#toxic soulmates. im howling at the moon rn

[dearmahiru-archive]

i've been having brain worms about mahiru's relationship so i've been rewatching i love you to piece together day sixteen. this feels like a reach but i think a fight might've broken out between them.

first, mahiru boyfriend's house, birdcage, and carousel are all the same location─we know this because each one has the same couch, throw pillows, and table formation.

on day sixteen, mahiru excitedly prepares her boyfriend's favorite meals as a surprise for him. later, when milgram extracts mahiru's mind, we see a table with shattered silverware. then, mahiru fantasizes about her boyfriend coming back to life so they can share food together (notably, only mahiru is fed because when mahiru tries feeding her boyfriend it goes awry.)

though i don't believe her boyfriend was ever physical and broke the dishes, it's possible that he suffered from an eating disorder and responded badly to mahiru's attempts to convince him to eat. this is the reason mahiru's murder is portrayed as feeding him rats that she percieved as a gift to save him from starvation.

we also know that they've fought multiple times from mahiru's t1 song. specifically. theres this very moment in the second teaser where mahiru's screams at her boyfriend, telling him (paraphrased) "don't say you love me if you don't mean it."

which is insane because mahiru is a very forgiving person! she can turn a cheek to someone trying to kill her, laugh off those who trick her, call her stupid to her face, and says she's happy to fight with her boyfriend—lovingly referring to it as their break-up ritual—but saying you love her without any weight behind it? that's what sends mahiru right over the edge.

i think it's possible that mahiru's boyfriend reacted poorly to mahiru's "gift," and tried to console her by saying he loved her which made mahiru's upset, which then escalated into their final fight.