井 under the shower, of course very important for the plot reasons xddd
New person at work, 八尾創平, I wonder where this is going
shes such a sweet little potato i swear <3
第１０話
I love taiyaki epic
Though probably not as much as ほたる loves 花野井, aaaAAA
世界で一番大好きだから <3
What a panel
第１１話
I love the headcanon of ほたる making her own Valentine’s Day chocolate for herself, awww C:
卵黄 and 卵白, important words to keep track of!
Your avatar checks out ^^
第１２話
僕と恋をしようって思える - AWWW C:
We finally get to meet 花野井’s family, even though it was his grandma
Though I was curious why ほたる’s parents are never shown, well, now we know ^^
ほたる bracing up for an actual kiss and then she gets one on the forehead, 花野井 is just mean xddd
I don’t think I’ll actually buy the next volumes, the manga is very sweet regardless and I love all characters in it C:
Thank you @MaraVos for organizing this one and let’s make the “Free-for-limited-time-on-Bookwalker” book club a thing! I’d be very down to participate in more ^^
Okay, so Hananoi can be a lot. Maybe too much. But he’s at least self-aware enough to recognize it and give Hotaru a little space, even if he (probably) doesn’t understand yet why he’s Like This. I think Hananoi is a relatively realistic depiction of what a teenage boy with low self-esteem might act like when he falls in love, so I appreciate this manga for having a character like him even if it can be tough to read at times (for me, at least).
And I also like that this manga is about an actual relationship rather than just the lead-up to one so we can get Learning Moments like “Hmm, maybe happily ever after isn’t a real thing after all.” (I am side-eyeing Hananoi for his use of 勝ち but I’m telling myself to trust the process.)
Good for Hotaru for being like, “Relationships don’t have to be about possessing one another and devoting our lives to one another so fully that we don’t have room for anyone else. We can just have fun hanging out and baking cakes, lol.”
overall Volume 3 thoughts
This was a really cute volume where both characters grew a lot. I’m glad their relationship is official now, even if I never fully understood the point of the “trial relationship” thing to begin with. I also liked getting some more background on Hananoi’s family because I think what we learned in this volume helps explain a lot about his behavior. This volume wraps up this first arc nicely while still leaving a lot of interesting things to explore. Not sure when I’ll get around to continuing with this series, but since there’s still so much to unpack, I can see myself doing so eventually!
Thank you so much @MaraVos for hosting this speedrun! This is such a fun way to do a book club - I’m looking forward to joining more speedruns in the future
Official couple and learning more about 花野井’s past? That’s quite a cliffhanger.
Personally I don’t like the beginning settings of the manga, but mangaka made quite a cute art and progression overall. Otherwise, I don’t mind things like haircut and fierce ヤキモチ. Human can be rash after all.
I might see what happen in offshoot, but whether I would continue depends… (Promotion too)
I knew 白身 and 黄身, as well as 卵黄, but somehow 卵白 slipped from my mind…
Finished this volume a day or two ago!! I was a little unsure if I could read all three in time, but I enjoyed it enough that reading the volumes just flew by!! I think I will continue with the series
Volume Thoughts
Agreed In fiction it’s kind of entertaining hahaha
Bro I thought the same thing I was like huh, who even googles names of like real life normal people
But then I thought too, I wonder if maybe he recognizes his name from like, a police incident, or like from being… idk a child actor or something. Maybe something with his parents and their job?? In which case maybe that kind of thing would show up if you google it
WAH I THOUGHT IT WAS SO CUTE
I also just love her character design in general I thought about it and realized it’s the eyebrows, I love her eyebrows and hair hahaha she’s so cuteee
I didn’t even notice that!!
My vote is on the glasses look instead, as well
I thought it was sweet!! It kind of felt like a meeting in the middle She was doing her best to show physical affection, and he still accepted that, but made it a little less intense so she didn’t have to push herself too hard haha
I agree!!! I liked that touch. Even though his parents are doing a great thing, they did leave him As his grandma was saying so as well
I like how even though the characterization in this manga can be over the top or heavy use of fiction logic haha, there IS still reasoning behind it and thought out character personality
I love how they shared so they could both have a little of each flavor As a dessert obsessive, that is true love
Thank you for reading! I really enjoyed your comments and was so happy you had fun.
Yes, I thought this was such an interesting moment too! I think it definitely will get explored more in the future, this is just a hint.
I’m reading volume four now and no spoilers but we continue to learn things that make Hananoi make more and more sense! I’m really enjoying it.
Yay! Thank you for joining!
やった! I will try to continue putting up offshoot threads as folks continue reading.
I never realized before you said that, but yeah, the eyebrows are different the way this mangaka draws them and I feel like this style makes the characters super charming!
Glasses, one hundred percent.
You can do it!
Nice. I totally agree, it just keeps getting better the more you know and learn about the characters, and as you see them change in little ways.
And I would love to wrote so many things about it with more quoting and some screenshots, sadly the editor is currently so disfunctional that im barely able to write a few sentences
So I’m extra curious to hear what stands out to you!
too)
As his grandma was saying so as well
