blessing

The chapter begins with Ritsu leaving Takano’s apartment the morning after the events of the last chapter, promising to come back after he’s showered and gotten dressed at his own apartment to eat breakfast with Takano.

The whole time that Ritsu is on his own in his apartment he’s having an internal monologue about his now boyfriend that keeps switching between sweet and hilarious.

While he’s in the shower, he reflects on recent events and eventually he looks at himself in the mirror, thinking back to the previous night when he sees himself covered in hickies from the neck down. (Oddly enough, these are gone by the end of the chapter despite it being the evening of the same day.) He thinks about how good the sex was the night before and how he could feel Takano’s excitement through his body. Thinking about it makes him all fuzzy and happy.

When he exits the shower, he asks himself if he and Takano are really dating now, and he concludes that their relationship has upgraded from their weird sex friend status to proper lovers. But thinking about the word “lover” gets him all hung up on the concept of dating in general. What do lovers do? How is he supposed to act from now on? He thinks back to Ch.18 when Takano said that he just wanted to be lovey-dovey/flirt with him all the time. Ritsu still doesn’t understand that line of thought months later, so being Ritsu, he sits down on the couch once he’s dressed and pulls out his phone to look up what “lovey-dovey”/flirting/whatever really means.

“Commuting together? Eating together? …Huh? We already do that, don’t we? No, no, there has to be something more to it. Giving each other presents? Going on dates? Going on overnight trips together? Sex? …Were we already dating??”

Other than the out-of-whack order in which things played out, Ritsu is realizing that they have a fairly normal relationship. He doesn’t know where to start or how to act though now that the label they're putting on it has changed.

As he sits there continuing to spiral, Hatori sends him a text. Chiaki finished his manuscript a couple of days before his extended deadline and he wants Ritsu to come in early to help him check it because it’s suspicious that it’s supposedly done. He gives up on breakfast with Takano (not bothering to actually contact Takano to say what he’s doing before he’s left the building, instead waiting to do so until he’s already out of there, bad Ritsu 😭) and heads into work.

As expected, there’s issues with the manuscript. It’s missing multiple pages. Hatori is apologetic for having Ritsu come in ahead of him to check something that wasn’t even complete, but Ritsu assures him that it’s fine. Next Kisa comes in, and then right after him is Takano, who gives a look to Ritsu that conveys that he’s not thrilled about how their day started. Although from the outside he’s acting pretty normal, Ritsu can tell that Takano is unhappy with him, only talking to him for necessary work tasks. Ritsu is still ruminating on the concept of being lovers and how he still doesn’t get it, trying to tell himself that this couldn’t be helped because they’re towards the end of the editing cycle and things are busy.

Later during the work day, Ritsu leaves his desk to go grab a drink from one of the vending machines. While by the elevator, he overhears people from other departments talking about Kurusu (the girl who confessed to Takano last chapter) and how she had come to work with bloodshot eyes as if she’d been crying. She was playing it off as hay fever, but the people gossiping could tell she was lying. Ritsu listens in until the elevator he’s waiting for arrives, and he thinks to himself how because Takano loves him and accepted his confession that she’ll never be able to be with Takano. The whole thing makes him feel awkward, but he couldn’t give up on Takano.

The next page cuts to the vending machine, and right as Ritsu goes to choose his drink, Takano swoops in and presses the button for him. Ritsu scolds him, asking him just how many times he’s going to do something like this. (I only remember him doing it on screen once in No.5) Takano still doesn’t say anything to him though, just handing him the bottle that fell from the vending machine. Ritsu starts to worry that Takano is really upset with him. He wishes that Takano would just tell him with words what was wrong, that he wouldn’t understand unless he told him. (Callback to No.21)

His thoughts shift to how it was bad of him to do what he did this morning, but just then what appears to be a high school couple in uniform walk past the front windows of the office. Ritsu can’t help but notice how natural the two of them look holding hands and smiling. (Callback to 4.5) At some point he starting thinking that things would change if they were dating, but he’s wondering if he set his expectations too high.

Cut to the end of the workday, and Takano approaches Ritsu as he exits the office building, calling out to him. Ritsu is stiff at first, bowing and telling Takano he did good today and that he’d be leaving now, but Takano just said they’d be walking home together. Ritsu is surprised, but doesn’t fight it, even agreeing when Takano asks if they can walk awhile longer today to the second nearest station instead.

There’s a shot of them surrounded by the sounds the accompany a passing train that’s reminiscent of the flashback at the end of No.27. Ritsu thinks things are awkward until Takano finally speaks up. He says something along the lines of how he doesn’t really know how to go about this whole lovey-dovey thing. Ritsu is shocked, but admits he’s in the same boat. Takano thinks it’s funny and remarks they really haven’t made any progress in terms of relationship experience in the past decade. Ritsu objects to this, saying that he’s heard from certain sources that Takano had many partners during their time apart. Takano clarifies that even if that was the case, he hadn’t had the desire to flirt/be lovey-dovey with any of those past partners. He’d only ever felt that kind of urge when it came to Ritsu. As he keeps talking, Ritsu finds himself realizing that they really (finally lol) are on the same page when it comes to their relationship.

Takano then demands that Ritsu give him some lovey-dovey scenarios as the shoujo manga editor that he is and he begrudgingly obliges. He talks about how they could commute to work together, how they could eat meals together, and how they could go on dates together. When Takano asks where they should go on dates, Ritsu lists all sorts of things: traveling, shopping, going to the movies, zoos, aquariums, amusement parks, museums, and yes, even the library. (He seems hesitant to mention it when he adds that last one.) But at the end of his list, Ritsu admits that it doesn’t really matter where they go, so long as it’s together. (Callback to something Takano said to him in No.14) Takano smiles when he says that, saying that they should absolutely do all of those things.

Right as they finish this leg of their walk, they arrive at a familiar shrine. It’s the same shrine that Takano cut through back in March on Ritsu’s birthday in No.13 to accompany him home when he was too drunk to get home on his own. He had always wanted to come here together when Ritsu was sober. Recalling the day, he says to himself that the cherry blossoms were beautiful. (The panel under those words is a younger version of themselves, Oda following closely behind Saga in their high school uniforms.)

This conversation leads to Ritsu bringing up Takano’s birthday, and he’s embarrassed about the gift that he gave him back then. The pinky promise they make happens right after the birthday mention, so it seems related to celebrating both of their birthdays properly from now on since they’re dating so long as work doesn’t interfere. The pinky promise turns into holding hands, and then it cuts to them still holding hands, having arrived at the front doors of their apartments.

Takano asks which apartment they should go into, but he ends up wanting to go to Ritsu’s so he can use the spare key he has for it now. (This is the first time we’ve seen him use a key of his own to get into Ritsu’s apartment. It seems he really did receive one between No.35 and 36 when he was staying at Ritsu’s apartment temporarily, although it was never directly shown.) A lot of emphasis is put on this scene, with a racing heartbeat sound effect playing throughout until Takano finally unlocks Ritsu’s front door. He tugs Ritsu in behind him and immediately starts kissing him and working on removing his clothes.

The next page cuts to them in the bathroom naked together. They’re sitting on the ledge of Ritsu’s bathtub touching each other. They’re kissing, Takano is playing with Ritsu’s nipples, and Ritsu is rubbing both of their dicks together with his hands.

Takano decides to pull away, kneeling on the floor in front of the tub to give Ritsu a blowjob. Ritsu was close already and it didn’t take long at all for him to cum. Takano says that it’s Ritsu’s turn now, and they swap places, Ritsu now kneeling on the floor in front of Takano.

Ritsu starts giving Takano a blowjob, but there’s a lot more going on here lol. Takano is tweaking each of Ritsu’s nipples and also using his feet to give him a foot job. (I’m not sure how he’s balancing, it’s weird lol) It’s going well enough until Ritsu looks up at Takano with his mouth still full and both his hands around Takano’s dick, saying a weirdly muffled version of Takano-san that comes out more like “Taka…no-hya…” because his mouth is pretty busy.

Ritsu calling his name so erotically combined with sight of his with half-lidded eyes, blush all over his face, and his mouth somewhat open with his tongue covered in pre-cum seems to be too much for Takano, because right after he’s cumming like crazy. Ritsu can’t pull back fast enough, and Takano’s cum is shot all over his face, hair, neck, chin, and chest. Calling back to the time Ritsu gave Takano a facial in No.24, Ritsu says that they’re even now, following that up by asking if it felt good.

Takano says that it did, because how else would he have cum like that? Ritsu is happy, fist pumping and says something along the lines of “I did it…I’m so glad…” (This is the first time we’ve seen Ritsu fully get Takano off with a blowjob on screen before. His blowjob training arc is coming to an end 10 real life years later lol.)

The sight of Ritsu being so happy that he was able to make him feel good gives Takano cuteness aggression and he blushes a bit. He swears and grabs Ritsu off of the floor and drags him onto his feet, kissing him. Moments later he pulls them backwards until they’re falling into the bathtub together. He gives Ritsu the option to stop now, or go all the way. Ritsu says that he’s unfair, and they continue having sex, now in the tub. Ritsu is on Takano’s lap, but I’m not really sure who’s doing most of the movement. I feel like it could be argued that he’s riding Takano here, but there’s not many pages to clarify that. 😂

On the last page of the sex scene, Takano says he loves Ritsu twice, the second time receiving a “…me too...” in response. 💖

On the very last page of the chapter, they’re cuddled up together in the bathtub, still talking about the concept of lovey-dovey. In a callback to No.19, Takano says that it’s a difficult concept. But Takano basically says that it’s okay since it’s only their first day together, and they have time to figure things out together now that they're dating. 😇

The End ✌️