I'm kinda realizing now that these guys are actually really both similar and different in the way they deal with life/ romance whatever. Aoki can't let anything/ anyone go, it's just simply how he is. He doesn't exactly mask this and it has, in fact, gotten in the way of his relationships multiple times. See: Sumino's old teacher and Aoi, especially with Aoi through the way Aoi constantly picks up plants and is willing to let them die, but Aoki always feels obliged to take care of them. The only person we see who actively accepts him as-is and even finds him beautiful is Sumino, and that alone should make Sumino pretty special to him, but I don't think he was given much space to process what that means. (up until the timeskip maybe?) Sumino on the other hand is a lot more selective, but whatever/ whoever he wants, he can't really let go. He gets into soccer and he breaks his legs, and it fucks him up so badly he almost slips into alcohol addiction. He meets Aoki, someone who has seen him in his most vulnerable, twice, but because circumstances are weird, he just decides to cut Aoki off his life entirely both times. In his eyes, wanting has never worked out, so he's kind of conditioned himself into dissociating, repressing/ "forgetting." My god, this "clash" in perspective (?) is even shown in how their clothes lined up in their last encounter! Both of them wear checkered stuff, but for one the pattern is on his shirt and the other on his pants. This manga has a lot of little details like that that add to the reading experience, it's really fun.
I'm kinda realizing now that these guys are actually really both similar and different in the way they deal with life/ romance whatever. Aoki can't let anything/ anyone go, it's just simply how he is. He doesn't exactly mask this and it has, in fact, gotten in the way of his relationships multiple times. See: Sumino's old teacher and Aoi, especially with Aoi through the way Aoi constantly picks up plants and is willing to let them die, but Aoki always feels obliged to take care of them. The only person we see who actively accepts him as-is and even finds him beautiful is Sumino, and that alone should make Sumino pretty special to him, but I don't think he was given much space to process what that means. (up until the timeskip maybe?)
Sumino on the other hand is a lot more selective, but whatever/ whoever he wants, he can't really let go. He gets into soccer and he breaks his legs, and it fucks him up so badly he almost slips into alcohol addiction. He meets Aoki, someone who has seen him in his most vulnerable, twice, but because circumstances are weird, he just decides to cut Aoki off his life entirely both times. In his eyes, wanting has never worked out, so he's kind of conditioned himself into dissociating, repressing/ "forgetting." My god, this "clash" in perspective (?) is even shown in how their clothes lined up in their last encounter! Both of them wear checkered stuff, but for one the pattern is on his shirt and the other on his pants. This manga has a lot of little details like that that add to the reading experience, it's really fun.