weeb shit

Basically it’s Euntaek’s bday so he goes around asking people for snacks. Bora asks if he ate seaweed soup since it’s his bday and he says “of course!” He keeps going around collecting snacks and then Jung, Kyunghawn, and Sangchul show up. Euntaek immediately pulls up to Jung and asks for food as Kyunghwan asks if him and Sangchul are invisible.

Euntaek gets the food and Kyunghwan says hi to Seoul who is hiding behind Euntaek trying to avoid Jung. She’s found out by Jung and she’s super awkward and reluctant to say hi. They then talk about how Euntaek did this last year as well.

Jung notices how Seoul is holding onto Euntaek and reminisces on when Seoul came to Jung for help thinking he was Eutaek.

Jung’s like “Me and him look alike?” And then thinks about how they do have similar hairstyles and height.

Euntaek feeling very satisfied heads off to class. Kyunghwan then tells Bora that they’re very close to Euntaek and that he’s jealous of Euntaek but also not. Bora goes that there’s all kinds of friendships in the world. Kyunghwan then goes “NO WAY Euntaek is definitely going to end up dating one of you guys . WHO’S IT GOING TO BE SEOL? BORA?” To which Bora denies profusely while Seol sort of just stands back.

Jung notices that Euntaek’s bag has ripped open and is about to say something but then Seol and Bora intervene. The way he looks at Seol even though Bora is literally covering his mouth omgg. Seol tells him to not bother them and Bora whips out a pocket knife. Kyunghwan is aghast saying how could they do that to a guy like him.

Bora and Seol are trying to hold in their laughs and Kyunghwan is further aghast while Bora and Seol say “because it’s fun.” Seol and Bora leave and Kyunghwan says that he takes back what he said about one of them dating Euntaek. He shouts “excessive!!”

Later Bora and Seol surprise Euntaek by stating that they picked up all the snacks/drinks that fell out of his bag. Euntaek asks if that was really necessary and Seol says they have another surprise and whips out a cake.

Seol says they made the cake at Bora’s house and that the mini figure of him was custom made. Euntaek is touched and everyone wishes him a happy birthday.

Kyunghwan who witnessed this says that he takes back what he said earlier and that one of the two will definitely end up dating Euntaek. Jung asks why he thinks that. Kyunghwan says that even though Euntaek is a bit on foolish he’s pretty good looking and that in his opinion there’s no such thing as “just friendship” between boys and girls. Then Kyunghwan goes “don’t you think?” To which Jung goes “I guess, their actions do seem a bit excessive.” We know where Jung’s jealousy for Euntaek seriously started lmao.

Jung walks away thinking “it’s definitely excessive.”

I could die for them. (New here! Tried my best to replicate Takamatsu sensei's artstyle. I hope tumblr likes it :3)

Middle text: "If only I could have met you back then."

going back to the big question on ch65—when shima is disappointed that what mitsumi likes about him is his "kind façade"—i find it such an interesting problem.

shima HAS put on the kind facade to get mitsumi to like him. but the thing is—that's just what you do when you have a crush !! you do nice things for that person to get them to like you !

shima seems completely incapable of differentiating when he's putting on a front, and when he's being genuinely kind. he picked up the people-pleasing habit as a child, and now he doesn't know when he does it as a reflex and when he genuinely wants to be nice to someone. he doesn't understand how his kindness towards mitsumi is any different.

what he doesn't realize though, is that he's been genuinely kind to her since the beginning.

accompanying her to the student council even if he wasn't going to join himself

going to starmax with her because she said she'd always wanted to go, and helping her to become friends with makoto.

taking her goals seriously and promising to support each other with their future aspirations (my fave scene forever and ever)

going to the zoo together and hoping she'll come to love tokyo !

and he's not only been kind to mitsumi, but to mika too. noticing when she was feeling insecure and acknowledging her great style. telling her to aim for top during the volleyball tournament, and in the process reassuring her that she doesn't need to hold back her ambitions or her strong character to be likeable. and many more—to many people around him.

at some point in the upcoming chapters, shima is gonna have to realize that "being kind to someone so they'll be kind back" isn't emotional manipulation—it's just what getting to know someone is like. plain and simple. he isn't sick n twisted and tricking his friends into liking him, they just happen to like him.

the fake kindness was a problem in the begging, when he genuinely used it as a facade and didn't express any of his actual feelings. or with many of his classmates, that—like I've talked about before—see him as a status symbol rather than a person. but with mitsumi and his friends, he's kind to them and they're kind right back.

shima's problem with his own kindness doesn't really stop there, though. the actual underlying problem is the sentiment that he isn't a good person. he sees himself as a manipulative monster (re: self-identification with frankestein's monster), so no affection coming from him could ever be well meaning.

however, if he stopped for a second he'd realize that his wishes to become a better person—"i want to be as emotionally brave as mitsumi", "i want be confident in my kindness", and "i want to encourage others more"—have more to so with....self-confidence than anything else (i say at the risk of sounding like a scamming life coach). he ought to accept he is good, too. not he "could be good", he is good. already.

and if skip and loafer is good at something, it's at making its characters change their perspectives on others. like in the first chapters makoto stopped thinking of yuzu as too popular to understand her, mika stopped feeling so jelous of the other girls or looking down at mitsumi, and shima stopped thinking of mitsumi as naive—or how ujie has recently stopped viewing shima as shallow—skip and loafer tells us new poeple are usually not as antagonistic as we initially think. maybe shima will apply that sentiment to himself soon. after all, when mitsumi says she's been saved by his kindness, it's because she has her reasons.