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Unpopular opinion? Or not? The thing that stood out to me, and I especially think the visuals emphasize this, is that Yashiro made the decision out of his own will. Yashiro's agency is apparent in this chapter, regardless of others' opinions and perspectives. He surrendered to his own feelings and Doumeki's out of his own accord.

Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai by Yoneda Kou | MY FANART

⚠️spoiler for chapter 66⚠️

I've read a couple of times now that some people are irritated with Kamiya for calling Yashiro "disgusting" but let's recap what Kamiya knows about Yashiro and Doumeki's relationship:

Doumeki became Yashiro's underling

they had sex at least once

Yashiro threw Doumeki out

they meet again and Doumeki is shaken up

when Kamiya is supposed to guard Yashiro, Yashiro pushes him aside and drags Doumeki with him

he knows that something must be going on between the two of them

Doumeki shields Yashiro in a shooting and gets hit by a bullet

Yashiro takes him to his "own" doctor (Kage)

when Doumeki collapses with a fever, Yashiro comes by to check on him

Doumeki gets into some serious trouble for protecting Yashiro

As far as I remember Kamiya is aware of Yashiro's reputation as a guy who sleeps around, but I could be wrong about that, either way, based on everything Kamiya has seen and heard, I wouldn't be surprised if he thought that Yashiro is a selfish guy who uses Doumeki. When Doumeki gets shot he realizes that Yashiro in fact cares about Doumeki at least to some extent (enough to make sure that he gets proper medical care) and after Tsunakawa's "conversation" with Doumeki, he knows how deeply Doumeki cares about Yashiro.

I presume he went looking for Yashiro thinking that Yashiro would want to know about Tsunakawa's punishment for Doumeki, based on how Yashiro acted after Doumeki got shot. So when goes looking for him and Yashiro completely ignors him, he gets upset thinking that Yashiro doesn't care and is just gonna abandon Doumeki, despite the fact that Doumeki protected him.

This will be a bit of a rant but people seriously need to stop using their preferences for a story as an excuse to call it bad writing. That is so utterly offensive and if we are talking about Yoneda Kou in specific, there's no fundamental evidence for that.

There is, in fact, bad writing out there, but Sensei is impeccable on how the narrative is connected by the tools chosen to convey the actions of each character accordingly. She's not an average creator.

We are free to openly disagree with the events in an ongoing story, but in this case it must be admitted that this is simply related to the outcomes being different from what was expected instead of blaming everything as bad writing. People need to swallow their frustrations and take responsibility for either that or their inability to understand what's going on in the plot.

And just to conclude: Saezuru's central theme is that "people are full of contractions".

Kamiya can have internalised homofobia and still sympathise with Doumeki.

Amou can envy the relationship between Misumi and Yashiro and still respect and care about Yashiro.

Nanahara can see the yakuza as family, but still keep his loyalty to Yashiro −who is not properly in the organisation anymore.

Misumi can see Yashiro as his son/successor while also mistreating and objectifying him.

Tsunakawa can be suspicious of everyone and still envy those who receive devotion.

Doumeki can be madly in love with Yashiro while completely aware of the obsessive tone of his feelings.

Yashiro can sacrifice himself for Doumeki while also using this as an escape for facing his fear of change and acceptance.

The feelings and actions of characters can coexist. Even the contradictory one.

Time flew by, and we already have the previews for the next chapter. Yashiro has been reflecting on what Doumeki confessed to him, and it's time to take action.

“What’s right…” “…and what’s wrong…”

“Because you were there, I decided to keep living.”

“I don’t care if people think I’m irrational or the worst kind of person.”

“I wanted to become a man who could hold your shoulders in these arms.”

Meanwhile, Doumeki is dealing with his own issues in front of Tsunakawa. It's time to confess the truth about joining the yakuza. God help him, haha.

I… is where I belong… where I’ll keep living.

To move forward, we must first unravel the threads of fate. Both group leaders won't be very happy with these rebellious offspring.

I saw this scene from Princess Mononoke circulating around on Twitter and it reminded me of Yashiro and Doumeki so I had to draw it heheh ♡

Yashiro's painful existence

Yashiro's trauma has put him in constant pain. A pain so deep he wanted to end it all. Has he ever been happy or at least content, I don't think so. Is he happy or content now, I don't know if he can let his pain go easily. It is familiar, a constant like his heartbeat. Doumeki who had been the only light in his darkness was pushed away because he couldn't accept him being pulled into that darkness and he wasn't ready to step out of it. If he had died Doumeki could live a normal life and his pain would be over. I hope he now realizes that Doumeki wants to give him the love he has always yearned for. His life doesn't have to be empty. Maybe he can heal from his painful past. It is not a mother's love or the teenage love he yearned for. It is the mature love between two adults who found each other under difficult circumstances and it is still strongly felt. The dynamics are different, but the other way would have only caused more pain. Doumeki is in his world now where he wanted to be. Don't bear the weight of his decision.

Chapter 65 is upon us and I still haven't expressed how amazing chapter 64 was!

The chapter had so many references to chapter 23/24/25 somewhere around that and I AM IN LOVE WITH THE DOUMEKI CONFESSION 😭

Here are some I managed to pick up:

THE COVER ITSELF WAS INCREDIBLE ! I think with how comfortable and relaxed they are as each chapter goes by, it really shows how we are very much nearing to the end (and while I don't want it to end it's kind of getting us there 😭)

The line though in the cover..."I've always wanted to do this" oh it sounds so similar

Meh memory gets really faulty huh 🥲

But deja Vu definitely hasn't 😭

Just some more parallels and of course, NOT DOUMEKI BEGGING YASHIRO TO STAY 😭

I think this is like the first time he's been canonically sick and it's just so interesting for me that this was one of the other times Yashiro breaks his 'mask' and was left alone with a sleeping Doumeki again...

The confession really broke me 😭

The reference to the fact that he's always chasing him from earlier chapters like a lost puppy or a baby bird-

THE REFERENCE TO CHAPTER 23/24?! Is this like a response to everything Yashiro said that day?? Was this it?? The backing to the wall..."I should've let that part of myself go"...it sounds so familiar 😭

NOT TO MENTION THAT ALL OF THAT ALSO LED TO YASHIRO BLABBERING?! I mean come on this is basically parallels to chapter 24!

Also I didn't add the picture BUT CHILDHOOD FRIEND?! Oh my goodness him having a female childhood friend is honestly more surprising to me than her being a tattoo artist, I was genuinely convinced she was something more 😭

AND THE EXTRA WORD?! GENTLE, KIND, STRONG, AND BEAUTIFUL PERSON?!

Usually, gentle and strong wouldn't be put into the same sentence if the person was weak, HOWEVER we all know Doumeki doesn't think of Yashiro as a weak person, he thinks of him as a strong one (at least mentally maybe physically that's a good question to ask 😅). So, why add gentle here? I think Doumeki is saying how easy he can break despite how strong he is on the outside. I think Doumeki is seeing how gentle Yashiro is, and how he should've done what he did slower than he did it.

My interpretation at least :>