CupeCake

That may be true, but there is such a thing as projecting love for someone and something onto someone/something else. With the way Chihaya almost obsessively loves karuta, and the way she respects and admires Arata for his skill at it and basically introducing it to her, it does feel like she's projecting her love for the game onto him. Not to say that she doesn't have genuine feelings for him, just that a good portion of their relationship and love revolves around karuta, With Taichi though, they have a connection beyond the game, and their love for karuta adds to their relationship rather than revolves around or relies on it.

you are probably right .... unfortunately we do not know the real feelings of chihaya for Arata, I just think that the reaction when he confessed to her and when Taichi did it is quite different .... mh but we will have to wait and see how the story continues. (▰˘◡˘▰)

I'm still hoping for a Chihaya/Taichi ending. I think a good was to end it would be with Chihaya and Arata becoming the king and queen meiji, with Taichi having lost to Arata in the finals. He planned on giving up Chihaya to Arata if he lost, and so he decides to get out of both their lives so they can be together. When this happens, and Chihaya realizes that she's going to lose Taichi, she realizes just how much she loves him and that were feelings for Arata, while still love, were more out of admiration, but since she's now on his level, she realizes that, and it's Taichi who she's truly in love with, and goes to him. This way Arata will have the title he always wanted and worked hard to achieve, as will Chihaya, and Taichi, while comfortable in the knowledge that he will always be second to Arata when it comes to karuta, will get to have Chihaya, which really what he wanted more than anything all along. I think that would nicely wrap everything up for all of them in the best way.

If this happens I will give this manga 10/10. Currently I dropped it cuz it really started to piss me off for some reason.