Quick Recap. In the last volume, Aoki goes to cram school to raise his grades in order to go to college. He meets a senpai that gives him love advice, but once he finds out that Aoki is dating a male classmate, his prejudice rears it ugly head. Meanwhile, Hashimoto is still trying to get her feelings across to Aida. Aoki gets a part-time job to save money for a gift for Ida.
Chapter 22: Aoki gets his first paycheck. The manager teases Aoki that Saionji took a liking to him. He tracks down Saionji and thanks her for her guidance. Aoki misreads the situation and tells Saionji that he likes someone else.
Back at school, Aoki is excited to get Ida a present, but he doesn’t know what. As he tries to get an idea from Ida, Ida knows where he is going with the questions and tells him not to buy him anything. Aoki isn’t going to take no for an answer. On Ida’s birthday, they hang out and run into Saionji. Ida figures out that Saionji has a crush on the manager. As if on cue, the manager shows up with a woman. He introduces her as his fiancé. Saionji knew he had a fiancé. The three of them head up to the show on the rooftop. Aoki notices the present he got for Ida is gone. He leaves Saionji with Ida as he goes and looks for it. Saionji figures out that Ida and Aoki are dating.
Saionji decides to buy the manager an engagement gift. The next day at school, she is wearing a cute hair clip. The manager bought it for her as a thank you gift, so she’s in a good mood. She teases Ida and whispers that she might have a crush on Aoki.
Chapter 23. It’s White Day. Aida got Hashimoto a gift. Then, out of nowhere, he asks her if she wants to date. While talking with Aoki, Aida admits that she wore him down and he had no choice but to date her. Hashimoto overhears this and is troubled. She confronts Aida and then breaks up with him. However, Aida is stressing over it. His grandmother tells him it sounds like he likes Hashimoto.
The class gathers for a flower-viewing event. Aida forgot all about it. Back at the event, Hashimoto admits to Aoki that she broke up with Aida. She tells Ida and Aoki that she forced her feelings on to him too much. She still likes him, but she wants to respect his feelings. She holds out her eraser and Ida’s dog makes it fall into the river. As they desperately look for it, Aida shows up. He tries to talk to Hashimoto, but they got interrupted. Aoki grabs Ida and leaves to give them some alone time. As Aida drops Hashimoto off at her house, he finally admits that he likes her and asks her out.
Chapter 24. Third year has started and preparations for sports day has begun. Aoki and Ida are together. Aoki just turned 18. Ida got him a set of ear buds for his birthday. As they share the ear buds, Ida tells him to turn it up. As he is turning up the volume, a girl at the next booth yells something about kissing. Aoki accidentally turns the volume all the way up. In Aoki fashion, he starts obsessively thinking about when they will kiss.
Back at school, Aoki finds Ida and asks to walk home together. He tells Ida he’ll wait in the classroom. Meanwhile, Ida asks advice from his friend Shun. In particular, when a couple should kiss. Shun tells Ida that it isn’t when but, rather, if you want to. When Ida gets to the classroom, Aoki is asleep. He brushes Aoki’s lips and Aoki thinks Ida kissed him. Ida laughs and tells him that he only brushed his lips with his hand. Aoki gets mad at Ida again and Ida gets mad at Aoki.
At sports day, Aoki talks with Shun. Shun tells Aoki that Ida is doing this his own way. This makes Aoki realize that he shouldn’t be mad. Instead, it made his heart race. After getting second in the relay, Aoki approaches Ida and apologizes. Aoki decides he is going to kiss Ida on the cheek.
Chapter 25. It’s time to start thinking about entrance exams. Aoki is asked about what he wants to do in the future at cram school. He has no idea. Meanwhile, Aida is studying hard with Hashimoto. Or, hardly studying. He mentions to Aoki that the library has manga.
Ida and Aoki are eating ice cream together. Aoki asks Ida if he knows what he wants to do in the future. Aoki assumes that he has no clue but is shocked when Ida admits he wants to go into education and possibly be a chemistry teacher. Aoki is panicking because he has no idea what he wants to be. Ida reminds him that he is good with food.
Aoki tells Ida of his dark past with food. In third grade, he presented that he wanted to be a baker like his sister and make sweets. Unfortunately, he was overweight and his classmates made fun of him. Since then, he has had a bad relationship with food. Ida reminds him that he is still the same person on the inside and that he shouldn’t try to deny the fact that he still loves food. Back at cram school, he tells Okano that he wants to go into the food industry.
As Ida and Aoki talk about their future, Ida mentions that one of his top schools has an agricultural department. They both ask each other to go to a campus tour…in Kyoto.
THOUGHTS
I’m still a little annoyed with Aoki. He’s quick to anger and that makes me feel bad for Ida. Ida is, after all, trying his best. Aoki should know by now that Ida likes to tease him. He either needs to be upfront about not wanting to be teased, or accept that comes with the Ida package. With that said, it was cute that Aoki kissed him on the cheek. I just wish that Aoki didn’t get so embarrassed in the way that he does. I’m excited to find out how they are going to handle being alone on a possible overnight trip!
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