2025-09-20: You Should Read the Manga
- Log: You Should Read the Manga
- Cast: Myunghon Yeo, Hitomi Mandai
- Where: Paulownia Mall, Chagall Coffee, Tatsumi Port Island
- OOC Date: September 20, 2025
- IC Date: July 14, 2012
- Summary: While out on a trip to visit the informant, Myunghon runs into Hitomi
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon is on a trip to Tatsumi Port Island in part because they have itms to discuss with the shady informants over at Club Escapade. The club isn't open until night, though, and they've got to mark out their surroundings first, so they're currently... seated at a bench in the after school hours on a Saturday afternoon at Paulownia Mall like they never felt like (danaa na na na), waiting for stars to smile at moon.
It's just Rumourmonger Merry, dressed in the outfit they're usually known for -- a monochrome suit that looks like it's been salvaged from the bargain bin at G-Mart, with their much nicer black coat draped over their shoulders and a... thick black parasol? That they're trying to hide from the sun.
A bit of them seems to be sizzling from where they're still exposed to the sun. They have a sling in their right arm like the last time Hitomi saw them, and they appear to be losing the fight against July weather.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
The cruel summer sun beats down on Myunghon Yeo. Harsh light, along with the infrared energy produced by the screaming howling cloud of nuclear fusion around which all of their lives revolve in a tenuous gravitational balance that could, *at any time*, end with the planet coming to a complete halt -- and falling down, screaming, into the Sun's gravity well!
It won't.
But it could. And that's basically the same thing, really.
"Y... yeo-san??" declares a familiar voice!
It's Hitomi Mandai! She's in her schoolgirl outfit! She is holding a bag with a couple of books in it, probably from the nearby bookstore that she had emerged from. It doesn't take Goro Akechi to do the math.
"Are you okay?" Hitomi asks, stepping closer. "You look -- you look like you're not feeling good. How come you're all the way down here though???"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon Yeo never really enjoyed the sun, but they didn't used to COOK from it. It's a strange new frontier in being intolerant of the sun! They're convinced it's the Vampire rumour doing its work, and they're probably in for anemia next time they get a checkup from the doctor or something. Stupid Sumaru. Stupid rumours. Jump out of a hospital window one time and you're a vampire the next.
But they get CALLED OUT
And they just about leap from their reverie, hand moving to their lips in a kind of cute manner. "Oh-- um--" they look frazzled for three seconds longer, before masking takes priority and they smile gently. "Oh, Mandai-kun? Hello, good afternoon. I had some business to attend to here, but I was early for my appointment."
Their eye is on the bag with the books. "Were you out shopping? I suppose it is after school hours, is it not..." There's a delicate smile as they say, "Do you like coming to this mall often? I am not familiar with the best spots in Iwatodai."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
CALLED THE FUDGE OUT
"Yeah," Hitomi confirms - it's her. Good, Hitomi thinks, they're not like dying or having some kind of spasm. That would be incredibly awkward. "Oh," she continues.
There's an awkward pause. Then - the tension is broken. "Oh... yeah, I had to pick up a copy of something for school, and I got some manga... I guess it's alright. It's near the school? It's kind of lame, I don't really get around Port Island a lot... I guess that's why I keep going back to Sumaru, hah."
Beat.
Beat.
say something fool, Hitomi tells herself.
"If you're gonna get sun exhaustion you should go sit," Hitomi says. "I think some of the places have AC - uh -" She cranes her head, looking around. "Where weeeere you gonna go, like, when's your appointment?"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"Ah, manga? I did read a few when I was younger," Myunghon says, before they realise they sound old as fuck saying that (-2 morale). "What kinds of manga are you into, Mandai-kun?" There's a chuckle as Hitomi admits they don't get around the Port Island much, and that Sumaru's their haunt for the swag. "Truly? I suppose I should feel a little proud of that as someone from Sumaru."
Hitomi advises they're going to burn up in the sun, foo, if they don't do something about it. "That is true. What if I treat you to a drink, Mandai-kun?" They glance towards the Club to say, "A few more hours, I suspect... it is not a particular hurry for me. I would rather spend my time acquiring the lay of the land."
'Acquiring the lay of the land'? -2 more old points, Myunghon.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi smiles a little, a bit weakly. "Oh yeah?" she says. Then, a little guiltily, "Mostly horror stuff, I guess. Like I mean I read some of the big collections sometimes but that's the only stuff I like, bother to get the hard copies of..."
They're buying a drink?
"Oh, sure," Hitomi says, before her brain catches up with her mouth. Her lips purse. "... Uh, though, um. I think that's a nightclub, so... you should definitely sit out of the sun, though you do kind of have a distinctive style."
"We... could... uh... Chagall has good coffee," Hitomi says, pivoting and pointing. "If you get something to eat we can hang for a while and least it won't be *as* sunny. June days just go on like forever, haha."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon's interest is piqued. "Horror! Wow, I never even thought about that. Is it--" A pause, as they realise what a dumb question it is, but Hitomi can definitely hear the 'scary?' on the end of that sentence without Myunghon verbalising it. "Ah, yes, I was meeting someone who said they would meet me at Club Escapade... but they did not provide me a time other than 'after it opens'." A soft, genteel sigh. "Such is client meetings, at times."
Wow, that sounds kinda shady. But Myunghon does have the distinctive style between adorable loser and crime...
Chagall does sound good, as they nod and gesture, before walking there. They have a cute messenger bag with them -- something that kind of looks out of place with their monochrome, something cute you'd see on Shimokita street fashion folk than someone with the dead dreary funerary suits Myunghon likes to wear... and it looks kinda worn too, not new. Like it came from a different time of life.
Inside, Myunghon peruses, before ordering a 'tea, as light as you can make it, please'. And no food.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi is awkwardly paused for a few moments at the question, before she says, "It's not like THAT bloody except like on the last page, hahaha. It's mostly like... I want to say literary? Did you ever read any of the Tomie stuff?"
oh no
After that, though, Hitomi leads the way. She seems to have no pressing engagements beyond maybe 'I want to go home and sleep or a cat will bite my ass until I go to sleep.' "I do like your outfit a bunch," Hitomi continues. "Is that like, what's it called, Aristocrat? I don't remember the name because my dad mostly thought it was like, decadent and I wasn't into it but..."
"I mean it looks good," Hitomi says. Then she orders: "Oh -- coffee, thanks, with milk." Back to Myunghon, more quietly, she tells them: "They had this creme brulee flavored toast thing for a while, it was *so good*"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"Oh... um-- no, I am not familiar with that author," Myunghon does answer honestly. Which kind of makes them mad at themself because when something is called 'literary' they should obviously know, right?! Literature is their hobby! How dare they don't know something about their hobby! They get over it quickly, though.
"Aristocrat...?" Myunghon can't help but chuckle to say, "Mandai-kun, this entire assembly was seventy percent off at the Mundi." Though the suits are cheap, they do keep it well pressed and cared for, at least... and it's very clean. All of it is fastidiously clean. And that coat is definitely not cheap. "Ah, except for the coat, which is a gift I obtained from Peacock Silk."
Myunghon bobs their head to say, "Would you like to order that too? I don't mind. I'll pass on the food for now, though." When does this person ever eat??
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi laughs at the news. "Whaaat. You are rocking it though. Like you really have presence, you know? I think it's the parasol, I think anything is Goth Aristocrat or Goth Loli if you have a parasol." After this, she purses her lips.
"No," Hitomi says, "I -- it was like a temporary thing --" The clerk adds that they might have it back in the winter, which seems to restore some of Hitomi's determination. After this her arms fold loosely -
"Tomie's not the author," she says, while they await drinks. She turns her head to look at Myunghon, which is on relatively equal terms... is that her secret? Is she actually 28 and divorced? "Tomie's the name of this like... okay, so they were some movies, you might have seen them, but the manga is better because it can get way weirder and they don't, like, make it a normal movie."
"Tomie's like... this incredibly gorgeous woman everyone gets really insane about," Hitomi says, cheerfully. "Like it's a horror novel so you might think they're going to just try to do awful things, but they like all end up stabbing her or something because they lost their minds! And, like, here's the great thing, the thing they don't *know*, which is *she comes back*, but not like a ghost or anything, she just kind of... grows back, the art is amazing!"
and so, myunghon learns why hitomi doesn't talk about this fandom much at school
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"O-oh! You mean-- yes, I see," Myunghon does look like they actually just realised what Hitomi is talking about, given that some of their pieces -- parasol included -- ARE from their street fashion days. They look rather embarrassed as they point out, "That isn't true. The colour and vibes you are aiming for does matter -- people think 'oh, you're wearing black' and that instantly qualifies you for Elegant Gothic, but there's nothing at all elegant about being in all black--" says the hypocrite with monochrome save for the kinda mismatched messenger bag "--and we've had more than a few arguments about it back in the LaForet days--"
A pause, as Myunghon realises they've been caught rambling, and about something that they don't necessarily often reveal about themself much. They embarrassedly clear their throat. "I mean... at least, I hear about it from some such people."
Tomie is not the author. Tomie is a character -- and a manga that's been made into a movie. And she has regenerative powers! Even though there are many people out to get her. Myunghon does sound a little agog.
"... is that one of the books you bought? I want to see."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"What's LaForet?" asks Hitomi, which may well make Myunghon age 1D6 years and be banished to the shadow realm. She asks it anyway; she does not know any better. This is the joy of youth...
After this, though, it seems to have hit the special interest zone, so if Hitomi detected awkwardness, it fades. "Yeah -- well, not really, this one's actually older," says Hitomi as she reaches into her bag and pulls out the manga, holding it up.
It's a standad tankobon. It does have a pretty spooky cover from an artist with a curiously classic, almost pedestrian style which suggests a morbid underlying truth in a subtle way. A true sign of a master. The title is SKIN COVERED HORROR, in extremely spooky kanji.
"But it does have a Tomie short in it which didn't make it into the collections," Hitomi says. "I actually don't know what the like... the big twist is for that." At this point the drinks are served (it didn't take long since Myunghon had said they all but wanted the teabag to just be held *near* the water...)
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon does pause, and then admit, "Ah-- LaForet is a department store in Harajuku. But when I say LaForet, I really mean some of the basement stores some of my friends used to own and run, and they've moved out to other places since then. We-- they were priced out by large retail brands."
But they're sharing special interests anyway, and Myunghon seems much more comfortable letting someone else ramble on about their interests. "Oh, I see... is it a better tactic to wait until they've been compiled such? I notice that to make them not too unwieldy, the paper quality does suffer slightly compared to single issues. But it is more convenient to have it in one place, is it not?"
The evocative art has them forgetting about the question, though. "Wow." Myunghon gives thanks for their cup of-- hot water, which they dip the teabag into for like... ten seconds, and then takes out. There's barely any colour in it. Does this person just HATE flavour? Or are they a cheapskate. That bag can be reused like that ten more times!
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi's lips form an 'oh' of surprise.
They're on another level than me entirely... (so Hitomi thinks): I'm just completely outclassed. Haha... it's sort of comfortable, isn't it?
"That is so awesome," she says, and she seems to mean it, without pretense or artifice.
"Well, that kind of depends," Hitomi continues. "I think a lot of people really enjoy the weekly follow along and having a big brick of manga to read on the train is pretty cool. I, for now, don't have to ride the train like *every* day so it's kind of hypothetical, but like, that's an experience. You can also send in postcards for popularity polls. But Ido here, uh, Desty Ido -- I'm pretty sure that's like the author's pen name, but they always say he so I'm gonna go with that -- he doesn't publish like that?"
"I think I might not actually be supposed to buy this kind of manga," Hitomi half-mutters, but it's clear that this prospect merely makes her like it more.
Hitomi looks at the barely colored water.
She doesn't comment on it, beyond that 1.5 seconds of looking at it. She raises her own coffee cup, both hands wrapping around it. "So, like... do you want to read it? I guess I'd be curious how you'd take it... but I don't want to put you on the spot if you don't like to read in public or stuff like that." SKIN COVERED HORROR remains menacingly present.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"I-it truly is not that impressive. We were just a group of university students who didn't like what we saw, and we wanted to imagine being fashion designers... well, they did. I largely was only their tag-along," Myunghon tries to downplay it, even though it's based on half-truth. Damn, talking about the Shibuya group is kind of making them nostalgic. "But we broke up and lost contact more than two years ago..."
Some of them, anyway. There's more drama behind the scenes Myunghon isn't gonna dump on a high school student.
But it's Hitomi's turn to be the expert. "True... most people have moved onto social media, but reading books on the train is classic, is it not?" Ugh, why does everything that comes out of their mouth sound so old. But Hitomi says she's probably not supposed to buy this kind of manga...
"... but that just makes it more fun, right? I was somewhat the same way, with the few I bought for myself, back in high school. My parents were very strict... but they were also often absent, so there was room for me to sneak the occasional manga in."
Myunghon is invited, so they start reading SKIN COVERED HORROR. "Wow. Even this spread alone... this must have taken them weeks to draw. It's so impressive I feel bad I can read this page in just five seconds." They continue on. What happens to Tomie in this one?
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"I mean it's still cool," Hitomi insists, before faltering - "Oh, uh -- sorry."
Coffee sip. That centers her.
But she moves towards Myunghon. "You can get manga on your phone, I think, but I kinda never looked into it... I always liked the tactile stuff. My brother was the video game guy. I liked Jack Kart though, that was fun." Sip.
"Hm... did they both travel? I kinda can do whatever I like... I live in the dorm, I mean, so if you follow the rules, which, are pretty comprehensive, you can just do whatever. I actually ran some Blade World for a guy the other day!"
The story seems to be about a kindergardten teacher! Someone throwed some kind of smelly liquid on her! She's a kindergarten teacher and one of the kids is antisocial and has a really weird skin condition that makes him look bad. Also a focus on peeling.
Hitomi kind of reads some of it upside down. "You see how -- yeah, that's the mom, right? Like she's just this classical beauty, which will be boring, but I bet she's going to turn out to be a werewolf or something."
It is definitely going to be WAY nastier than that.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"I purchased a video game console for the store the other week, but I admit I am very new to video games myself," Myunghon expresses with a small amount of embarrassment. "I can't play much. My hands cramp and hurt after a bit. They do tell you to take a fifteen minute break every hour, though, so perhaps that's why."
Did their parents travel? "They were... very busy people. My mother is an actress, actually -- you might have seen her as 'Kyu' a few times in that spy movie series, and some other ones." If this rings a bell for Hitomi, then the name is Suzie Park, a relatively well-known actress. "And my father is a politician and corporate executive... there wasn't a lot of time for family moments."
The mention of Blade World has Myunghon's interest, though. "That reminds me, the order you put in is going to arrive in three days. Did you want me to keep them there, in preparation of that session you wanted to host?"
But the boy with the skin condition does make them pause and stare for a moment. They're reaching up towards their bandages instinctively. "Wow. It's really, um... realistic."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Somewhere...
'Ah, [untranscribable] - make your Knowledge check on that one.'
'Hmm... it seems I rolled a [indeterminate variable]... but that matches within two decimals of the cosmological constant, so --'
'It's a success! But since expansion accelerated recently, it's a marginal one...'
Here, though:
"Ohhh, I think I know the one you mean! With the white guy and the Japanese guy," Hitomi says, which is probably a way to say 'I can't be assed to remember the title' and may suggest that Hitomi has indeed done her share of otaku intake behavior.
"Mmm... I don't know," Hitomi says, eyes cutting to the side. "I can pay you for postage if you don't want it hanging around... We just have exams coming up and everything, so it'd be a shame if it just took up space, right? I was doing maps and stuff and planning things out, since I did find someone else who had the core book so I borrowed it..."
She takes in a deep breath. "Yeah -- if you want uh, I'm not going to blame you if you don't wanna finish it, haha! But, I can tell you how it goes. Do you like a lot of horror stuff yourself? Sorry if I said that and I didn't hear you, I just sort of, like. It's hard to bring UP? Because it's like saying you're a pervert, sort of, but if you're into pop or horses or something that's fine." She does not sound... *substantially* bitter as she says that. Maybe a little wistful.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
They will never enjoy tabletalk games on a cosmic scale. Isn't that sad? Or perhaps they will unveil the truth of the whole incident and find out their life has just been a tabletalk game for the gods.
"Yes, I believe you're correct," Myunghon does nod. They themself don't really like to catalogue and gather all of their mother's movie paraphernalia for... some reason, and instead the talk does move towards, table talk RPGs.
"Oh, it's fine. I live on the third floor, it's absolutely no problem to hold a box for you even for a while. Exams are a stressful time, you don't have to feel the need to travel all the way to Sumaru just to pick your order up," Myunghon reassures.
Myunghon does keep reading, even after they're looking towards some of the real skin horror. They seem more enamored with it than before, even though they're definitely affected. "I'm not sure... I'm very, very bad at horror movies. I don't really have anyone to watch them with, and they're too much. But in manga form... even if I find this really shocking, I'm feeling something like... catharsis, perhaps."
What's Hitomi's favourite horse? Umapyois demand to know.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi laughs, a little ruefully.
The story gets grisly. Mom seems to be some kind of public exposure pervert. Except it's horrifying? But she's so lovely...
... we'll skim over some of the details, dear reader: It involves people able to take their skins off and run around without them. But you see, there's a helpful auntie involved, trying to save that poor child from his deranged mom.
In the end, the protagonist stares with mute horror on the bloody and morbid conclusion of a family psychodrama, the child having slain the mother. But not quickly!
Hitomi seems to be watching alertly. As if she's sensing for reaction. Perhaps there is no catharsis to be found, or maybe there is ease in the prospect that horrible things could happen to anyone at any time. Turn that existential terror into a thrilling frisson!
"I kind of wish I'd been into it younger, but I mean, like, NOW I can just get horror manga and people assume I'm a senior or something," Hitomi says, before faltering as she looks at Myunghon. Who she may be realizing -- well, they're certainly not in high school. They're not even a sempai.
They *were* in college.
Which means they *LEFT* college.
WHICH MEANS...
ADULTHOOD.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon does do one thing a lot, Hitomi notices -- they put their fingers to their lips or mouth or neck a lot whenever they feel something remotely uncomfortable. Which happens a lot! Both in plot developments ("S-she's just... doing that...?") but the expression never truly crosses to 'I'm disgusted, I'm closing this', there's a sense of page-turning intrigue. In the end, the mother is slain, and they're wide-eyed. Singular eye. They only have the one eye exposed. Perhaps there's a Tomie story behind the other.
"... is it strange that I am somewhat sympathetic to the mother? Not for-- the specific details, but there is the sense that she is... transgressive, and therefore seen as a monster, and society cannot understand her in any way other than to destroy her."
Yes, congratulations, Myunghon, you've hit on the classic essence of horror! Some of it, anyway.
Myunghon puts their hand to their mouth and takes a deep breath again. "Goodness, I was truly worked up on this story." They sip their bland barely-tea. Normal people drink barley tea. Myunghon drinks barely tea.
"The manga I was into is a lot... well, cuter, you could say. I suppose it does get messy sometimes, however... but not-- literally messy."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi blinks once.
"I... I don't think that's wrong or anything," Hitomi then says, raising up her cup of coffee for a sip. "I do think a lot of his stories are just kind of like in the space where nobody looks. So society isn't like *directly* a role. I think that's sort of why they hit, right?"
"I feel like I'm changing the subject. But I guess that's also part of why it's appealing... Like if I was following along right, it was over their, like, feelings in the family, not because the cops busted up mom, right? And what's her name with the short hair," Ms. Kindergarten Teacher had to get a rather brutal new-boyfriend haircut "she was trying to help the bald kid."
"What kind did you read?" Hitomi asks then. She doesn't reach to grab the book back, though. (And she's about 50% done with that coffee. Should she be drinking it this late? Shaddup it's Saturday.)
("haha, now I'm thinking of the like Dead movies...")
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Hitomi, at least, does not chastise Myunghon.
"I suppose I have always been more into tragedies, myself," Myunghon admits. "I like a lot of old books... and a lot of them tend to have a very vivid sense of the times they lived in. A lot of them are reflections that are true even today." Myunghon that's sort of a self-selecting bias because you like a giant pile of depressed authors who committed suicide in their 30s or 40s??
"Mm. Yes, there was a lot of internal sections, like here... you really get into both the child and the mother's feelings -- including how much they can't understand each other," Myunghon points out. "It's... human, I suppose. Thank you for showing this to me, Mandai-kun. Perhaps I will find some others from this same author."
What manga did Myunghon read, though? "Oh, um... well, there was this group called SQUEEZE that loved drawing manga with very pretty boys in it. I only ended up following one or two. One of them was this story, simply called K, where destiny forces these childhood friends to fight one another." Myunghon wisely leaves out the part where said boy gets sexily crucified and menaced. "There was a fantasy one with girls called Magic Knight Leymoon too..."
Myunghon cups their cheek. "Ah, this has been a lot of fun. I was a bit swept up thinking I'd grown out of manga, but there are manga for all ages, is there not?"
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi pushes her glasses up her nose as Myunghon speaks. In a way, they are presenting her with a hopeful image, though they may not know it. She does not speak on that; she won't realize it until later. "The Tomie ones are really great," she assures Myunghon.
They are certainly creative, but Tomie may be hard to empathize with.
"I can kind of empathize with her, Tomie I mean," Hitomi says, which will just sail on downstream with portent. "Oh, I think I saw that, was it an anime recently? It was like really, like... I don't want to say noodle arms, but they're kinda elongated, like BJDs?" Another slurp.
"There are like five billion mangas for everyone," Hitomi says, her eyes widening slightly. "I think there's probably manga for lefthanded golf course turf operators. Probably about being lefthanded in the modern golf industry." slurp
"It's just a shame it ends, right? I guess you can read it slowly... heh. I guess that sounds like my life really sucks, huh..."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"Then, I will find more of these Tomie works," Myunghon affirms. "It's strange. A customer asked me if I was interested in a book club. I did not think I had enough people around me with interest in books to do so, but now I feel more invigorated to doing one. I can at least let you know what I thought of other works, if I do end up searching them out."
Was there an anime recently...? "Perhaps...? I was not sure-- oh, I never was into those myself, though I knew one such friend who used to carry one of them as part of their look," Myunghon furrows her brow. They don't look like they've ever equated the style to something like dollfies.
There's manga for everyone -- but when Hitomi expresses how it makes it sound like her life sucks...
"... is ... everything all right, Mandai-kun?" Myunghon glances around, but Chagall isn't too bustling right now. "If there's anything you want to vent, I can always lend an ear."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"Heh... I think a lot of people just never thought of something like that," Hitomi says. "Like I would never think to start a 'book club.' I might do something on the library committee next year but... I mean, I'm just taking it as it comes, right?"
Then an ear is offered.
Hitomi is awkwardly silent for a long time. "... I just... I kind of had something really awful happen but it was my fault, like, it was actually my fault, not like "I was mad at dad and he had a heart attack," like it was something I did of my own free will," Hitomi says, her voice growing quieter and more intense.
Pause.
"It's all kind of... worked out, but, I guess I feel guilty? In the end nobody got hurt, so... it's probably stupid."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon does wait patiently, sipping on that cup of nothing, though they do refill it. With some more water. That is then barely stained with tea. Then she explains that something awful happened -- but it was her fault... like, actually her fault. They bite their lip gently, but then...
It all worked out, and no one got hurt, but...
"... but it does not make it any less easy," Myunghon gently expresses. "Just because it was forgiven and no one was hurt does not change or lessen the guilt."
Myunghon does draw a heavier breath, then says, "I don't believe you are stupid for feeling that way, Mandai-kun..."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"Thank you," Hitomi says, and she's smiling, if in that watery way she often has, when she says it.
"I just... I guess it's like breaking a leg, you know? You can... treat it, you can plan things, you can get medicine to handle the pain, but... it's just something that's got to heal. There's no way around it." She breathes out afterwards.
It was a relief of tension...
... she still seems kind of squashed, though.
"So... I probably can't sit much longer, but if I get the chance, I want to ask you about how you planned your games? Like, we probably ought to block that out and, get lunch or something?" Hitomi says this, heedless of the fact that she, A SCHOOLCHILD, has just extended a social invitation to an UNRELATED ADULT.