Week 5 ゆびさきと恋々・A Sign of Affection 💕 (Absolute Beginner Book Club)

Welcome to Week 5 of ゆびさきと恋々・A Sign of Affection :two_hearts:

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Week 5 July 5 2025
Start page 42
End page 58
End phrase 知りたくない
Last week Week 4
Next week Week 6
Home Thread ゆびさきと恋々

Page numbers may differ between digital and physical copies.

Last panel

Vocabulary

Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Posting Advice
  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

Proper Nouns

Name Reading Image Notes
糸瀬 雪 いとせ ゆき Main character
波岐 逸臣 なぎ いつおみ The other main character
藤白 りん ふじしろ りん Yuki’s friend from university
波岐 京弥 なぎ きょうや Itsuomi’s cousin and manager

Discussion Questions

How are you enjoying the story?

Participation

Will you be reading along with us this week?
  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
  • I’m no longer reading the book
0 voters
8 Likes

Achievement Get: Exchange Contact Info :star_struck:

I’m enjoying the story so far

8 Likes

The words every girl wants to hear: 手話でどうやんの

interested in how やるですか becomes やんの - maybe this? んだ: Japanese Explanatory Form (んです/のだ/のです) “んだ can also be used for asking for an explanation or a request to fill in the blank in the form of a question. And in real-life conversations, the variants, の and んですか, are most commonly applied for this use.”

Vocab:

大雑把 - rough, broad

研ぎ澄ます - to sharpen (seems like a combo verb made up of sharpen and clarify?)

大丈夫 - “OK” I feel like this is never going to stick in my head even though it’s such a common word

どれくらい and -くらい in general - how far/extent

はしゃぐ - to be in high spirits (uses 燥, rarely in kanji form)

脈絡 - logical reason

using 話せない and 離さない back to back was fun

This week’s attempted tough sentence!

今思っていることが侵食して伝わってしまわないかな

(the thing I’m thinking now) is (encroaching? eroding?) (unfortunately isn’t being conveyed/transmitted)(I think)
I feel like my chance to express what I’m thinking is slipping away - ?

I’m not totally sure what the purpose of 侵食して is in this sentence but maybe it’s meant to convey that “as time is passing, her chance to ask for the contact info is slipping away”?

8 Likes

Yes, I love those

3 Likes

The official English gave up and said, “I wish my thoughts could drift over to him and melt straight through like snow,” which doesn’t seem like a very direct translation at all.

My attempt would be something like “Right now, it seems my thoughts are breaking down without having reached him.”

6 Likes

That is kind of a cute solution though since it’s right after she notices the snow piling up on his sleeve!

5 Likes
This is too cute, my heart 🥺🥹🥰♥️

9 Likes

I was traveling so I’m a little behind, but I’m looking forward to catching up this week! I’ll go back and read through everything I missed here as well ^^

7 Likes

Yes, I love this panel!!

This week’s section was so poetic and romantic :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

One small question:

pg 52-53 physical edition

What is the role of the から in “逸臣さんから見る世界はどれくらい広いんだろう”?

6 Likes

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but the から in this case indicates the world “from” his perspective.

5 Likes

Ohh that makes sense, thank you!

5 Likes
"Pg43”

普通に握られて…大雑把で大きな手
Usually I’m held by… he has big and rough hands

雪とセットの外気で感覚なくなりそうなゆびさきがもう熱い
The combination of snow and open air was making me lose feeling in my fingertips, but I’m already warm (from his hand)

"Pg44”

とぎすまされて、じんとして、話せないけど
I feel it sharp in my heart, although I can’t speak

"Pg45”

離さないでいてほしい
I don’t want to let him go

あ、腕に雪、積り始めてる
Oh, the snow is starting to pile up on his arm

"Pg46”

今思っていることが侵食して伝わってしまわないかな
I wonder if this opportunity to get through to you will erode

"Pg47”

よかったら連絡先教えてくれませんか
If you like would you please give me your contact info

"Pg48”

いいよって、手話でどうやんの?
How do you say “sure” in sign language?

"Pg49”

いい…の…
Sure

"Pg50”

新しい友達
New friend

家どっち?
Which way is your home?

駅もうそこなので大丈夫です
It’s near the train station over there, so I’ll be alright

ありがとうございました
Thanks so much for walking with me!

"Pg51”

質問していいですか?
Can I ask you a question?

"Pg52”

何?
What is it?

世界は広いですか?
Is the world a big place?

すげぇ広い
It’s unbelievably big

"Pg53”

いつおみさんから見る世界はどれくらい広いんだろう
I wonder how big the world is from Itsuomi’s perspective

俺を雪の世界に入れて
I want to be let into your world, Yuki

"Pg54”

なんて返せば…
What a response…

"Pg57”

私の世界に…はしゃぎすぎた
In my world?? I’m too excited!

なんの脈絡もなく現れた
That came out of nowhere

"Pg58”

この感情のやませ方なんて
How to stop this emotion…

私は知りたくない
I don’t want to know

5 Likes
"hidden'

I wondered about this myself. Doesn’t the use of ‘ほしい’ mean the literal translation should be “I don’t want /him/ to let go?” But I looked up an English version and they have it as “I don’t want to let him go.” Wondering how often ‘ほしい’ is translated this way (instead of ‘-たくない’)

3 Likes
pg 45

I don’t have the text in front of me right now, so I could be wrong, but the portion you pulled from feralfuton’s post does not contain a subject, so it’s tricky to say whether the subject of a literal English translation would be “I” or “him.” A super literal translation would be (I think) along the lines of, “Want to not let go.” And then the reader/translator gets to fill in the blanks from there. Edit: Thinking about this more, you both make a good point that てほしい is used to express a desire about someone else’s actions, so actually it would make sense to understand this as “I want him not to let go.”

4 Likes
"pg45”

I’m still learning myself, so all this could be wrong lol but here was my line of thinking for the translation:

Bunpro suggests that てほしい is used when you want others to do something while たい is meant for what you want to do. And taking the meaning of 離す into consideration (to separate), literal translation would be along the lines of “I don’t want him to separate”.

https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/たい
https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/てほしい

In my translation, I was taking into consideration the context of the next page where she asks for his info. So in context I took her sentence as something like “I don’t want him to leave without getting his digits first” or “I don’t want to lose him”

5 Likes

Your posts are a huge help! I reference what you have and see if I was close. Had a question on Pg48

Pg48

いいよって、手話でどうやんの?

Is this the て form of 言い寄る? If it is, and 手話で is “… in sign language…” and どうやんの is “how” where the やん added emphasis to the question of どうの, then I took this as him saying out loud that he’s not sure how to flirt in sign language.

1 Like
pg 48

Itsuomi is using “って” here as a way of casually quoting something, so he is essentially asking how to say “いいよ” in sign language. Edit: I suppose you could also read this as using って as a casual replacement for は. Either way, I agree with feralfuton’s interpretation :slight_smile:

5 Likes

Thanks for the kind words! I did the same with other members’ translations in previous book clubs so I’m glad I’m able to pay it forward with my own contributions. I’m still learning myself, so by all means let me know if something doesn’t sound right. We can learn together on how to correct the translation.

@additionalramen has it spot on for what I was thinking with って

Also you mention やんの adding emphasis - so I did some additional research on the differences between やる vs する and found やる can be more casual but also emphasizes more determination towards a task:
https://www.nihongoninja.io/learn/chapter-5/suru-vs-yaru

Also found a similar difference between か vs の, where の indicates a genuine interest in the answer to the question (but according to the article should be used carefully since it can come off as having a preconceived idea about the answer):
https://nihongoshark.teachable.com/courses/9195/lectures/3640449

2 Likes

I was definitely wrong in my reasoning as to how I thought I understood that sentence but I ended up close enough :sweat_smile:. Just confirming, やん is やる with the る replaced with ん that happens often in casual conversation? Can you do that with する at all?

3 Likes

I took the ん as coming from the casual form of のです / and I see examples of it being used with する in the second link below:
https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/-%E3%82%93%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99-%E3%81%AE%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99

https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/explanatory-nda-ndesu-noda-nodesu/

tbh the vocab sheet was a big help in figuring out the verb was やる lol but not sure why it’s conjugated like that. I can’t find an answer online why the る is cut from the verb, but I’ll update if I find an explanation

1 Like