1. "Pretty cool seeing girls from other classes in here~"
2. "Everybody's buzzing with winter classes bunching us up~"
3. "But it ends at lunch; let's go someplace after!"
4. "Heck no!"
5. *Pick which lessons to attend
6. *Non-compulsory, some leave
7. "Do middle schoolers come to winter break classes?"
10. "Why would they want to!"
Memuatkan…Memuatkan…
1. "I said I'm sorry~!"
2. "Booo!"
3. "Ee-ehhhh!"
4. "Uh."
5. "Sorry, I have plans today..."
6. There was a letter in my shoebox today.
7. "...Isn't a jersey under your uniform against regulations?"
8. "I ran over right after gardening club was over..."
9. "Sen-pai!"
10. An invitation to meet at our special place.
11. We'd share little stories and read letters until the day ended.
1. "..."
2. She always looks so calm and carefree...
3. I never get a reaction from her...
4. "?"
5. "Are you cold?"
6. "Oww ow oww"
7. It's like I'm the only one feeling this...
8. "We should be heading back soon."
9. Meanwhile it's taking so much for me to get this close!
1. "Sorry, I'm busy today..."
2. "A place opened last week! Let's go today!"
3. "What, again...!?"
4. "I wanna have donuu-uts!"
5. "Well... that time was..."
6. "And you still had ice cream with Kuwa!"
7. "Jerk"
8. "Kasumi, you've been ditching lately."
9. "Aren't I your friend too!?"
10. "It sucks! I want to hang out with you!"
1. "Macchi..."
2. "I really love the way you come right out"
3. "and say what's on your mind."
4. "EH."
5. "Ehhh heh h!?"
6. "Where'd that come froooom!"
7. "Can you ask some other day?"
8. "Sure, course we can do it again!"
9. "Do you like to eat sweets, Onee-sama?"
10. "I do! Though I prefer Japanese sweets."
11. My elder brother swears by Japanese varieties.
12. "Hmm, donuts? That must be nice!"
1. "I've heard that before."
2. "You have such soft cheeks, Sumi-chan."
3. "Yours is too, Onee-sama."
4. "Your head is so round."
5. "See? Sakura-mochi~"
6. "So lame."
1. Why does it...
2. "It can be so cold now after I've cut mine."
3. "Um... Onee-sama...?"
4. Why does it feel so...!
5. "Your hair is warm underneath..."
6. "I... I guess, um..."
7. "U- Um!!"
9. "Ah"
10. "Come right out and say it!"
11. "Okay."
1. "Honestly! I only had the thought to touch you, nothing more!"
2. "Yes you did!"
3. "I didn't... I never meant to touch you that way..."
4. "Then I was the only one who felt that!?"
5. Wait... if she wasn't trying...
6. "Have I been making you uncomfortable all this time...?"
1. "Eh..."
2. "If it helps, I'll never touch you again..."
3. "I'm sorry for never noticing..."
4. "Oh but then, would it even be too much if we held hands?"
5. "Nn-uhh..."
6. "Ah..."
7. "u-"
8. "Uuh..."
1. "You hated it that badly -!?"
2. "I li..."
3. "liked"
4. "it..."
1. "I'm... ashamed of myself."
2. "Then... why are you crying...?"
3. "...I hate this..."
4. "...I'm sorry."
5. "Sorry for making it dirty...!"
1. "...I'm always this way."
2. "Seeing how calm you always are makes me self-conscious."
3. "it turns on me and I feel so stupid."
4. "When I try to be the one to tease you,"
5. "My heart's always racing over nothing!"
1. "Do you hear that? The sound of my heart."
1. "Do I seem calm?"
2. "I would hope. I fight to keep that way for the little sister who needs me so."
3. "But to tell the truth, my heart always races when I'm around you!"
1. "If I touched you that way... I must be quite the dirty big sister as well."
2. "And as the bigger sister, that must make me the dirtier sister."
3. "Just kidding"
4. "There, you're laughing again."
5. "You always cry when you're overwhelmed, don't you, Sumi-chan."
6. "Rgh"
7. "Maybe I do. Maybe I'm a softie like that."
8. "Tell me if you ever feel you're about to cry again."
9. "I'll do whatever's needed for my sweet little sister."
10. "..."
1. "Then... could you let me hear your heart again?"
2. "See, aren't you the sweet-est!"
1. "Bet you just wanted out of New Years' cleaning!"
2. "I thought I'd check in, last day."
3. "Whoa, it's Kuwa!"
4. "Sakuragawa-san?"
5. "I'm not sick!"
6. "Must've ate something to make her sick!"
7. "All the time lately, this girl keeps staring off!"
8. "Ah"
9. "Sakuragawa?"
1. "Kawada-san!"
2. "Can I sit with you?"
3. "Who's this?"
4. "My friend's not here and I don't know anyone..."
5. "Eheheh"
6. "One of those hard to place relationships!"
7. "More than acquaintances, less than friends?"
8. "But we weren't in the same class, and went to different cram schools..."
9. "We went to middle school together."
10. "Right!"
11. "Right?"
12. "I mean... for a while you were sort of distant."
13. "Anyway... You seem better now."
1. Around when acceptance exams were over.
2. "That's amazing she got into AP classes"
3. "Advancing to normal classes"
4. "Maybe she'd let me study with her"
5. "Since we were going to the same high school, I came by to trade numbers."
6. "But it didn't feel like the right moment to ask..."
7. "You looked so far away..."
8. "So I'm glad we have a better chance to talk."
9. "What was she like before exams?"
10. "Hmm, well, she was class rep..."
11. "Huhh, so pretty much same as now!"
1. In an instant,
2. the past and reality crashed over me
3. like a torrent of ice water.
4. "Oh, you're finally here!"
1. "There wasn't a letter today...?"
2. "That's why I came to wait, Senpai!"
3. "Sumi-chan, where are you... Still no Sumi-chan... What if she already went home!?"
4. "And when all the high schoolers started going... I got really nervous I wasn't seeing you."
5. "Sumi-chan? What is it? Are you okay?"
6. "Should I take you home?"
1. "I want to stay with you..."
2. "That's fine."
1. The lively space between us...
2. was silent without a word today.
1. We walked slowly,
2. stepping softly, hand-in-hand through the halls of school.
3. "How did you work outside in that?"
4. "...What does the gardening club do when it snows?"
1. "I was only here to see you."
2. "I never had club today, Sumi-chan."
1. "I care for you Sumi-chan."
2. "And I will always be here for you."
3. "Thank you."
4. "...Sorry. I think I was feeling a little down today."
1. "I care so much about you too."
1. "Mine, who else!"
2. "Which of ours is bigger?"
3. "She must be in the art club."
4. "That's an awful lot to carry."
5. "How difficult, with the snow~"
1. Our daydream of a roleplay wrapped us in its protection, like a coccoon.
1. Somehow that felt it would cheapen this.
2. We'd never exchanged phone numbers.
3. While separated over New Years, I reread our letters.
4. "Even after I saw her real handwriting, she still writes so neatly..."
5. This time, I was blissfully comparing each of her letters
6. to the real girl I'd come to know.
7. I'd read them plenty times before,
8. but only to dream up the figure of Onee-sama.
9. "Is anybody ever going to read it?"
10. "Noo-ooo"
11. "Still nothiiing...?"
12. She was probably more like...
13. "...But in reality..."
14. Even the moments spent wishing it would find someone were exciting.
15. For example...
1. "I'll be the one to make arrange-ments."
2. "If it's what my darling little sister needs,"
3. "Shall we meet?"
4. "I have to tell her... Have to tell the truth..."
5. This one was mostly my mistake...
7. "Nothing to panic over."
8. I simply think "Whatever happens, happens!"
10. "C'mooonnn make something good happen!!"
11. She's all turned on her head...
12. Who you've always been.
13. That's you.
1. But,
2. as I unraveled her to her truer self,
3. "... Mn?"
4. a single question remained.
5. "Mm-m?"
6. "See? Sakura-mochi~"
7. "So lame."
8. Japan takes pride in their sweets; you'll often hear distinctions between western style and Japanese snacks and treats.
9. Sakuramochi are made with a sweet pink rice cake, red bean paste filling, and a pickled sakura leaf.
10. Haruyo's making a play on Kasumi's name, Sakuragawa
1. let's talk "suki"
2. "Sumi-chan, I like you."
3. Hey it's my favorite thing to read two girls say and my least favorite thing to translate.
4. I once spent an entire day debating whether to translate suki as like or love.
5. Suki = Like/Love
6. The epitome of Japanese ambiguity, the struggle of translating these brief phrases is always the hardest.
7. To cut to the chase, this is a love confession... except maybe it's not.
8. TL;DR: Haruyo and Kasumi are brushing against some deep ambiguously romantic feelings here.
9. Which you could surely tell regardless.
10. In English, you would nearly always say "I love you" for romantic love. But "I like you" is still natural between teenagers or in very casual settings.
11. Platonic / Romantic. EN: Like, Love. JP: Suki, Daisuki, Aishiteru.
12. In my head this made sense and didn't look like the world's worst metro.
13. In Japanese, it's uh something like that.
14. The point is, Haruyo uses suki. Kasumi uses daisuki. But she also uses "watashi mo" as in "I too [suki you]"
15. Haruyo's is softer, while Kasumi's is a stronger echo of her phrasing. Given Haruyo's Onee-sama persona, I chose a somewhat refined wording as well.
16. It gives a slightly more distant effect, but I think that harmonizes with her Onee-sama "mask" and the contrasting themes at play now.
17. Which I will ramble on next page if you really want a deeper dive.
18. Otherwise I think you get the point.
1. let's talk "love"
2. The visuals must also be taken into consideration.
3. Haruyo's "suki" is a warm, blushing close-up, in spite of using softer language.
4. "I care about you, Sumi-chan."
5. "I care so much about you too."
6. Kasumi's "daisuki" is given the weight of an entire page, yet has no characters in frame. Instead it's a detached shot of trees burdened by snow. Distantly cold in spite of the warmth of her words.
7. Cold comes up several times this chapter; it's both ice water that shocks Kasumi sober, but also an insulating factor that keeps Kasumi and Haruyo in their own private world.
8. And re-examining Kasumi's confession, Igarashi may be deliberately evoking both meanings.
9. the past and reality crashed over me like a torrent of ice water. in an instant.
10. Snow is both freezing yet paradoxically a strong makeshift shelter from the cold.
11. Nothing can bloom under it, flowers (or perhaps love), yet it's transient, like the "S" relationship these girls have crafted.
12. Like a cocoon, a snowy branch is waiting to melt into something beautiful. Like icy reality, it buries Kasumi's feelings.
13. Very interesting how the falling snow resembles rose petals.
14. These lines of ambiguous confession walk that tightrope.
15. All this is to say, I have now spent another day debating how to translate like/love. And this is how I deal with it.
16. Gaslighting you into thinking there's deeper meaning to me gambling AriSaku will pay off with a heavier "like/love" in the future.
17. Admittedly a safe bet.
18. Anyway, this manga's pretty good.
19. Here's your treat for reading this far: Kasumi and Haruyo never "broke character" during that lewd first half, even internally.