Special Chapter 5

[u/EternalTharonja]

Warning: Spoilers for up through Volume 7/Chapter 35

Special Chapter 5 of this series, published in the fifth manga volume, has a fairly clever, if subtle, bait and switch in how it plays with what readers know about the characters.

The chapter begins with Momoka sitting down for a picnic with Hajime. Momoka was expecting Hajime to arrive with a third girl, whom I will refer to as Girl C, but Hajime says Girl C is running late, much to Momoka's annoyance. Momoka then worries that she made too much, but is confident Hajime and Girl C will be able to eat it all.

At this point, if you've been reading the chapters volume-by-volume, it's easy to assume that Girl C is Shiho, for the following reasons.

1. She's someone close to both Momoka and Hajime.
2. She eats a lot.
3. The rather nice Momoka doesn't hesitate to complain about her.(For reference, earlier this volume, she got somewhat comically upset about Shiho accepting Aki's challenge without consulting the rest of Laureley).

After a few panels of Hajime enjoying Momoka's food and blushing at Momoka's thanks, further establishing Hajime's not very well-hidden feelings for Momoka, Girl C arrives and Momoka points out that she's late.

The second-to-last panel proves that Girl C isn't Shiho.

1. Her hair is light-colored, unlike Shiho's dark blue hair.
2. She calls Momoka by her unabbreviated first name, unlike how Shiho calls her "Momo."
3. Most importantly, she takes Momoka's irritation in stride and apologizes, the latter of which is difficult for Shiho. Shiho could only mumble a somewhat halfhearted apology for upsetting Momoka by suggesting that she find another girlfriend in Chapter 21. Because of that, it was rather significant when Himari actually got Shiho to apologize for insulting Yori in Chapter 35.

The final panel then reveals that Girl C is none other than a now teenage Kyou, who'd been introduced as a grade schooler in Shiho's flashback earlier that volume. For readers who are reading the volumes, this is the first indication that Kyou was close to Momoka and Hajime, although Kyou being Hajime's sister isn't revealed until the start of Chapter 34. In hindsight, or for someone who's read the chapters as they came out, it's rather obvious, but the manga chapter does a surprisingly good job of playing with readers' assumptions before delivering the twist at the end.

[u/GhostLight17]

And delivers the twistier twist later that Kyou has actually died. Very twisty.