Toast and Eggs

the first cover shows an ideal hirose, before nakamura truly gets to know hirose and briefly superficially likes him mostly for his looks before learning about him and his personality

meanwhile the second cover shows other sides of hirose (showing a nervous face, the assertive pointing face in both) as the second manga focuses on nakamura learning more about hirose past his looks

ppl tend to trash on the second manga for "lack of development" when development isnt what this manga is about!!!!theyre already freinds!!!! this is about nakamura learning more about hirose and the other sides of him!!

Rereading SoC and this made me laugh because first there's a detailed and mildly poetic description of Jesper and the next sentence is just

If you are a socially anxious person, you have to socialize. Your panic/anxiety attacks will only get worse and trigger more frequently if you constantly avoid contact with The Public. Not saying that you need to be a social butterfly- but there is a genuine problem with not being able to order your own meal at a restaurant. And it cannot be solved by always having someone else do it for you.

and in turn i love a jesper who just does whatever comes to heart. a jesper who can’t read social cues for the life of him but thrives in social settings anyways. a jesper who is sarcastic and mean but never cruel and careful to never cut too deep.

They might suffer. They might take their knocks, but Wylan was right, in the end they were all supposed to stay standing. "No mourners" Jesper said, surprised by the ache of tears in his throat. "No funerals" they all replied softly.

+ Close up!

Nakamura is, of course, devastated. He’s always devastated when Hirose starts dating a new girl, but this is the longest a relationship has ever lasted—he might even marry her one day. Nakamura throws himself into his coursework and tentatively emerging social life in college, desperate to suture the reopened wound of his first heartbreak. Hirose is deeply troubled by his friend’s new distance, made even worse when he starts hearing about all these new friends in the city taking up the other boys time.

Sitting down at the table, I remembered the scars on my arm. The universal signifier of "This Kid Needs Help." Maybe his kindness was only out of pity. He saw those and assumed there was some great misery and wanted to offer me some relief. It's generally good to be kind to people who are hurting. But I wasn't hurting that bad.

The thing is, there is some great misery. People generally aren't doing that great. There is a great misery within me and within him and within everyone, and some people notice the pain, some people express it, others don't. But we all suffer from something.

It doesn't matter if someone seems to deserve some relief. Everyone needs it. Everyone is suffering constantly. Some more than others, but still. This Kid Needs Help applies to everyone.

Thirty minutes later, I went to get a second pastry, intending to pay and leave a tip this time. It was the same cashier. As he reached to grab it for me, I saw scars on his arm.