#**It reminds me a bit of OHSHC where Haruhi is given a magazine with a test and only then can she realize that she is in love with Tamaki.

[chelnciel]

About ch 25

Ladies and gentlemen, our delicious black-haired uke is here.

I can’t believe it, I’ve been waiting for this moment for years! He looks so handsome! He’s so handsome!! Every chapter that passes leaves me thinking that it was inevitable for Kagi to fall in love… He’s the whole package: handsome, kind, intelligent, dedicated and caring and even funny (in his own way).

I got a good laugh out of him dyeing his hair in the dorm bathroom, he takes zero care with his hair! I just hope that when he’s an adult, he’ll be more aware of and pay a stylist. But what I liked most about that scene is how everyday and natural it is for a teenager to dye his hair without much care with a home hair dye kit (I also used those in my student years), so how everyday life is portrayed I loved it.

Now, I LOVE Kagi’s shocked face seeing that his stunning and shiny Hirano has black hair! The shock on his face is undeniable, and Hirano's pissed off face is epic. Did he expect him to take it so easy if he's never seen him like this before? Although I think he likes him more with blonde hair (even though there are some sparkles around anyway) he's still our his handsome bad boy.

But he quickly shakes off the shock because Kagi is so hungry for Hirano!

He can't help but look at Hirano's neck and completely forget his initial stupefaction, and I think we'll have a lot more scenes like this from now on, because Kagi is reaching his limit. I think he doesn't just want to tell him (and shout from the rooftops) that he loves his roommate, but he wants to express it in the broadest sense of the word.

Kagi knowing what Hirano smells like... We had already seen that he likes the smell of his bed, but he shamelessly tells him that he doesn't have the same smell as usual, that boy is so in love! And the worst thing is that Hirano doesn't even move an eyebrow at his comments.

Because Hirano really doesn't get it.

And that hurts me (and Kagi as well)

Because Kagi is more and more in love, more and more immersed in that seemingly unrequited love, and every touch he gives to our favorite blond only drives him more desperate, since he simply can't touch him the way he wants because Hirano doesn't know what he himself wants.

And maybe Hirano can't respond to Kagi, not because he doesn't want to, but because he really can't, and that would be okay, since he must first understand what romance is for him, and also learn about his own sexuality in order to reciprocate Kagi's love. So there's a long way to go since he's just now seeing that "normal" isn't obvious to him.

Normal.

The fact that in this chapter we begin to think about what is normal makes me think that this story is definitely far from the naive story of ssmy (which dealt with it superficially). Among the negative approach that others characters have towards homosexuality (Hanzawa being the main detractor here) that is much more evident in HRKG and this somewhat aroace facet of Hirano, I think it is possible that we see a more complex development since there are two very important factors that make the consolidation of the relationship more difficult. Special mention that Hirano was looking for the definition of normal, and not that of romance or another that could guide him, without taking into account that he is with a kind of study computer (or something like that, it is too small to even be a netbook*) and he doesn't even Google it! That's why the answers are so brief and linked to the academic. Poor boy, there is a long way to go.

I had already thought about this, but I think he urgently needs to take one of those magazine tests where you mark the alternatives and have a result as “you are in love”! **. Well, I think Hirano urgently needs a guide or someone to consult with. And maybe now that he knows that Sasaki is not exactly in the same situation as him, and that he does want to kiss his crush, he can go ask him and clear up his, now, black-haired head.

And while again we don't see his reaction to Kagi almost kissing him (that panel is tattooed in my eyes), now I firmly believe that he didn't really realize that he was going to be kissed. Because if he's just now thinking about it, and only when he heard his classmates talking about it did he think about kissing Kagi, we have two important points:

1- Hirano hasn't really thought about romance or what a romantic relationship means to him.

2- If he hasn't thought about or understands that kind of interaction, then he must not have realized that he was almost kissed.

It's just that if Kagi doesn't tell him, he doesn't realize it. Just like when he touched his hair, if he doesn't tell him to his face, he doesn't understand the intentions and now it leaves me thinking: does he really understand what it means to do this lovers experiment?

Because only when talking to his classmates has he thought that he's going to have to flirt, that he's going to kiss, and then at some point he'll have to think about what else a love relationship entails (and God knows what else is Kagi waiting for to happen between them).

But he never made the connection of why Ogasawara was looking under his girlfriend's pillow even when his other classmates pointed out (indirectly) why he might have been under her sheets. So he's never really thought about the subject? So, it's not just that he has to figure out his feelings for his friend anymore, he also has to discover his own sexuality, and I think this is super complex since suddenly, he finds himself in the middle of a confession, an experiment he doesn't understand and a sexual awakening he never came close to in all his years. At most he saw the magazines and CDs passed around the classroom and the disciplinary committee, but then he never cared to look at them. He really is learning from scratch, and in a very short time.

A chapter that was very short for me and that I think sets the stage for Hirano's arc of self-knowledge, both about himself and about what he feels for Kagi, but not necessarily leading to an immediate confession (I just hope it's in Kagi's favor, and not leading to a no for an answer).

And I don't want sensei to give us a hasty confession because there is so much to tell that I would find it a waste if in two chapters Hirano understood everything and confessed (there is still room for more delicious angst).

But this ch left me with a bittersweet taste… I really thought there was progress (in romance), but I feel like it's a confirmation that Hirano doesn't really understand anything. Still, it makes me sad because it is difficult not to understand what is “normal”, to have those questions and not knowing how to deal with them, but this chapter gave me the feeling that there is still a long long way to go before we can see them together. This is something that I already feared after seeing some of the extras in ssmy and other illustrations, that they are not going to be together that fast, although I still have hope that they will be able to be a couple before Hirano leaves the dorm.

Just one more idea: Hirano thinking about kissing Kagi in his bed, this is straight out of a fanfic! (And we already know how it would end).