trash tags

initially i thought it could be interpreted either of two ways: kagi jumping the gun because he assumes hirano likes him back, or, kagi thinking this is the only moment he'll ever be able to touch hirano again before hirano rejects him for good.

knowing what their relationship is looking like now makes the meaning of that moment so much clearer, and the reason it had to happen so forcefully.

when hirano tells him he has his reply kagi at this point knows there is really only one answer: hirano loves him too. i do not need to explain how he knows if you have read the manga.

so he takes what he thinks is the natural next step. kagi knows hirano loves him before he even needs to hear it, and mutual love means they get to redefine their boundaries. it means he no longer needs to hold back from touching hirano, or even kissing him, because that's what people in love do, right? we've all seen it a million times. they kiss. so he does.

but then hirano pushes him away, quite aggressively, and if it wasn't clear before, to kagiura and to the reader, this moment is not just the manga but harusono herself telling us explicitly: this couple is not going to be like the other couples. their love is not going to look like other romances you've read where they fall in love, confess, then kiss and so on. it's saying look, just because they're in love doesn't mean they get to kiss about it. not at this moment at least, but maybe not ever. and if it feels like a slap on the face like it did kagi, well. that's kind of exactly the point of this scene. what is it about, then, if not about kissing?

it's about patience, my friend. it's about learning. what love can look like beyond what's expected. it is a beautiful gift in which someone gets to ask "what if my love is different" and it answers "it's still love".

and i just adore that so much. sooo much. it's meta. it's realistic. and it's queer as fuck.

hirano rejects the kiss but he loves kagi anyway. that's what this scene is representing and why it does it so brilliantly and effectively. kagi was always so so afraid of stepping out of line, but when it happens it is not the end of the world. it wasn't a death sentence and hirano doesn't love him less for getting it wrong and crossing a boundary. their love is about learning, and being patient as both parties stumble while they figure out how to be together, because they want to be together so so bad. that's what this love is. what's what hirano and kagiura is. it is not about the kissing.

match-point kiss ✨

(every year, i get so confused whenever my notifs go crazy cuz someone just randomly digs deep into my twitter archive and rts my skts art from way back in 2020 and i end up feeling very nostalgic and miss them