Hi! When I first read the ending (literally years ago) I was a bit confused about the ending! But let me explain what I got from it ahah
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I like your thoughts about the endings of this amazing story, but I don't know if your assumptions are correct. Like, the translation of the last page is a bit off. The news actually said that Natsume married a wealthy business man from her childhood town, so they are likely talking about Kou, as the Hasegawa family is the only rich one in that town. Moreover, when Natsume won that Movie Award we see her wearing a bracelet with a small white bead (the bead that Kou gave her), so they never lost contact between them. (and this is what I like to think, but we will never know, as Asakura-sensei will never tell us what really happened)
I had an all nighter reading this so i’m struggling to even keep my eyes open typing this but, i really wanted to write this right after reading. every single one of the relationships (not just the romantic ones) in the manga was toxic or unhealthy but i liked that. it showed the truth that love is not always perfect and doesn’t always workout which i think makes the title extremely fitting. i love that you get to see the characters grow and mature especially towards the end.
*spoiler* i saw some people who were thinking she might’ve ended up marrying Kou but i don’t think she did because the words above the panel say “it was just a thought” or something along those lines which leads me to believe the ending she wanted with him didn’t happen (in the pages before her thoughts made it seem like she was hoping to get with him in the end). also the fortune teller’s prediction didn’t make it seem like they were gonna get together in the end.