A great read that fixes pretty much every issue I had with vol 1!
I enjoyed, but was on the fence about continuing after vol 1, mostly due to all the… iffy behavior from Mai in that one. I wanted to know what happens with Rena and her “what do these feelings even mean? No, couldn’t be that…” moments, but I wasn’t *super* interested in reading vol 2 if it was all about more of Mai pushing Rena into things she says doesn’t want to do.
I’m happy to say this volume pretty much resolved all the issues I had with vol 1.
Squicky behavior from vol 1 gets called out, reexamined, and consequences from then are turning into full plot points now.
One thing I’ve really liked in this volume is that when characters do something kinda boneheaded — the sort of thing you normally have to write off as “they did some anime-logic stuff, just move past it” — this book seems to take an actual interest in coming back later with a surprisingly serious acknowledgement and examination of the personality flaws that led to those decisions.
I was kinda blown away blown away by that element, honestly.
Stuff like Rena’s anxiety and thought process before answering a “can I call you on the phone?” text was too freaking real, and I loved it for that!
I'm rounding my rating up to 5 stars for this one, with the extra points here largely attributed to how much I liked the circling-back explanations for why the flawed characters do the dumb things they sometimes do, which I was not expecting after coming from vol 1.
For reference, I read the manga first, went to the vol 1 of LN to see how a cliffhanger resolved, and gave vol 1 a 3-star rating, largely because I wasn't a fan of the relative lack of pushback Mai was getting for things she did, and wasn't sure what the tone would be going forward.