Well that was interesting. We get to see Mami’s side of the story, and she does appear to be a deeply flawed character, insecure, selfish and childish. But by the end of chapter 1 I felt like I could understand her a bit, and she actually seems pretty human? E.g. she sounds superficial when she dismisses Kanai based on his looks, but having little to no dating experience and being told “now kiss” with someone who just doesn’t create that sort of feeling for you… I understand why she would ask not to go ahead. Also the whole “I’m upset but I want you to notice without me telling you” is childish but I can’t say I’ve never felt that way.
I feel the same way about this chapter. Also, for some reason, this was the first time I was so hooked that I read the whole chapter in one sitting.
I think most people go through this when they are in their teens to 20s, right? I think because her parents were not very good role models emotionally, and also because she was really sheltered and a bit naive to begin with, she never got to grow up in a sense. Especially when it comes to dealing with conflict in a relationship. She also seems to have a kind of black and white thinking about what is “good” and can’t even live up to her own morals (not lying). Which probably makes her feel pretty bad, like many other things in her life. Her growth seems really stunted. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like her environment will ever help her grow in this way.
I really wonder if they will break up or stay together in the end. I think both possibilities could be satisfying, depending on how it goes. Or just an open end.
As @miwuc put it: “But by the end of the chapter…”. At the beginning, I could not relate to all that “he should have noticed”, “he made me do this”… But now, with all that background information, like, what happened when she came back to her parents’ house from that 飲み会, it somehow falls into place.
What suprised me most, though…
was the fact that I enjoyed the prologue very much. Despite me having written only last week that I wished there to be more to it than her merely having invented the stalker. I had been convinced that I would be disappointed if there was no actual “physical” threat she was running away from. But I am not. I still would have preferred it to be a different kind of book (more crime novel, less psychology), but I loved how the atmosphere and meaning changed between the original prologue and its “extended version”. Nicely done!!
